Yes, yes, yes, finally sat down to finish the SGI trip.  Writing about it means acknowledging the trip was over – which it is.  But………………there was a great ending.  Yep, you’ve got to wait until you reach the bottom of this post.

Earlier during the trip, I mentioned we had rainy weather, which gave us the opportunity to drive into Apalach.  Another day it was really windy (and I mean really windy) and not the best to get on the water.  You can’t be on the island without throwing out a line.  Rich threw some casts from our dock.

Rich fished while I sat on their wooden swing on their dock – loved that swing.  Several days I napped out here in the afternoon.  I want a swing……..

So you think, wait, that water looks calm, what’s the deal.  Our rental was near the back of a finger canal and we had plenty of protection from the gusts.  Hence the deceptive calm waters – not so much out in the bay.

The wind seemed to lessen late afternoon (at least enough for 2 brave souls).  Rich and Connor took a chance and fished from the protection of the SGI bridge island.  The ride back was something that I would have not wanted.  If I had been on the boat, that ride could have possibly been my last.  At least it had some payoff……..Gaft-top Sail cats, delicious but lots and lots of ‘snot’ along the outside for protection.  Another (very) appropriate name………..snot cats.

You’ve got to be careful with handling these fish, before and after you get them to the boat.  They have barbs on their fins which are poisonous and you need to be careful with any subsequent cuts on your hands when handling them.

 

I felt it was only fair to include a photo of Rich fileting his catch.  On an earlier post he was in the background-looking on-while Eric did the work.

Let me jump to a new topic and share info about our neighbor.  One side there was an empty lot, no house but plenty of parking and a nice dock with two boats.  Turned out it was a local fishing captain’s meeting spot.  Our first day she walked over to introduce herself.  Yes, that is not a typo – Captain Krista.

As you can read in the photo above, she is a 5th generation fisherman.  She has at least 20 boat captains working for her to handle all of her booked fishing tours.  She has a great website (stgeorgeislandcharters.com).  Definitely check it out!  Her family has fished these waters since the 1800s and she continues her honoring Creek Indian heritage of living off the land.

I also want to give a shout-out to a new brewery we (and by that I really mean me) found – Eastpoint Beer Company. We drove right past it to get to SGI, but somehow missed the sign.

It has a great open-air location along US98 and out the back garage door, is the intercoastal waterway.  Eventually they will have boat dockage at a back pier.  There is lots of potential here.  With Oyster City Brewing being relatively near, we were told that several Tallahassee Beer Bus Tours have stopped by, which is always good for the brewing business.

They had good beers………………..

……and these really cool containers for their beer flights, resembling an oyster boat.

Jumping again……….close to our rental, I came across some interesting ‘yard art’.  Karen and I stopped to snap a few photos.  Trust me, they had waaaaaay more art.

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Another morning, Rich and I walked along the beach.  Sounds like a good plan and looks like it should be a good plan.

Nope.  Notice that storm in the background in the photo below?  We thought this guy was crazy for fishing when we first walked past him, until the storm got to us and we were soaked before getting to the car.  I don’t mean wet, I mean soaked, like you could ring water out of our clothes.  Guess the joke was on us.  But I did get a nice photo of the boardwalk over the sand dunes when we got to the car.

Friday morning we made one last trip on the water.  Fishing was tough, but I caught what turned out to be the biggest fish of the week.  Wait for it………… wait for it………yep, you’ve got to wait for the photo.  The photo below was our last group fishing photo.  Notice all of that safety protection: hats, fishing shades, rashguard/shirts and buffs.  ‘Safe-D’ begins with us.  Sorry – inside joke.  🙂

We finally got everyone to the beach our last night on the island.

While its sad to leave, everyone gathered on the dock around the swing for one last group photo (my favorite spot again) signaling our final morning together at the rental.

Okay, the time has come to share my photo. Yep, that fish is big.  We estimated this seatrout was 24″in length.

There’s no immediate trip on our horizon or a calendar date to return, but we can’t stay away for long.  We’ll be planning something soon.  This was a Great trip with great friends.

Ginny

 

And you would expect the story to end there.  Trust me, I wish it had.  We’re within 30 miles of home, still on the turnpike  and Eric says  ‘We have a problem with the boat/trailer.  The tire on the trailer is coming apart’.  Aaaarrrrggghhh.

We seem to have a history with fishing trips and boat/trailer incidents.  On a SGI trip last year, our boat trailer broke an axel within sight of a marina – pretty darn lucky.  This situaiton occurred  within a mile of a turnpike reststop – more luck.  We were able to pull off and find a decent place to swap tires with our spare – safe and shady!

He got the  new tire on, walked to wash his hands and who do we come across?  A boy scout troupe.  Eric joked with them and asked if they have a badge for changing tires.  The troupe master said yes.  They would have helped us and gotten a badge for ‘Auto Repair’.  Wish they had pulled in 20 minutes earlier.  Now, that’s the end of our SGI story.  🙂