REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Buggin, Waxin, Fixin and Polishin

BUGWEISER

I was just sitting out on the dock here at A & B Marina in Key west this morning. Six am on the dock is so awesome. The world is slowly coming alive. The Roosters are crowing from all over the area surrounding the harbor. ( Yes Roosters. While some cities have rats or stray dog issues, Key West has Chickens running all over town). The sound of a street sweeper machine is coming from Front street, cleaning up the trash from last nights revelers. The eastern sky is slowly getting lighter with pink and orange colors revealing a few thunderheads pushing over the islands from the gulf stream. Sitting here with a cup of coffee watching the world wake up is pretty awesome. Soon the charter boats will be firing up their engines and the tourist filled sail/snorkeling boats will be readying to head out. The heat is already brutal. Hopefully the showers will keep it cooler again today.

Coffee on the dock as the sun rises

In Contrast the evenings while not as quiet are just as pretty. Each evening, the crews all seem to end up on the dock. Last night was a typical one. We all pitched in a part to our meal and had dinner on the dock. As I said the evenings are just as pretty but not as quiet. There is the din of music coming from Schooner Wharf and Conch Republic. The sunset sailboats from all over the marina are coming and going with tourist eager to catch a sunset on the water. There is a deck hand on our dock sitting with a fishing pole. His line is stretched not into the water but all the way up to the base of the dock. For bait he has a dollar bill attached to his line waiting for the next tourist to come along. Some nights the guys break out the 300 lb test line and try their luck and man hood with the Man Test. The Man Test is when a mate tosses a bait into the water on a 30 foot piece of line with a 12/ 0 hook. They are trying to hook tarpon. Instead of the 30 foot line being on a pole, it is wrapped around the hands of the guy doing the man test. These are no small fish. Some of them break the 100lb mark. With some of them pushing 130lbs. When one of these fish comes tight at the end of the 30 foot line, it is ballistic. They often get airborne and nearly pull the novice guys into the water. Sounds silly until you are here and watching it. Boys will be boys

Our new mat Matt Fueyo

The past few weeks brought on a bit of change on the Blue Heaven. With Tyler resigning, I had to Hire a new Mate. I found a guy named Matt Fueyo. He just got out of a stint in the army and a tour in Afghanistan. I figure if he can do Afghanistan, he can handle living with me. He seems to be a really nice guy, a hard worker and full of desire to learn. He is gunna work out just fine. I feel fortunate to have found him while the boat is still traveling a little. If the boat was home, we would not be using any of the systems on board or doing any work revolving around fishing. He has learned a lot. Heck as I am writing this the sun has barely crested the eastern horizon and Matt is on the back deck waxing. I like this guy.
Each day for the past couple weeks we have been fixin waxin and polishin. Having a new mate on here is challenging as I have to show him step by step the proper way that I want things done but Matt is very receptive to how I want it done. As I was saying, Each day we plan out a few projects and or waxing. We have gone thru nearly every drawer on this boat and organized it, All the tackle has been organized, hell we even waxed the showers.
But with everyday of work comes a bit of play. The tides here in Key West are critical to being able to free dive for lobster in some areas. So, we plan our day around being able to take an hour or two to go out and catch a few lobsters or spear a hog fish. The lobstering has been better over the past week. The bugs are bigger and are marching. What I mean by marching is that they are moving. When they move from one area to another, they tend to do it in mass.
Last week was Bike Week, the week before was Dike week. The streets were filled with quite a mix of interesting people as those two weeks overlapped. But for the next few weeks it will be very quiet. Then during the third week of October Fantasy Fest happens for a week. It is a week long festival that has been compared to an adult version of Mardi Gras. The Marina will be full and the streets will be full of nut. Looks like we are in the right place.