Woke up early on friday morning as we are still getting into this west coast timezone change.  Decided to meander around the pacific beach neighborhood since we got in so late on Thursday.  It seems to be a nice neighborhood with a large accumulation of bars and tattoo parlors on one street.  Nice and quiet walking around at 9am.  Grabbed a tasty breakfast sandwich near crystal pier (hold the bacon, extra avocado).  Located a nice grocery store and stocked up on some items to make meals back at the condo instead of eating out a lot.

Got back to the condo and served up some snacks and a glass of wine for lunch.  A couple beach cruisers came with the condo, so we took off on them towards la jolla cove.  Its a very nice area of san diego between PB and LJ, quiet neighborhoods overlooking a few beaches and cliffs.  Parked the bikes when we got to the cove and explored further by foot.  Chatted with a lifeguard down near the childrens pool, which is a beach area where snorkelers and divers can get into the ocean.  The area around the cove is a marine sanctuary so no boats, fishing or spearing are allowed.  He mentioned a few places to check out during our stay in the area.  Walked up to the top of the hill to grab a frosty beverage at an overlook restaurant before our ride back to PB.  Quite a ritzy neighborhood.  Lots of birds and seals hanging out on the rocky shoreline, but the bird dookie leads to some gagging smells up above with an onshore breeze.

Leisurely ride back to pacific beach, just in time to make it over to rent a couple surfboards for a few days.  Lots of surfers in the water, so we joined em for about an hour trying to pick off some leftovers from the locals.  Hard to beat sunset surfing on the west coast.  Caught a few nice lefts to get back into the surf rhythm.

Chatted with some new England folks back in the hot tub before showering up.  Met up with a friend at a nearby bar, enjoyed some tasty brews and food, then called it a night around 11 since we’re planning to get up for an AM surf sesh.

Note: Californians appear to have acronyms for just about everything and say “the” in front of all numerical roads.  “Take the 405 to the 5, get off on garnett avv and urr in PB”

Beautiful view this morning just outside our condo in pacific beach.
  Exploring the area today and looking forward to some possible surfing.

Was riding my bike on a florida beach on a beautiful sunny afternoon and now we’re enjoying a rare meat meal on the west coast.

last time we ate here was our honeymoon in 2006

Had a smooth, direct flight on virgin america; great airline if u ever fly out to the west coast or nyc.

Made it back safely to cocoa beach on Saturday afternoon, just in time to watch the rest of the horrible Florida Georgia football game.  Enjoyed another great seafood dinner with the family.

Woke up Sunday to chilly weather!  When we left in mid September it was still summer, but the season has definitely changed.  After a quick search thru my clothes, remembered that i had donated all my pants when we left town back in july.  None of them fit anymore after shedding pounds when we started the pescatarian diet and regular running earlier this year.  But cooler weather was much nicer for a 5k run that morning.

Slater brothers had a surf contest goin on down at the beach, so we enjoyed a tasty brunch at Roberto’s cafe then walked over to watch some action.  Waves were huge and clean!  Hurricane Sandy pumped in some double overhead waves and an offshore breeze for about the best east coast surfing conditions I’ve ever seen.

Loaded up the truck once again on monday morning to bring back our friend’s boat and gear to Jacksonville.  Safely returned the boat and voted that afternoon.  Crazy to have 4 pages on a ballot.  Got together with some friends for another great seafood dinner and spent the night in Jax.

Got up early on Tuesday to knock out some errands and see some family, then back down to cocoa beach.  Got fitted for new running shoes, so looking forward to trying them out in the morning.

Couple days remaining in cocoa beach, then we fly out on Thursday to LA.  Gonna spend 5 days in San Diego (aka. whale’s hoohaa for Ron Burgundy fans) before we depart to NEW ZEALAND for a month in a camper van!  Both really excited about this trip!

Our time in the florida keys has come to an end.  We had a spectacular time here the last 6 weeks; great weather, great fishing and lobstering and we got to share our time here with some special friends and family.

Loaded up most our stuff in the truck and boat yesterday with the final packing this morning including our bounty of seafood.  Headed back to cocoa beach!

lots of goodies to share with folks

Beverly hillbillies style

wind is still blowing... feel bad for folks only down for the week

Forecast for our entire last week didn’t look good for boating as the winds were to be 20+ knots, so we’ve been doing some other activities.

Sunday – We undertook a biathlon: leisurely bike ride down to the seven mile bridge, then walk/ran the 2-mile portion of the old seven mile bridge. Much easier heading down to the bridge, rather than running/riding back into the really gusty winds. Along the way back on the bridge, we came across a couple who were asked to look around for a diver that hadn’t come back from diving the pilings. A man on a boat was frantically driving back and forth trying to locate the diver. He had called the coast guard in the meantime and in about 5-10 minutes the entire fleet showed up including coast guard, homeland security and marathon sheriff. Luckily, the coast guard immediately spotted the diver near a bridge piling further down where we were not looking. Turned out to be a safe ending!  Rode back to the house with a severe leg workout against the 20 knot winds, then endured some relaxation the rest of the day watching football and some movies.

Three departments on the scene for a missing diver near 7 mile bridge

Jalapeno’s been enjoying R&R here in the Keys too!

Monday– The forecast was right and the strong NE winds continued. Made some calls around town about getting the boat serviced/detailed, then I drove it over to the bayside to the boat ramp. Cindy drove over with the truck and trailer. We took the time to give her a trailer loading lesson, since it was a ghost town at the boat ramp due to the winds. She was able to back it down after a few tries, load the boat and pull it back up to street level. Success! Dropped the boat over at the marina, then decided we’d give the kayaks a try as we could likely stay in the lee of the island. Peddled over to Vaca Cut, caught some bait and tried fishing to no avail. Enjoyed a nice peddle back at sunset going downwind.

Stacked up real good near Vaca Cut on my last boat ride in the Keys for 2012

Tuesday – Woke up and took care of some bookwork stuff, still gotta pay bills and what not 🙂 Around 11, we decided to go for our normal 5k run up the road a bit. We had nothing else planned for the day, so we just kept on running east. They have a nice bike trail almost the entire length of Marathon. Ended up going about 6.5 miles to Grassy Key before turning back around.  About 3 hours later we arrived back at the house and ended up doing a walk/run half marathon! Our bodies would pay for that the rest of the day and the next couple days, so we took the rest of the afternoon off and got to bed early for our early morning adventure on Wednesday.

It would’ve been nice to have another few days on the boat this week, but actually works out good to have some free time to explore other things and get some planning done for our next adventure which is approaching quickly, NEW ZEALAND!

Saturday was forecasted to be the last day of good weather with light winds so we loaded up the boat with multiple types of gear, depending what we would find out towards the reef line. Said our goodbyes to Steve, who was headed out around noon to head back north, then departed out into the ocean.
Lot more boats out on the reef line for the weekend, so finding an empty marked spot was difficult. Didn’t have much luck in about 50 feet of water, so we picked up anchor and drove out into the deep blue to see what was happening. Came across a nice scattered weed line in about 350 feet of water, which is still in sight of land. Put out a couple lures around 1pm and started trolling easterly working our way thru the patches of weeds. I’ll let the video and pics be self-explanatory, but we had a GREAT day!

Mahi Fishing from Chris Schaul on Vimeo.

My lil lady with her big bull dolphin

Capitan con dos pesces por la cena

Another great dinner waterside, eating our cobia and mahi at Lazy Days

Likely our last day out on the boat on this trip, as the wind is gonna blow the entire week, but hoping to get back out on the kayaks to find some sheltered areas to explore on some of the other keys.

The spectacular weather here continued on Thursday and Friday, so we took advantage of more activities on the boat. Thursday we cruised over by 7 bridge and the molasses keys to scope out some new lobster spots. Found about 5 keepers and some nice new spots in the first few hours. The high tide slack current started around 2pm, so we headed over to snorkel around the bridge pilings. Conditions were pretty good, so i snorkeled first while Cindy and Steve reeled in a couple mangrove snappers for dinner. Steve and I then snorkeled down the old bridge pilings while Cindy drive the boat to stay near as we found keeper lobsters. Ended up finding about 9 more to bring home. amazing how much sea life hangs out around the pilings, especially at slack tide. Along the way, saw a couple good size lion fish and speared one to bring home to try for dinner. A little dicey filleting them, but tasty white meat.

Friday was Steve’s last day on the boat with us. Snorkeling at sombrero reef was first up on the agenda. Water clarity ended up being great with the lights winds all week letting the Gulf Stream flow closer over the reef. Spent a couple hours exploring the area on snorkel and regulator, ate some lunch and then off to the reef line for some more yellow tailing. By this point in the day, all the wind had disappeared so got to be quite toasty on the boat in the afternoon sun. We put up the umbrella to get some shade and proceeded to do quite well again on fishing. Ended the afternoon with 9 yellow tails and a cobia reeled in by Steve, which was a nice surprise! Took the last couple hours to cruise out to around 600 feet of water and check for any Mahi or tuna. We didn’t come across much, but the ride offshore in glassy conditions was amazing.

Yellow tailing in the shade on a beautiful afternoon

Woke up early on Wednesday to a nice morning with light winds out of the east. Started packing up the boat for an offshore trip, and woke up the crew around 7:30am so we could make an 8:30 departure.
Headed south southwest about 28 miles to an area which was showing the possibility of weed lines. This is in about 900-1000 feet of water and right in the middle of the shipping lanes. Luckily the boat has an AIS-capable radio integrated with the GPS so you can see the heading of all large ships on the GPS screen which is helpful in staying out of their way.

Passed up a decent weed line about 10 miles out in 350-400 feet of water to continue towards our original destination. Luck would have it that we didn’t see much of anything else. Stopped near the destination and decided to head back to the original weed line rather than blind trolling, which is trolling without seeing birds, weed lines or some sort of indicator of fish. The ocean is one big-ass desert for the most part..

Started trolling back at the weed line and driving around the larger patches while trying to avoid fouling up our lures.  Didn’t take too long and FISH ON! Cindy was first up to bat on the jumping mahi and did a great job getting it boat side for a clean gaff shot and into the box.

Cindy’s first mahi in a long while

Reset the lures after a celebratory beverage and got back on the troll continuing to head up and down the line. Next fish we caught was while making a u-turn near the end of the weeds. FISH ON for Steve!

Got Steve up from a nap to reel in this one

Was getting to be about 1pm at this point, normally the time of day when trolling gets very slow. Best times are early in the day and late when the sun isn’t so bright overhead. So we trolled until about 1:30, then decided to try some bottom fishing instead. Lot of boats out on the reef for some reason, so a few of our spots were already occupied. Ended up anchoring in about 50 feet of water and dropped a chum bag over the side. Current wasn’t moving much = tough reef fishing conditions. Then the rain showers from offshore started moving nearer, so the group decided to pack it in and head back before the heavy rain started.

Nice to see some mahi again and looking forward to enjoying the new type of fish in our meals.

About to be mahi sandwiches