This past weekend I was out on Lil Provo for two days. Sunday was a nice day and it was my first mates first day to take the helm. I wanted to give him a chance to learn more about sailing the boat. We headed for the Verrazanno Bridge in New York with a light wind. I tried to teach him how to find the best direction with the wind. After a while he caught on and off we were, cruising about three knots. We made it into the NY waters and turned around to head back. I was trolling a bucktail behind the boat as we sailed back from New York and suddenly the pole bent in half. I grabbed the pole and felt a heavy load on the pole, but it felt like dead weight. As I pulled it a little more I felt the fish on the other end shaking it's head. The first mate (Blue) grabbed the net and was ready for whatever I brought back to the boat. As it got closer I saw something, I thought is was a large ray. As I got it closer I could see that it was a nice size Flounder (Fluke here in NJ). Blue netted it up and brought it into the cockpit where I placed it in a bucket to take home and clean. It was 19-1/2" and weighed almost 3-1/2 pounds. This totally amazed me as Fluke feed on the bottom and will come off the bottom a little ways to get something, but to catch one trolling totally amazed me.
On Monday, my wife and I went out for a sail. We started around 11:00am and there was no wind, so we traveled by motor to Staten Island and found some wind there. I had to keep the bimini up due to the sun and heat. We were miles from shore and the sea was very calm, it was a nice mellow sail. The bimini does a great job of hiding you from the heat. We sailed for a few hours and headed back to the harbor.
Labor weekend is coming. We expect to be sailing a lot, provide hurricane Earl leaves us alone.
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