Practice, Practice, Practice.....

I am either slowly getting the hang of this camera or I got lucky ......probably lucky....

 5 inch underwater pipe.

 Mangrove retainment project.....

One of the coolest boats I have seen yet!

Further testing/training

I tried to get some more pix today but most of the underwater ones didn't quite turn out right from operator error I think.
I did get some other shots in throughout the day.

 The sight of a Morgan swing keel deployed.

 Shrimp docks!

 Shrimp docks looking out.

 Scot , hangin out at Topps with Ren!

 micro natives(fidler crab)

Low Tide

Went for a ride today , took the camera to see what it's capable of!

(Above) Low Tide at Topps Landing.(looking out). Comparison: same place but at High Tide(below).

 Aliens do exist!  And they are NOT happy .....

 The Moss here is sooooo green! I can't help but stare at it! 

 Topps (looking in)

 Leaving the canal.

 Mile-er-mores are quite a bit bigger than the ones back home!

 Back Bay Tidal flats.

 Sun tarps fully engaged! Had to get the blue (new) one out because the custom fit tarps for the cockpit area has degraded finally and are only good for a pattern.

In the shot above, Dawgfish(left), Dre ma(right)

Rookie underwater shots

I finally got it!!! An underwater camera!!
I settled with a Nikon coolpix aw100 kit.
I actually got it yesterday but had to do some reading and the daylight ran out on me before I could jump in.
Soooooo, today , donning the mask and fins and armed with my new toy I went swimming!

 Almost .5 " growth on DAWGFISH since Mothers day eve.

 Oyster cluster.

 Poor little thing....It had fallen and couldn't reach its beer!

 Mangrove roots ....

 Looking up towards mangrove roots from below sea level.

 Had to shoot a selfie!

 Mini Conch.

 No clue.

 These lil piles o sand are a prominent feature in the gulf and it's sandbars. I am not sure what make them , but sometimes they are eye catching with complexity.

Life on Mars! .... Just kidding. Don't know what it is but it looks cool!


Well There's the first shots from the waterproof camera.
I can't wait to show off the cool fish that come visit me when I am near docks!

Hmmmm

I was hoping to have seen the last of these when I left Carrabelle ! 

The bright side about these is they are big and slow. 

It's also fun watching Kitty chase em through the cabin!

Update day!

Odie , Tati and I made our way to the library today with the hopes of getting updated as far as our computers go.

While I managed to successfully get my system going and running at par , poor Odie wasn't able to get his system to run off his phone. We tried nearly every trick I know, without any luck we left due to dropping tide at a shallow mooring.

Here is the view from the 3rd story glass...

Next shot is less than a half hour later.....

Below is our temporary office occupied by Odie.

We left our hatches open expecting a nice day. I am not sure how much their stuff got wet but I got lucky due to my hatch closing all by itself! I was relieved to not have a wet bed tonight!

Bandito!

I had to guard the goods from this Lil fella  while at Topps today.....

Insistently persistent ......

One Fine Day!

 HAPPY MOTHERS DAY !!!!

Got a chance to go play sailin and fishin! 

I learned a thing or two , since I talked my neighbor Daniel into goin . 

Had decent enough wind most of the day.

Plenty of boats and wildlife to see around here!

 There seemed to be 1-2 ft seas with a few 3-4 footers to keep things lively. 

Since it was a fishing day also, it let us offset sailing time with the" iron genny" to speed travel time up a bit.

Starting off from hurricane pass we sailed most of the way out to the west side of Estero Island before having to motorsail into the wind to avoid the shoaled area just southeast of Sannibel Island.

Upon passing the shoal we sailed for a few miles before turning and motorsailing into the eye to the "fish haven" marked on the chart. 

After a few passes across the area and not catching anything , we decided to drift along and keep some hooks wet to see what would happen.

yeah.....200+ species of fish out here and yup......a catfish......

OK cool! bait is good !

Getting out the biggest pole I have (10 ft) and the toughest string I have (100lb braid),

I put a VLH (very large hook) on a 20lb test steel leader thinking questionable thoughts about the leader.

The bait trailed us for several minutes and sure as sunshine ! 

We got a bite! 

It pulled good and was fun for a second until the snap end of the leader bent open . 

OOOHHKayyy soooo resetting the next leader with 2 snaps for the hook, catching another catfish for bait, we were back in action with another good fighting bite! 

Reeling it in close enough to get a look at a decent Black tip shark fighting mad, before it dives near the boat and Breaks the biggest pole I have

 and continues to fight until it eventually pulls that hook free from both swivels!!

Uh huh.....GAME ON! 

Putting the reel on my "next best pole" , Installing my custom made leader and 2 snaps for sea lures  on the end, finally getting another catfish, we bait the water again and after a bit the reel starts to hum! 

I got it wore down enough so we could get some pix and I was able to pull it in the boat without issue!

Here is a small video!

((((CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO)))))

 35+ inch Black tip ! 

Right on time too! Daylight draining , we set sail for a while in a low wind at a scorching 1-1.5 mph ! Wanting to be back at anchor with a cleaned shark before dark had us lighting up the "iron genny" again .

Shortly passing under Matanza Pass Bridge we cross paths with our other neighbor Odie who admired our shark. Who we easily convinced to cook it if we cleaned it or not! 

So according to plan , DAWGFISH was back on the hook and the shark was cleaned and on it's way to DRE 'MA all before dark !

 

We all gathered there to eat , drink and have a great "mostly bug-less" evening! 

Thanks Daniel for going along and Thanks Odie for cookin! 

 Pre- Odie Shark meat(above) and Post- Odie Shark Bites(fried shark)( below).

yeah,,,,,

breakfast is lookin up!

Here is a shot of Daniels really awesome homemade lures!(below) 

Kitty sniffin out the grilling scents coming from FMB(below)

All in all ? 

One Fine Day!