Gone Fishin'...

Today I met Ellen's longtime friends, Alan and Mickey and Evelyn. After a tasty breakfast together at the Englewood, NJ, location of the Jackson Hole Diner, we drove into New York, across upper Manhattan, through the Bronx and Queens and onto Long Island, ending at their boat docked on South Shore of Long Island near the Jones Beach Inlet. Hurricane Bill was raging well offshore, and though the 20 foot waves kept us off the Atlantic and in the back bay, it developed into a lovely, warm, mostly sunny day and we enjoyed cruising, eating our delicious deli sandwiches, conversing...


...and fishing in several locations. It was my first time fishing off a boat and I caught two small ones -- a black sea bass and a sea robin -- both of which were quickly released back to the depths. Ellen caught three fish -- two at once -- and Evelyn caught one that was nearly of minimum length, but all were released.


Then another new adventure -- a freak mishap where the anchor got jammed in the right propeller, necessitating us limping back to the marina on one engine. The marina guys weren't busy, so they hoisted the 13,o0o pound boat out of the water, unjammed the prop, lowered the boat, and we took it out again to see if there was any damage to the prop. All was fine!


Then it was over to Freeport's "Nautical Mile" area and a seafood meal at Jeremy's Ale House and its "autographed bra ceiling"...


...and delicious meals of shrimp, scallops, cod, and curly fries before the drive back to New Jersey.

Thanks Alan and Mickey for a great day on the water -- and for a change, we didn't have to paddle!