It is mid March and time to kick off another season of Gulf fishing. We have a beautiful day forecast for Friday, its off to look for Beeliners, Triggers, AJ bait & Amberjack.
Our crew today, Rick, Annie, Bryan Sarah, Ellie & your faithful scribe. Karen had professional responsibilities while us slackers fish. We leave TPOS, load supplies and meet at Rick's, at 7am. Load the boat, get all the gear stowed away and Rick turns the key. Starboard fires right up, Port will not start. We try everything, still no luck. After exhausting all our ideas Rick calls the mechanic.
A side note here: If you have treated your "guy" right you will get great service. If not expect long waits and delays as he takes care of the people who "treat him right". Saunders sent a mechanic out in 15 minutes on a Friday morning. Treating people the way you expect to be treated always pays off.
As happens all too often the mechanic gets his tools out, jiggles a few wires and tells Rick to fire it up. Starts right away. The suspected culprit, a bad contact in the neutral safety switch, something we had tried a dozen times, the expert gets there tries it once and she fires right up. Go figure.
We then try to start the starboard motor to discover a dead battery. Small delay, hook up the shore power, charge the battery and off we go. 4 hours behind schedule but happy and looking forward to a great day on the water.
We clear the pass to a beautiful, cloudless day with a light easterly breeze. Temps in the 80's and 1' seas, a perfect day. Our course is set SSE and we settle in for the ride out. About 15 miles south of the Pass the alarm sounds, the port engine is overheating. The culprit this time, a broken belt. This problem is unfix-able without the parts which are back in OB. We turn back North for the slow ride back in.
Rick makes another call to Saunders, they send a guy right out again. Remember what I wrote about treating your "guy" right...
They replace all the belts and we are set to try again in the am. Karen will join us tomorrow. Going to be a great day!!!
We'll Sea.
