Boat Trip Today

or...don't go out on a holiday weekend.

Yesterday, Hubby prepared the boat and food for us to go out on the boat this morning. I set the alarm for 6, but was up in the night - a LOT - thanks to the animals. First, the cat started doing his primordial meowing, followed by a painful yelp from Molly. Max bit and clawed her. My most oft-quoted line from Steel Magnolias refers to the cat: "He is evil and should be destroyed." A couple hours later, I heard collars jiggling and went to check it out. The pungent odor of dog poo welcomed me in the main bathroom. Molly had diarrhea all over the place. Earlier, she had eaten a package of German's baking chocolate. Since she's a good size, I decided this was not enough to kill her, and I was right. I'm really glad the dogs were not in their crate; it would have been all over both of them. This way, I cleaned the floor, sanitized it and my hands, and went back to bed. Woke up half hour later thinking something was wrong, but all was well. When the alarm went off at 6, I bolted out of bed to find and clean whatever else was messed up; this time, a large urine puddle in the bathroom. I cleaned that up, and by then, Hubby was awake. He looked at me and could tell I hadn't slept well, so we compromised: I went back to bed til 10, we went to First Watch for brunch, then came home and took the boat out around 2. We decided to stay around the river and not to Boca Grande pass or the Gulf since it was late.

Hubby noticed that the steering was quite stiff on the boat. I was glad I don't steer; he was really yanking at the wheel at times. As we went down river toward the Gulf, there were literally dozens of boats coming at us returning up river. They had left earlier in the day and were going home. There's a place in the Caloosahatchee called the "miserable mile" by local boaters. Here, the river is at it's narrowest, there is a spoil island just off the channel, and all are to be on their best behavior and drive at slow speed. Problem is, there are always folks who either don't know the waterways, or just don't care. Rent the Disney movie The Boatniks for an idea of what it can be like. Miserable.

We stopped just Gulfside of the Cape Coral bridge and fished about a half hour with shrimp. Didn't get a nibble. Pulled up stakes to go elsewhere, with no bait lost, which is extremely rare. Usually there are hungry catfish to steal bait, at the least. We continued down river ("here's the determined salmon, swimming upriver") and crossed over to fish near some mangroves, but the water became too shallow and we turned around. Meanwhile, we had noticed misting, or early fog beginning to settle over the water. Hubby has boated in fog, and it's not his favorite thing to do, especially without appropriate lighting, so we headed upriver for home. I was white-knuckled with teeth clenched as speeding boaters zoomed around us in no-wake zones. Hubby was quite concerned when a huge yacht came flying up behind us; he took evasive maneuvers to get away from him, but the guy seemed to deliberately closely tail us for a few minutes. I figured he wanted to hurt his boat less than we did. It probably cost more than our house. Back in the day when housing prices were normal.

We got home safely, trailered the boat without a hitch (pardon the pun), came home and ate our picnic here. We'd crated the dogs while we were out, and they made no messes. Whew!

Hubby said "Lesson learned: don't go out on a holiday weekend." He also says the worst thing about boating are the boaters.

~~shimfee