[randlemanboater]

Well, it is amazing how just a few hours on your boat can make you feel so much better.

Billy picked me up at 7:30 pm on Sunday, he had the furniture in is pickup, it turned out to be just one piece of furniture, a huge armoire. I told Billy I had my new boat seat to take so we put it on top of the armoire and had it situated so that it would stay put, or so we thought.

After about a mile on the highway, the guy behind us started flashing his lights like crazy, we looked back and the seat was GONE!!!!!

Luckily it landed out of the highway so it didn't get hit, and I had repacked it like it came to me so it didn't get damaged. The rest on the ride down was uneventful although my neck got sore from constantly looking back to check on the seat.

We arrived in Calabash around 11pm. For the next hour and a half we carried in the armoire, did I mention it was HUGE!!!!! Billy's condo is on the second floor with narrow steps, but that part was not bad, it was getting it through the door that was the worst. But after removing doors and chair mouldings and much struggling, it was inside.

Monday morning we got up, grabbed a biscuit and drove up to HB. Picked up the boat from the storage place, filled it with gas and Stabil, pulled in the place and rinsed off the dust. Hooked up the water and turned the key, it started like I had just run it the day before, man I love that motor.

While I was messing, getting the electronics put on and such, Billy went to switching out my seat.......the holes didn't line up on the slider so I am going to have to make a bracket or get a new slider that fits, oh well.

So we threw in a couple of rods and some tackle and headed out. The water in the ICW was the clearest I have ever seen it, the tide was high but I could actually see the end of the boat ramp and further, it was as clear as glass. Usually you can't even see a foot down, but yesterday it was almost unlimited.

We rode out about 4 miles out of Shalotte inlet to a spot that always has black bass and others on it. On the depthfinder, they looked like carpet on the bottom, tons of them. But they would only bite short to start and then got complete lockjaw. But that didn't matter, I caught one so it wasn't a skunk, and Billy hooked something big and got to fight it for several minutes before it came off.

We packed up and rode down the beach to the other end of the beach and came back in the Lockwood Folly Inlet where the Corps of Engineers was dredgeing the channel. The seas were around 1-2 when we went out and had increased to 2-3 as we came in.

Came back in, took out the boat and washed off the salt, flushed the motor and put it away. We were back home by 8:45pm. The new section of road makes it a 3 hr ride now.

I have ONE pic, I'll post it up later.

It was a great trip and my terrible longing for the sea has been satisfied, at least for today.