Saturday, October 24, 2009

Not your typical day on the water

The day started out pretty slow, and we didn't get to the water until about 10. There was a front that was supposed to move in in the afternoon, so we were sure the weather would blow us off the water. We got out to the reef and caught a few fish, nothing really spectacular. Then the back pole took off. I grabbed it and started trying to get it in. It would take off, and I would get a little back. It would take off, and I would get a little back. After a while, it seemed to be stuck at the bottom, though it would still give now and then. If we gave the line some slack, it would go tight again. There was another boat over by us, and their friends were scuba diving. So we figured when the divers came up we would ask them what we had down there.
The guy drops down and comes back up to tell us we have his anchor line, but don't worry, they'll pull anchor and give it back to us. So they pulled anchor, and we hadn't actually hooked their anchor line, but our line was only wrapped around it. The girl motioned to Pete that he could reel it in, it was free, but there was something still making it hard. Whatever we hooked was still there!! After a few minutes it surfaced, a stingray!


So we laugh a little, unhook the little guy and go on. While Pete was bringing in the ray, I caught this slimy little guy called a sand diver. Pete caught a barracuda, and we caught some other stuff. It was heating up so we decided to start heading in. I looked off into the distance and saw this huge boat. Pete said he thought it looked like a Coast Guard Cutter. We watch it for a little while, and all of a sudden there is smoke coming out the back of it and it is MOVING! There is a small boat in front that it looks like it's chasing.
AND it looks like they are heading in our direction. Pete, thinking that we want no part of this, fires up the motor and we start heading away. But the little boat seems to be getting away from the bigger boat, and they seem to be following us.
We head back towards the reef, because there was a bigger boat over there. If we're gonna be involved, maybe they can help. We go hide behind them.
But the smaller boat turned, they WERE following us! Oh CRAP! As they got closer, we realized the smaller boat was ALSO a Coast Guard boat.

They pulled up to us to do a safety inspection. They asked us what the heck we were doing, adn we told them we thought they were being chased and we were trying to get away! They said they thought WE were acting weird and wanted to check us out! Here's the mothership, watching over.
We laughed at ourselves, as I'm sure they laughed at us too. On the way back in, we saw our little beggar dolphin friend. He said hi.


So, all in all, it was a good day. Lots of fun stuff. The weather was Beautiful, as you can see from the still water in the pics. And, the best part is, there's still one day left in the weekend!