Out On The Boat

We decided that since we had not had a day off together in a few weeks, that we were going to do Afun and special together on Thursday.  So, we hit the Atlantic for some fun out on the boat.  We of course started off our boating adventure at Wal-mart, which is where all of our boat days seem to start, for some reason we "always need" something for the boat, beer, snacks, fishing gear, honestly we end up spending what seems like forever in the fishing/boating aisle, which at times seems unbearable except for the calming cricket noises that come from the live cricket buckets in the fishing aisles.  I always tell Chris that the next time we come to this aisle, I am finally buying my crabbing nets, but then I never do.  I love crabbing, thank you Toni Mugavin for teaching me this fun and stress relieving activity.  Chris is still not 100% sold on the crabbing, but we will get there! (Once we buy the nets)  So then from Wal-mart we head to our boats home, Summer Waves.  We have to pack up coolers with ice, load our purchased items into the boat and we are then ready to set sail.  This trip was a very special, yet nerve racking trip because it was our first trip out on the boat with just the two of us and no one else to help us.  No one else to back up the truck and get the boat launched or get the boat back on the trailer, evenly, and pulled out, but we did it and we did a great job with it, amazing teamwork by the small Brown family!!  So once we launched the boat and were cruising through the river, we were ready for our adventure to begin.  We went over by Cumberland Island to fish, but the fishies were no where to be found.  What I did end up finding was a hidden Yellow Jacket home in one of the cubbies.  Not a fun experience being stung for the first time by a yellow jacket and stuck in a boat.  At the time it was not funny, but to look back on it, it was hysterical if you were watching our boat.  There is me screaming bloody murder and holding my hand while running all around the boat, trying to avoid the swarm.  I mean really, there is not much room in a boat, where was I going to hide from them, no way was I jumping over the side of the boat, but every single time they flew around, I ran around and screeched, while Chris just calmly sat or stood there as I tried to run around him or hide behind him.  So after Chris killed about 8 yellow jackets, we decided to move closer to St. Andews Sound on Jekyll Island and that is where we got some action on our poles.  A lot of that action was fish stealing out bait, but it was still fun.   Here are our catches of the day (all of which were thrown back and lived to swim another day).

Here is Chris fighting for 45 minutes to bring in this fish!

Finally after 45 minutes, this monster of a Sting Ray surfaces!  The ray was HUGE!!  We ended up cutting our line and letting Malamute swim free.  Yes, I tend to name all of the fish we catch, well except the ones we keep, because it makes me feel bad about eating them.

I caught this little 1 ft baby hammerhead shark named Marcus, he had the wildest tail and loved to slap it around and hit Chris and I. 

My final catch of the day was little 1 1/2 ft hammerhead by the name of Manwell. 

It was so much fun out fishing on the boat, I can't wait until our next day off, which hopefully will be more frequent these days, since summer is coming to a close.