Engaged

The Route - Tampa to Pompano

After my last post, you know there is a new lady in my life.  She's big, excitingly new to me, and sadly, its a long distance relationship.  After the dust settled on our purchase of the new Knot Reel Teeth (KRT) the realization of getting her home sunk in.  Several people have all chimed in on what I should do about getting her home.  I have my own plan, but for the sake of discussion, here are the most common bits of advice.

1- Just have her shipped home and be done with it.  That was the first thing that I heard, and for about 9 milliseconds, it made sense.  Pay someone to bring her up to her new home, and Id be ready to jump on and use here as soon as the weather broke.  Pay the captain, pay the fuel, and I don't have to disrupt my schedule or work.  Easy, yes.  Fun? Not a lick of it.  Who the hell would decide to do this??  Its freezing in Rhode Island, I have a boat that I OWN in FLORIDA, and Im not going to take advantage of it??  Surely you jest.

2- Scoot through the Okeechobee waterway, and save yourself a ton of fuel.  This way you can move the boat over to the East coast and have it there to use.  Yep- that idea came up too.  Let me rebut your well thought out plan with this simple sentence.  Yes, you're correct, its cheaper, faster and more efficient; but I have the chance to go to the Florida Keys...  There, debate over.

3- If your going south, at least cut through Florida bay so you save yourself 100 miles or so.  Smart? Yes.  Savvy? Yes.  But I have never been a big fan of skinny water, especially when I don't know it well.  Additionally, I refer you to this point: Key West.  Key West, which I haven't been to by boat, nor will I again in the near future.

Its a trip for the sake of the journey.  To say that we did it.  Im all excited just typing this.  We're taking our boat to the Keys, to fish, cruise and explore.  I don't know when or if I will do it again, so I'm doing it. For the memories, the experiences, and the bragging rights.

But enough about the journey home, there will be plenty of that.  Back to my new Flame!  Now that our relationship is off and running, its all about getting to know one another.  Right now, this gal has the personality of a wet dishrag.  Honestly.  The previous owner didn't change anything (n-o-t-h-i-n-g) on the boat since it was bought new.  And not being the fisherman that we are, we certainly are lacking in that department.

It's tough to tell what a new boat will be like.  Sure, we sea trialed the boat, but that's BS in my opinion.  On a sea trial, you are so excited by the prospect of a new boat, you don't really concentrate on anything.   All you do is look around with A.D.D. and think "Ohh, something shiny!"  So now its time to get to really her.  To see if she farts in bed, or talks with food in her mouth.  Now we see past the veneer.  

We're excited to say the least.  Over the next week, we are shipping gear down. Laying out our route (see the photo at the top of this post) and making marina reservations in various ports.  This is starting out to be quite the romance.