Experiencing Under the Ocean

Yesterday Was all about the ocean surface, watching the waves crashing in, seeing the hoardes of shells brought in by the tides, watching the different birds circling overhead, coasting around on the wind. Getting weird small patches burned on my legs. Side of the knee and ankle is both painful and inconvenient. I also got a patch of angry skin just to the right of my tramp stamp zone. I guess I have to work a little more on my flexibility when applying the sunscreen. That was yesterday. Today was different. I again arose ahead of six for my morning constitutional. I took a different route back to the trailer today, in effect it was the route I took from the trailer, which was twice as far. I rocked tunes this morning too. I got back and showered quickly before the others had their coffee then ate breakfast and cleaned up all before seven. This might become my new move. There was no hard fast plan for today as I suspected there might have been so I helped Uncle Al load up the car to go fishing. We were fishing mostly for stingrays and smaller fish, not the famed blue fish. We dropped lines off the pier at Indian River Lagoon and hoped for the best. After about five minutes, there was a sizeable bite and I was told to reel it in. Reel I did to find we had not one but two fish on the line! Two yellow-tailed amberjacks to be precise. They were smaller, the adolescent fish of the species live in the river and lagoons and don't move out into the ocean proper until they are a year or more. So two of those were caught and released. There was a lull and many bites after this but just something small that was stealing our bait with nibbles. Then suddenly another tug and we had a third amberjack to release. After that something bigger moved in and the smaller fish all fled the area. We got to see some cool birds at this time though. The big powerful osprey showed up to hunt. Two pelicans swooped in for some feeding. They are neat to watch in action. A Palmer amused us by diving for minnows. Clouds were rolling in and the wind was getting vicious but still we sat. Hoping against hope for that stingray. Then I got a bite. I set the hook and Uncle Al got a bite, he advised we switch rods cause he had a good feeling. So I fought and reeled until it was revealed that I was catching a ray! And he pulled in the other line and there was a lane snapper, a very rare and delicious fish. What a great haul for us! We snapped some picks and carefully pulled the hook out of the Ray, it was flailing its dangerous tail all over the place. We carefully used it back into the depths and got the perfectly set hook out of the lip of the snapper before sending him home. We cast out and saw a bonefish jump about a foot out of the water right in front of us. This confirmed that something big and hungry had moved in but we had to pack up shortly after. We got home just in time for lunch. With no plan, there wasn't much activity in the afternoon. We had to leave early for dinner so that suited me just fine. I had a power nap and we organized the stops needed for our excursion. We had to be at the New England Fish Market before 5pm to ensure we got a table before 8pm. It is a very busy spot. And I was secretly hoping to have an early bird dinner while I was living the retirement dream. We hit our spots on the way and made it just ahead of the appointed hour. The food was scrumptious. I had a clam chowder cup to start and then the amazing topper, the haddock milanese. It is the most popular dish, and for good reason. Wow! I would do that again for sure. We got home and ooo'ed and awed over the nice drawings the Mayor had completed recently and their frames. Hopefully I can get permission from the artiste to post pictures. I hope to update these later once I get back with some photos. It should really augment my stories I am sharing. We played Paddy again and that was the bulk of the day. The evening was mostly quiet with no Brad Jacobs to watch. The team is undefeated and looks to stay that way. It has become our go to evening entertainment. Tomorrow is my last full day here and we're looking to have a full day of adventure before I depart back home, to almost the same temperatures. Funny how that worked out.