Key Largo, FL

On Friday Bill and I rented a car and drove from Ft. Lauderdale to Key Largo. Dave and Molly are at the Ocean Reef Club in Largo and graciously invited us down for the weekend. What a place! Friday night Dave beat Bill 6 to 1 at yahtzee. Molly gave us a tour of the reef in the golf cart on Saturday afternoon; we even stopped at the Ocean Reef Club museum. We went out for a sunset cruise in the small boat and Molly and I came back and spent several hours in the hot tub while the boys went to the bar. We had planned on returning to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday morning but decided to stay another day. And we are so glad that we did! Dave, Molly, and their friends Ron and Steve took Bill and me out fishing for the afternoon. It was amazing. First we caught the bait (ballyhoo). We caught some with the rods and Ron caught others (many more) with the net. The water was beautiful; green and blue. In addition to the ballyhoo, we saw little yellow fins and sargent majors in the water. It was the perfect day; sunny and calm. Truly awesome.

After we caught enough bait fish, Dave drove the boat into deeper water. Ron and Steve put the bait on and set up the rods and then we waited. After a short time we had a fish on. Bill caught a sailfish, his first blue water catch. The sailfish was between 30 and 35 pounds. It was awesome. Molly took some great pictures.

After a little while longer, there was another fish on and it was my turn to reel him in. With (a lot!) of Ron's help, I managed to catch a black fin tuna. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be but Ron showed me how to get into the rhythm of reeling, waiting, reeling, waiting, etc. When the tuna was just about up to the boat, a shark came from behind and bit off its tail. But the shark left everything else (the good parts!) and Ron filleted the tuna up right then and there. I learned that it tuna doesn't get any fresher when the meat is still warm when it is filleted. Next was Molly's turn. She caught a (whole) bonito tuna. It was an awesome day. One of the most fun times we have had in a long time. It was a totally new experience for Bill and me and we were lucky to have the best of the best teach us. Dave and Ron are so knowledgeable.

We headed back to the dock around 5:00. Ron hung the flag to indicate that the boat caught one sailfish. It is upside down because the fish was released. Molly grilled the fresh tuna for dinner. The whole weekend was (of course) full of her fabulous meals.




We had an awesome weekend. It was so nice to see Dave and Molly, to hang out, see some of Largo, and to meet their friends. Life really doesn't get any better - great friends, amazing food and hospitality, learning and experiencing new things, hanging out and having a really, really good time.



Of course we took a million pictures. Click here to see the web album.




We are back on Mary Elizabeth in Lauderdale now. Bill replaced the fuse on the bow thruster and finished the last of the turnbuckles. We have a few other things to take care of before my father flies in from Boston on Wednesday -- which we are both looking forward to!