Off the grid

Hello everyone!
I will start with an apology for the absence recently.
I had to get out of the keys due to the "new rule" the had me in a pickle.
So I took the first available opportunity to "jump ship" and use my mobility to the maximum benefit.
Unfortunately I only had about 1.5 days of good weather to find a hidey hole somewhere.
That somewhere ended up being  the aptly named Shark River , near Ponce de Leon bay in the Everglades.
I was really dreading going back through the Everglades due to the noseeums and skeeters and snakes, I hadn't figured in what the cold weather may have done to the area.....
If there is ever a time to visit the Everglades , it's JANUARY! little to no bugs to speak of and not a reptile to be seen or heard!
So,
while at shark river I decided to do some fishing while waiting on better weather.
yeeeaah ok.
 The first day , no bites. The second day, 6 or so catfish(go figure). the third day I managed to hook another catfish but before I could catch another one , a shark( I think) came along and bit the end of the stringer off..."it was a raman noodle night....).
4th day I thought hmmm shark is tasty enough, so I got a couple small catfish for bait. hooked one and waited....and waited.....and waited.
I had 200 ft of line out using the tide to get it there and the tide was about to turn plus evening was coming on. As I stepped out to reel in and call it a day the pole bent, reel screaming and me scrambling to get it to stop the loss of line!!!
Grabbing the 13 ft pole that was bent double, I braced for battle.
Using the sleeve of my jacket for protection on my thumb, I press HARD on the spool without any affect!
I thought " Dammit !! not again!!!!" and used BOTH thumbs to brake the spool and it worked!!!
Grinning ear to ear and laughin out loud I couched the butt of the rod under my belt and PULLED!!!
Over and over , pull like hell , reel real fast, repeat.
I knew I had a shark , a fairly large one too. I didn't even know what I was going to do with the monster when I got it but man that was a good time!
So I finally get the beast to the stern and once I got its head near the surface I realize that I was out matched.
Even if I DID get it on the boat , it was big enough to break a LOT of stuff once there (including the helm).
So there I stood with my "U' shaped fishing pole holding this shark head that had a mouth big enough to swallow my foot without touching it's lip and here come these sports fishing boats that had left earlier.
I though "hey they might like a big ol fish to take home to the family!".....not.
I waved and motioned them to the shark and all 3 went right on past , none waved but one passenger gave me a thumbs up .....not what I expected.....
Standing there holding this shark was starting to lose it's "magic" and while I was standing there looking at it I realize it's looking at me....calmly suddenly.......
At this point I got the knife out and cut the line. I knew it wasn't tired but was planning .... It was another raman noodle night.
5th day I tried for catfish again and managed to get a couple on a stringer before the sharks (yeah more than one) showed up and for some reason the fish stopped biting..I noticed one of the sharks was fairly large and similar to the one from last night. I found some markings on it throughout the day so I know it was the same shark all day and I had this "JAWS" feeling slowly creeping into my brain.....I had a lady from another boat paddle her kayak over to visit early in the day . Nice lady. She adored Kitty, so when she went back and told her friends about Kitty's friendly manner, naturally another one got bored later on and came to visit....
I saw her coming and went to the bow to meet her since the shark(s) seemed intent on my stringer at the stern.
I mentioned the big shark and she says " oh cool where's he at ? I wanna see!".....with a sinking feeling I pointed astern and away she went! The lady was also in a kayak and didn't have a life jacket in sight, and she no more got downstream of DAWGFISH when the shark darted towards her while I says loudly it's coming at you and it's right behind you !! She twists to look at the same time the shark bumps her kayak with a startling splash!! OH! she says.... (I had some other words in mind...)
Earlier the other lady mentioned that her friends liked fish but hadn't had any luck , so I told this lady that she could take the 2 fish I had back with her . "lemme see em" she says as she paddles up to my port side.
I untether the stringer from my starboard and swing em around to port to show em , when she said call our captain to see if she wants em.
I lash the stringer to the rack so they were in the water behind her stern and as I was turning to go to the radio the shark comes up grabs a fish, ricochets off DAWGFISH then glances off her kayak with a very large splash and disappears.
I look at her and see shes ghost white and I told her that I would have probably pissed myself had I been her and mentioned for the 5th time that she should go back to the boat. She finally agreed!
We both left Shark River the next morning.motoring into the wind in a desprerate bid to escape JAWS if possible.
I ended up in First bay next for a night but the radio was calling out tough north wind and I had to move to 2nd Bay to get close to some shelter.
One early morning while in 2nd Bay, I had no more woke when I heard the Coast Guard hail me on the radio. I thought "oh great! NOW what have I done."
They proceeded to tell me that I needed to contact my mother asap.
I told them I would but had no signal and no weather to go and get signal.
They asked if I had supplies to last, I said yeah.
And that was that!
I knew my Mom had to be worried but there wasn't a thing I could do about it ....
The next day a young Park Ranger stopped to see if I was ok and offered advice . He only had to mention the dogs are not allowed on ANY keys because kayakers were complaining about shit.
I said I wouldn't take kitty ashore due to the snakes n gators. He said "oh you don't have to worry about those"........I changed the conversation due to confusion...
The rest until now has been fairly routine. Slightly frustrating due to the lack of wind, but uneventful none the less.
I am running a bit low on gas but am staying here for a few days to wait out some weather and get some winds going my way to the next marina which is about 17 miles away. This may not sound very far but my last 2 days of sailing had me moving at .5 MPH or less...yay.
I did get a few pix from this trip but still not enough signal for them to upload. sorry.
While I was typing this up tonight, about 7 canoes full of people with headlights on passed by me. I had to poke my head out and tell em they was crazy for being in the Everglades at night in canoes.
What IS it with these paddlers?!?!?
Oh well.
since I am back on the grid , I should be able to post daily . It will seem like a rerun since I have been through here before. I hope my posts don't get too monotonous ...