Spearfishing & Chillin...

Spearfishing

Monday morning we woke up and the weather was just about perfect for a day out on the water. It's been blowing for quite a while and hasn't been that clear or calm out there but conditions were just right for doing a little diving and spearing. 

We went out with 2 other boats and initially started at a structure called Washerwomen Shoal about 1 mile out of Sisters Creek off shore. The water here is about 10 to 15' deep and perfect for the kids. We saw a few good fish and I took a shot hitting a decent Mutton, only to have him wiggle his way off the pole spear. I chased him for a bit but lost him when I went up for air. We stayed at Washerwomen for about an hour and then the other boats said they were headed out further for deeper water and we decided to tag along. 

We left Washerwomen and headed out to a location known as Delta Shoal. Delta Shoal is several miles offshore and keep in mind we are in our dinghy not a big boat. We weren't the fastest in the group, which consisted of a Carolina Skiff w/ 3 and another inflatable with Vito, but we brought up the rear and made our way out. 

Delta Shoal is a completely different feel than the first spot. This location is 25ft'ish and has more structure. It also has bigger fish, more coral and better visibility. We dove for quite a bit and I took a shot at a decent size Amberjack at the bottom, just missing him because I hesitated. Colby shot a few times and overall it was a good time for our first time out. We saw eels, lots of different reef fish, huge barracuda etc. and on our way back were lucky enough to see two huge sea turtles. After almost 6 hours out there we were spent and the group hauled the catch back for a dinner at the Tiki hut. We ate quite well on a huge "Mutton Snapper" and a couple Lion fish. Potatoes, corn, rice, beans, of course the fish as well as rum ;-)

Peyton ate a little bit of everything and Colby tried some. He was afraid to eat the Lion fish though and thought he would get poisoned lol. Lion fish is great meat it's very white with the consistency of chicken. 

Vito in the background. 

Peyton driving us in. 

Chillin

Yesterday I picked up the Engel fridge I ordered at work and after I got off came home to install it. Believe it or not the installation went great! No problems and within 30 minutes I had it wired up, running and cooling. This is a huge upgrade for the boat after our fridge went out a couple months ago and hauling ice hasn't been bad but it's losing it's effectiveness as it gets hotter down here. The fridge draws 2.5 amps max with a maintenance draw of only .7 amps. For those of you not familiar it translates into very low draw and living on a boat requires thoughtful consideration to all things that draw power. The fridge can be powered essentially by 1 solar panel it's so efficient. 

To all my Williamson EMS friends. This is the same brand of fridge that they were putting in the ambulance to chill the fluids for the hypothermia protocol.