On the Road Again

Yes, we took to the road again yesterday, June 1st, happy for the time at home, but excited to resume our adventure. Our last couple of days in Connecticut were full and fun. Full of work for Nancy and chores for me, like washing the boat and the Whale, mowing, and moving our stuff back on board, and fun like an evening with the neighbor's around a fire, and a day of fishing with Jeff.

Bruce and Lynn hosted a fun get together of the neighbors - Thanks guys! Bruce took this shot, so he's not in it:



Memorial Day Jeff came down and we took the boat out into Long Island Sound. We didn't have to go far from the launch in Niantic: out around Millstone Point we found lots of boats fishing in a strong rip line, and as we got closer we saw fish busting on the surface. Out came the fly rods and we set up our drift. My first cast caught one of many "cocktail" bluefish that we boated that day, and it felt great!

Pound for pound, I haven't found a species that puts a bend in your rod more than bluefish! These little guys, maybe just a year old, weighed 2-3 pounds, but hit hard and fight harder. When they get up to 12-15lbs, the fight is unbelievable!



Little blues like this are great eating, but we released all that we caught:


Jeff prepares to boat a fish, the Millstone nuke plant in the background:


Here he carefully extracts the hook. These fish will bite you if they can, and their sharp teeth will inflict a bloody wound. They bit off several of our flies before we switched to wire leaders!


When the tide changed the action shut off, but we trolled and talked for a couple of hours, enjoying the water, the sun, and the chance to visit. Here I give Jeff the "shaka" sign, indicating my contentment:



That night I washed and put the boat away, and then Nancy and I moved back onto the Whale, ready to hitch up and pull out in the morning. We headed up to Freeport, Maine, but stopped half-way in Westford, Massachusetts, were we went to lunch with my friends Mike and Al, who I worked with during my long carreer with Harman Specialty Group. We had a nice visit over lunch at the very good asian buffet at Bamboo. It was great to get together like we used to every week for years.



Now we're camped at Recompence campground in Freeport, not far from my parent's house, and just 1/2 hour from my now 40 year old sister, Laurel, and her family. She celebrated her birthday by having her gall bladder rebel against her! More about that, and our time in Maine, later...