We flew down Tuesday morning, into West Palm Beach, getting there around noon. It was sunny and 80. When you think Florida, you think pools and gorgeous women sunning themselves by the pool, right? Not in West Palm Beach. We were the youngest people by 40 years. No kidding.
We headed down to the Marina and checked out the fishing. 80 Degrees and no wind is great temperature for hanging out by the pool, but it stinks for deep sea fishing. We ended up pushing our fishing plans out to Friday and decided we'd head down to Key West instead.
We rented two convertibles, hopped in the car and hit the road with no plans or lodging in mind. It's about a 4 - 5 hour drive down to Key West and it's one of the prettiest drives I've ever seen. We stopped on the way down to look into Tarpin fishing. Tarpin fishing are these gigantic carp type fish that are supposed to be fun to catch, just not eat. At the marina, people were feeding these huge fish. They'd jump out of the water and take it from your hand, if you were dumb enough to let them. We to Key West in time for the sunset, which was awesome. To set the tone for Key West, as soon as pulled into Key West, we got out of our car to see the two women in the car next to us making out. About 30 minutes prior to sunset, everyone in town seems to migrate to the pier to watch it. My wife put us all under suspicion based on the fact that we rented convertibles, watched sunsets and headed to Key West together. This picture really says it all (Note the Hard Rock gift bags... Who still goes to a Hard Rock Cafe to buy t-shirts??)
We went bar hopping in Key West, hitting all of the famous spots, including The Hog's Breath Saloon, Sloppy Joe's and Captain Tony's. I'd always wanted to check out Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, but in real life, it's pretty disappointing. Talking to one of the bartenders at Captain Tony's, he explained that Jimmy Buffett owns the building and gets all of the revenue from the store, which makes a fortune, and just leases the space and franchise rights to the bar. The bar is more of a shrine to Jimmy Buffett - with lots of pictures, articles and music playing.
Captain Tony's was great. I'd heard of it by listening to Jimmy Buffet's songs. Apparently, it's one of the semi-local hangouts down there, a little off the beaten bath of the main Duvall Street area. At one point, Buffett actually helped Captain Tony run for Mayor, and he won. The next morning we got up, had breakfast and went to some of the landmarks, like the Southern-most point in the US, walked the streets and then headed back North to West Palm Beach.
On the way back, we stopped in Fort Lauderdale for dinner and to people-watch. We called it an early night with our fishing trip the next morning.
Here's what I learned about deep sea fishing - the better the weather, the worse the fishing. Based on that, Friday was set to be great. A big cold front had moved down from the north creating huge winds, cold weather and big waves. We went out into waves that were anywhere from 6 to 10 feet out a couple miles from shore. Even on a 60 foot boat, those are huge. When we'd be in the trough of a wave we weren't able to see over it at times. The pictures I took didn't capture how huge they were and how they threw the boat around. For the captain and first mate, I'm sure they weren't that bad, but for us, we were pretty sure this was the perfect storm. We'd have huge waves come crashing over the boat as we were fishing. In between fishing, we'd stare at the horizons and try not to throw up from sea-sickness. If I took my eyes off the horizons for a second, I felt like ralphing. From my last experience, I learned that once you break the seal, you're hosed for the rest of the trip, so I held it in and made it through the whole trip without chumming the waters.
We were out to catch sailfish, which are beautiful to see and a great fight. We each took turns as the fish would strike. Ted caught 2 Mahi Mahi, Brad caught a 45lb King Mackrel and Will and I each caught Sailfish. The Sailfish struck at the same time and Will and I were simultaneously fighting our fish. It took about 20 minutes of fighting to pull it in. I have the image locked in my brain forever of both Will and I's Sailfishes launching out of the water simultaneous as we fought them. We let the sailfish go, but brought the other fish back to eat. We grilled the Mahi Mahi that night and it was the best fish I've ever eaten. We brought the Mackrel back home with us for my neighbor to smoke for us. Apparently when they're that big, they only taste good smoked or grilled. We've got a lot of it. Let me know if you want any.
For our final night, the five of us ended up having to share a single room for the final night. We played poker to see who slept on the beds and who slept on the floor. I won for the pull-out bed. It was the worst night sleep I've ever had in my life. Will's snoring is unlike anything you've ever heard in your life. At one point I was just chucking stuff within reach at him to shut him up. At any given time, at least two guys were snoring to the point that you couldn't sleep through it. We got up, headed to the airport and I got back today at 3.
You can check out most of the trip pictures here. (Temporarily Down)
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