SLS082011A - day four tuesday

Another night of thunder, lightning and some rain showers. Again anchor watch did their job, this time taking down the sunshade and collecting up all of the dry laundry. When this happens almost all of the boat crew whips out a computer or smart phone and checks the weather radar. We’re very hyper-sensitive to the weather here.
When the crew got up we were surrounded by storm cells. None were threatening us directly but we still had to wait for them to move on before we could get under way. We had another cold breakfast so that we could get moving as soon as they cleared. It wasn’t too long before we were on our way.
This was lobstering day and this crew was really motivated to go ‘bug hunting’. Most of the boys even put on war paint. See pictures at www.schoonerconchpearl.com . When we arrived at the site, Pelican Shoals, we were pleased to see that there were very few jellies and the visibility was great. The jellies were hated even though most of the crew had fashioned some sort of body armor from long sleeved and long legged clothing. Some were fortunate to have dive skins. They hopped in and headed to the shallows to do battle. These are spiny lobsters. They don’t have claws but have sharp points like rose thorns on their shells. The crew stayed at it for over two hours before breaking for lunch, bringing back 5 keepers. We can’t keep lobsters that are too small or are carrying eggs.
After lunch the crew voted to keep lobstering. We moved the boat to another site; one of the other captain’s secret sites. We didn’t see jellies so everyone hopped in. Surprise! There was a blanket layer of jellies at about 10 feet, very thick. We all swam out to the shallows but as we did the jellies also got shallower to the point where it would have been impossible to catch lobster without getting badly stung. Everyone came back to the boat. Again the vote was to keep lobstering so we moved back to the other side of Pelican Shoals. This time the catch was 4 keepers; enough for everyone to have at least half a tail.
We headed in for the evening. Since we were close to the dock Captain Denny decided that we would return there for the night to get a good night’s sleep with air conditioning and no anchor watch. On the way in we got what is called a Key West Bum Wash; we went through a very heavy rain storm.
Dinner was good, bratwurst and lobster, a weird kind of surf and turf.