REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Heading for warmer weather.

Blue Heaven Invading Tampa

Well another season of Blogs begins. I really enjoy sharing our travels with you all. Some of you read them with a touch of bitterness and hate Tyler and I more everyday as we ply the waters of the Caribbean, some of you are able to see past that and enjoy the trip and our experiences as you live vicariously though us. Irregardless , you all keep reading. For that I am thankful. It is a real pleasure to share all of what we are so blessed and lucky to do which you all.
With that said we are heading south (again). With Gasparilla behind us we have our eyes trained on the warmer weather and fishing that the Caribbean provides.
Gasparilla is a big event for Tampa. It basiccaly reenacts a mythical pirate invasion, in which Jose Gaspar Sacks the city of tampa then parades thru the streets distributing loot from his plundering. We participate in the on water part of the pirate invasion where hundreds of boats follow the big pirate ship in to Tampa. Its fun but nerve wracking as boats all try to cram into The downtown ship basin.
As I said, With that behind us, We are heading south. All the preparation of the last month has come together. We departed St Pete at 5:30 yesterday morning and made our way south down the west coast of Florida. Seas were flat and remained that way all throughout the day. As we neared Sarasota, the fog set in on us. I mean it was thick. We had the radar dialed in and the infra red camera going so we continued to plow though the fog. It stayed with us all the way till we got to Florida bay south of Naples. There were so many small boats along the way while were were in the fog. My radar has the ability to track the speed of the targets. Some of those idiots were flying around at 40 kts, in the pea soup fog. One boat passed 100 yards behind me, I could barely see him but i could see that he had no radar. What the hell was he thinking. I wish I could just stop some of those guys and slap them.
By the time we reach the west end of Marathon key, it was 78 degrees and beautiful. We turned to the east and ran the last 75 miles up to Key largo where we pulled into Ocean Reef Club.
Our plan is to stay here till Monday. The boss is flying in and we will fish a bit. On Monday when the boss flies out we will head to the Miami where we will fish our way south after picking up Kurt Theodore and Tim Brundage. Having those two characters on the boat with Tyler and I should be a hoot.
As always We will take lots of pictures along the way. Tyler and I are looking at seeing some great fishing and incredible destinations.