Death by Dinghy

It was dead calm smooth this morning so I went out fishing (an annual tradition on this date.)  Since Pam didn't go, I was able to fly out to the islands. Got there in less than 15 minutes.  Right away, I caught a lot of very nice trout.  Probably about 66 of them.

Then, another boat came by.  I usually don't see many boats out there.  This one had 3 or 4  women and 3 or 4 men.  They stopped not too far away for about 15 minutes, then they left.  I thought they weren't very patient fishermen.  Soon, the fish stopped biting, so I had lunch.

As I was enjoying lunch, I saw some flowers drift by my dinghy.  Nice red and white tropical flowers.  The islands here are all mangroves, so I didn't think the flowers fell from trees on the islands.  I tried fishing again, but the bite was off.  Don't know what happened--the fish were really biting before that other boat stopped nearby.  Finally, it hit me.  The people on the other boat were scattering someone's ashes and threw those flowers out on the water.   I always thought that when the time comes, that was what I wanted for my remains.  But now, I'm not so sure--I wouldn't want to ruin someone else's fishing day.

Later, I moved to another spot, and caught a ton of Jacks about 14 or 15 inches long.  If you don't know Jack about salt water fishing, I can tell you that ounce for ounce, not many fish fight harder than Jacks.  I must have caught 66 Jacks.

Then it was time to head back.  I hadn't noticed while I was behind the islands that the wind had picked up.  It was blowing 15 to 20 and as usual, right on the nose.  My 15 minute trip out there turned into almost an hour coming back.  The dinghy was bouncing so much that I couldn't stay on the seat, so I sat down on the floor.  This shallow bay has got to be the choppiest place on the planet.  I was pounding into the waves so hard, that I started thinking about the headlines when I washed up somewhere. "Old Man from Indiana Beaten to Death by his Own Dinghy."