"THE RIDE"

[gofastsandman]

Bought my `89 20sf in June and have been addressing the usual system gremlins, structural and mechanical suspects and gaining confidence in my sea keeping abilities as well of those of my new friend. I hadn`t been out in anything over 2-4 yet...

The NOAA forecast called for 1-3. T.S. Noel had caused some shoaling locally but we decided to run Boynton inlet instead of Lake Worth as it`s a better bet for live bait. Brian , my fishin bud , is local and owned an old mustard deck Mako 21 which we fished when he was my landlord here in the early`90s.

I grew up on the Cape and fished Barnstable harbor in a 13` Whaler until we moved when I was 12. The saddest day of my life was our final drive over the Bourne bridge. No more summers sailing tiny Beetlecats. No more rowing skiffs out to the sandbar off the tide to stomp for littlenecks. We only put our Topsiders on for Quahoging and, sometimes dinner.I didn`t get a lotta wheel time, just a love of an estuary and a curiosity of what lay beyond. When it`s there it never leaves.

We met at the ramp before 7 and headed out. I was looking at the pier rats to see if they were live baiting. Nothing. I was thinking about all the days I spent on that pier learning to fish Florida style. I have seen some amazing conditions and the consequences wrought on those who were out of town, out of their depth, and/or out of their minds. I have a somewhat unnerving reverence for Boynton.

The shoaling had changed the hole since 3 weeks ago and it was stacked up tight. Really tight. 3 seconds.2 seconds. Whoa. I gave Brian one of these "I don`t know" looks.We stopped for a little chat. I watched 28`s blasting the face at 6-8 feet. It looked to be an honest 3-5 offshore. The wind was NE and 10 mph faster than the 3-8 forecast. Why were these guys launching straight out? We chatted a little more. We were halfway through a falling tide. The rising tide and following sea could be friendly coming in. It wasn`t supposed to build. We could stay close in down by the concrete martini at the three wise men. I looked at the intervals again and thought we were in for a beating.
I hugged the south jetty avoiding the snook hole and headed out. We had the anchor ready and I trimmed the motor up a good bit.

I had never been up a decent face yet. I used to fish on an friend`s old Shamrock 20 and thought it might be my first time stuffing the bow on the next moment. What happened next completely blew my mind. My little friend walked up like a duck and sat down like a rabbit. I didn`t expect any trouble going up but I was just amazed at her manners coming down. The transition to the next face was almost seamless. How is this possible? Is it the lack of a stern pad? Is it the design of the strakes? Why didn`t the bow fall faster and farther? WOW WOW and WOW! Hell, BOW WOW! My tail`s still a waggin. This defies the law of gravity! Fortunately, I never took the L.A.T.

We drifted beam to and it was shocking how little we rolled in an ocassional 6 footer. With the N.E.wind we were, at times, back drifting which is always a confusing condition for me fishing wise. We managed 2 small kings and 3 nice yellowtails on dead sardines. I got rocked by something with large shoulders and a better reaction time, but my little friend impressed me more. It started to lay down around 11 and we came in at noon 30 with a following sea. It was the first time we`d been on plane all day. Walked right in the south jetty. We can stay in close down here , but it`s great to know that your hull is different in a good way.

Happy Thanksgiving