We moved from the Hopetown Inn & Marina to Boat Harbour Marina in Marsh Harbour. Our friends, Glenn and Laurie arrived at the boat at about 6:30 PM. Upon arrival a boat had just brought in an 803 pound blue marlin that was hanging on the dock so that created a lot of excitement for the upcoming Abaco Beach Blue Marlin Tournament which was starting on the coming Thursday.
The next morning we all took our time getting up and having breakfast before we headed out in the tender to ride across the bay and show Glenn & Laurie Hopetown and get lunch at Capt'n Jacks. The ride was fun but very wet most of the way over. It is about 6 miles from Boat Harbour to Hopetown. Luckily we had all put on our bathing suits. We arrived at Capt'n Jacks to discover that they are closed on Sunday for lunch so we went to Harbour View instead. It was very good. Following lunch we walked over to the beach and around town (everything was closed). The ride back to Boat Harbour Marina was much more pleasant.
Monday, June 6, 2016 - Day 41
More friends arrived from Ft. Myers, Dave, David and Vicki. We spent the afternoon at the beach and in the pool. At the beach we experimented with the paddleboards (in the wind) and played on the trampoline float. When we had enough of that, the sun, the salt water and sand we ventured over to the pool. There we met the crew from Triple Net (a 92' boat). We spent the next 3-4 hours chatting and enjoying the pool bar.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016 - Day 42Time to go fishing. Everyone is excited and ready to get out there and catch fish. Unfortunately the weather was extremely breezy and the day was filled with thunderstorms so we spent the majority of the day getting the fishing gear "tuned up" and preparing the boat for long days on the water with a full crew on board.
We finally got a good morning and headed out early to "tune up" the crew before the beginning of the Abaco Beach Blue Marlin Tournament which starts tomorrow. We got out to the fishing grounds early, set up and began trolling. Nothing! By mid-afternoon the thunderstorms rolled in again and we had more friends arriving back at the dock so we headed in to meet Sandy, Rich, Lori, and Dean. They came to Marsh Harbour to be our cheering squad for the tournament. That evening we all joined together to attend the tournament Kickoff dinner.
Thursday and Friday, June 9 & 10We fished, and fished, and fished! Nothing. What is going on? The fishing was suppose to be "red hot". Must be all of those thunderstorms that even the fish gave up and left!! By early afternoon each day the weather turned very bad (thunderstorms) and the seas got bad. Even for us. So we ran as fast as we could back to the marina. On Friday afternoon, it was terrible. We had been watching the storms on our radar so we were almost back when the worst of it hit but the rest of the tournament boats were not about to come in early. They might miss a fish. And we heard some really bad stories. One boat was hit by lightning and lost the electronic controls to the engines. That must have been scary. Others did not want to admit that it was bad but had their own way of saying that they did not want to do that again.
Saturday, June 11, 2016.
This was the last day of the tournament and today, every boat was hanging very close to shore in preparation for what was predicted to be another repeat of the previous few days. It was, by early afternoon the storms rolled in and we headed back to safety. Once again, no fish. Some of the boats did catch a few fish, but it was far from the previous weeks of "red hot". We unfortunately were not able to be one of the boats that caught. This was very disappointing but we can say that all of the crew and the boat arrived back in the marina each day - safe and in tact. That is the positive for this tournament. To better weather and luck next time. It was still a good time with our friends and the other tournament participants.
Sunday, June 12, 2016 - Day 47
A day of rest, relaxation and clean-up from the previous week and in preparation to move on to Great Harbour in the Berry Islands tomorrow.
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