Kingfish Shoot Out

Every year,  for the past 10 years C-Quarters Marina has had a kingfish tournament, to benefit the leukemia society. Jimmy Crowder, the man that owns C-Quarter had a daughter that died from leukemia, so he has sponsored this tournament and they have raised over $700,000,00 so far. Quite impressive! It was a lot of fun watching the boats come in and seeing their catch, I have never seen such big kings. They have big raffle at the end of the tournament, but I didn't win anything :(  I did get a small fish finder to put on the dink for $45.00, that was a good buy! The winning fish weighted in at 46.5lbs. 

Winning fish

Chicken ranch

We have made some wonderful friends here at C-Quarters Marina, Kim, the lady here, is the best and I am going to email Mr. Crowder himself and tell him what a prize he has in her. Her husband, Harold, is a Dutch man and he is a wonderful person, he comes up on the dock and hangs out, he is a wealth of information, they had a 70 ft steel hull and we love it. He is helping out his friend,  they have a chicken ranch, of course when I heard chickens I was in love, his friend has lots of chickens. I love chickens and Harold took us to his friends chicken ranch and we got to see all his chickens, he also raises koi fish so he has a ton of ponds all over his property with koi fish in them in different stages of growth. The water was dark in most of the ponds so seeing them was hard, but I was so excited..they were so sweet!
My next question is going to be?? Is it ever going to stop raining? We woke up this morning to the rain. At least the hatch over the bed has stopped leaking, but we have sprung new leaks upon leaks..we watched two campy movies " The land that time forgot" and its sequel " The people that time forgot" I went insane!!
After the rain let up this afternoon I went up on the porch and met two wonderful people, Frank and Sharon, we sat up there with them for hours and we laughed and laughed. Sharon is a hoot, and I thought of Sharon my other friend, she too was a hoot..I miss you...They are coming back tomorrow and we are going to have a picnic..Frank is a doctor and just retired, Sharon has lots of businesses and they live in La. They are both too cute. They are a lot older then we are and she says they need to make decisions like right now, because you just never know when it will end! She is so right, that is why Pierre and I doing this. You just never know when it will end. We went to the aquarium in Panacea and it was so cute, it was a wonderful surprise and we had a fun time.

He was trying to get out!

this one speaks for itself

Hi there!

Puffer Fish

This is a frog fish

A boat full of Fiddler crabs

Just hanging out!

Sunshine!!

Here at C-Quarters all the boaters come in with their fish, this is a big cobia that was caught off Dog Island. Check out what Jarvas's son has in his hand, that made me laugh, we had a bet on the weight and I won..Sweet..so Jarvas gave us a hunk, it was yummy. THANK YOU!!

At least the rain has stopped, but the wind has been blowing a gale and the gulf is a mess with high seas and all, so here we sit, waiting for a weather window to leave. We are going to Tarpon Spring to the sponge docks. This a wonderful Greek community and they have been harvesting sponges out the gulf for years, they are famous for the worlds best sponges.

Still raining!!

Rain rain go away, come again some other day! Well I paid for another month here at C-Quarters Marina today, I would rather be at dock wishing I was at sea, rather than at sea wishing I was at dock!  
Going a little bit stir crazy, we only have two options, the boat or the porch. So today we spent a lot of time on the porch.

Ice cube award

We had a very tense time here at C-Quarters Marine this afternoon.  This morning Pierre and I got the dink going, now this is a big deal, we have to set the dink down, Pierre has to go down in the dink and I have to send the engine down with the davit, then he has to line up the engine with the end of the dingy and then secure it..But anyway..we did all that..it only took a few hours..so off we went..we went to Fish Camp...on the other side of the river and had lunch. Then we motered arounded, I wanted to go to Dog Islnd but we did not have the fuel for that, so we headed back to the boat. Now..I am very anal about putting things up, but I told Pierre, lets keep the dingy in the water because we want to go about tomorrow. Good thing I  did. we were sitting aboard and we heard a motor start up..I looked out the window and saw our neighbors dingy flip over and he landed in the water. We flew out of the boat and Pierre jumped  into the dingy I let the lines go..Keith was hanging onto side of his dingy, the tide was running about 6 knots too, so he was moving. After Pierre started after him, I screamed to the people on the porch for help. Well, Pierre got to him and we got got him up on the dock without any injury. We used the spinnaker pole to raise the dingy up and get it flipped back over. Whew! What a evening! Kim told us we get the ice cube award!

Captains log..soaked

Will it ever quit raining? I had a melt down in the boat today...stalking from one end to the other..swearing and yelling about the rain and the forcast..It was not a pretty sight..thank you Pierre, I am so glad he loves me..and puts up with me. He sat on the couch and laughed at my antics..playing candy crush on my iPad.  If only.

Glad we are on a boat right now!

Wow, as I alway say...it does not rain here...it monsoons...we have been holed up here now for 2 days, with hurricane winds buffing us and rain and thunder and...yes...lightning..those that know me know how fearful I am of lightning.
 We went to Apalalchicola with Bill and Charlie the other day and had lunch at Boss Oyster, there was a small female grackle that was stealing food off the tables and sugar packets out of the dish. She was sooo cute..Apalachicola has grown since I was last there, now I have to admit, the last time I was there was years ago. It was a fun day, thank you Bill and Charlie...Codi..they have tillys..
 Yesterday we took the hot water heater out ..ouch.. no hot water..and today West Marine called me and our new one was in. John drove us to the West Marine in Tallahassee, it is a new store they have only been there for a month, beautiful store and well stocked. It was heaven! I got 3new pairs of shorts! I really needed them.
 Johns computer bit the dust awhile ago and he was on the hunt for a new one, so we went to Best Buy, Staples and Office Depot.  ( Charlie...I tried to talk him into a Mac, but no go) I want the new Mac Book Pro...Honey..do you hear me?
Anyway...I am hoping we can set sail for Tarpon Dock soon! I am feeling the pull of sailing! Oh yea..happy Fourth of July  everyone!!