REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Its that time of year

I got creative with an old cast net I hung off my dock

Even Santa has Marlin on his mind

Tis the Season to finish up projects and start thinking about getting the boat ready to head south!
The last few months have been filled with fixing all the stuff we abused or broke during the last season. We rebuilt bot of our engines due to a glitch Cat Engine had with piston rings that failed prematurely. We had Ralph and Brandon from Middleton Marine do the work. Wow what a great job they did. I can not say enough good things about the work they did.

This cooler temps upon us, we tend to be drawn to the woods. The boss has a great camp in North Florida "Yon Creek Planation". I try to get up there as much as possible. Its just nice to be able to go sit in a tree and watch nature go by. Dan and I did do a bit of work helping out to get the place ready for hunting season. But its great work. Hanging out in the woods, Filling feeders and getting hunting boxes and tree stands dialed in for the season. Dan and I sat quite a bit last week in some tree stands. It proved to be frustrating though. It seemed that the only deer that walked near the tree stands were doe with fawns. We do not orphan on out property. But its still pretty cool to sit and watch. One afternoon I had 2 doe and 4 fawns feeding directly below my ladder stand. It was kinda neat watching the fawns bouncing around. On another occasion. My buddy sat in a ground blind and had a doe nearly stick her head inside the blind. How does the saying go? its not about the kill... its about the Hunt.

With two weeks to go before christmas, We have just two big projects left. Dan and I are painting the engines and engine room and we still have to sand the Teak back deck before we head south. This time of year just seems to fly to me. I hope to get a fishing trip in before Christmas ( if we can find anything that NMFS does not have closed season on). Then that last week of December is taken up with family stuff and the New Year.

We are still pushing the Stop Off and Drop Off Program for boats heading south this coming season. As you all go to Home Depot or Lowes, Think about grabbing a big box of construction screws or a bucket of roofing nails and throw it in the bilge. When you stop in San Sal or Long Island or Rum as you head south., Drop those supplies off. There are still hundreds of homes that are destroyed or damaged from Hurricane Joaquin. They are really having a rough time of it. The Day before you leave, Run by Home Depot or Lowes again and grab a roll of roofing paper or a sheet or two of plywood. anything helps. If ten boats bring one sheet of plywood, that equals a roof on a house. Thanks again to all of those boats that have already helped. And please share this post so that we can get others to Stop Off and Drop Off. Capt Barb Evans has been doing a great job with keeping everyone up to date of relief efforts and helping to answer questions and organize the efforts. If you have any questions, feel free to call her at 239-572-0887.