I took delivery on my new hauler this morning.  It's a beast and easy to drive.

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Headed to Elbow Cay and a week at my brother's beach house.  It's gonna take some time getting used to blue water at the beach again.

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at the local golf course lake on the drive home from the beach just after sunrise a couple of days ago  ..as previously posted on my FB page

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    Pics are working again and that old Grouper is now on puff number 9 million and counting.  I should have some time to tweak things a bit over the next few days.   Just to catch back up, Faith got her white coat (aka Dr. Weeks now), I ran 182 MPH down the runway at Victoria Regional Airport last month (legally) and I am working on getting a new RV to come take Howard down to fish with Snakeman before it gets too hot.  I may be a bit late on that one, but the ride down will make up for it.

    now at 2550

4456

Bob , Gary, Tom and I departed the Tampa area on 4/16, traveling to Miami for our annual fishing trip with legendary Capt. Bouncer Smith. This is, I believe the 10th or 11th year we have made this pilgrimage. After a little confusion upon arriving (I had made reservations at a motel down the street from the one we usually stay) we visited two of the largest tackle stores in Miami, Capt. Harry’s and Crook & Crook, both well worth a visit if you have never been there. We then proceeded to dinner at Havana Harry’s. If you like Cuban food and are ever in Miami, this is one of the BEST, yet unsung Cuban restaurants in South Florida. Returning to the motel, we retired for the evening. Bright and early we met for breakfast and then drove to Miami Beach Marina where we met Bouncer and his long time mate Abie. We took off in Bouncer’s Dusky, a 33′ Dusky center console, out Government CUT and into 15 MPH winds which produced a short 2-3′ chop. In spite of the short chop, it was a comfortable ride. The day before, Bouncer’s clients had caught 8 sailfish, a 50-60# wahoo and 2 dolphin along with several non-edible fish and we were expecting to continue this hot streak. But, alas, it was not to be. Bob was up first and caught a 15# blackfin tuna, not exactly a sail, but good eating. Second up was Tom, who did catch a sail. Gary was third up and put another blackfin in the box. Finally it was my turn and I managed a bonito. We all agreed that the bonito did not count as a fish or turn, so I reeled in the next fish, also a bonito. Tom caught the next fish, another tuna. I managed the next fish, a blackfin that broke me off   I then reeled in a barracuda, and a grand finally to end the day, a double header with Gary and myself, both of us reeling in some BIG Jack Cravelles. Though we were hoping for a lot more sailfish, and maybe a dolphin or three, the blackfin tuna steaks will make a fine substitute. After returning to the motel and showering, we went to dinner at 94th Aero Squadron and had a fine Prime Rib dinner Gary elected a Crab Luis Salad instead, stating he had had the Prime Rib for several years before and could not finish it. He did not finish his salad either. Thursday morning we finished breakfast and drove home.

Tom's sailfish, his second

For those interested, Bouncer has a book being published in May depicting his many memories of his illustrious career

Friends,

Please accept my apologies for the time it has taken to get the board back up and running.

When it first broke, I tried reconfiguring it to work with the mandated security updates that caused the problem to begin with. As the version of vBulletin that we were on was very outdated, support was not available. I did what I could but after spending a good deal of time and realizing much more was probably needed, I came up with a new plan... reassembling everything in a "Docker" container with the older operating system and software configuration. That turned out to be a frustrating endeavor just getting all the components setup and working together, and then finding that Docker just would not work with the older configuration no matter how much I tried to find a workaround.

So I tried new forum software, but had trouble importing from our old system. The new vBulletin does not get very good reviews, so I was trying other systems. Finally, I found this one, and over the holiday weekend was able to finish importing SOME of our threads and attachments. I'm going to keep trying, and hopefully will be able to import many more historical posts and pics.

I am hopeful that you will like this new forum software. It is actively developed and should hold up well going into the future. Please let me know what you think and how it should be tweaked and improved. Your accounts and passwords should all be working as they were in the old system - let me know if you have any issues.

For those who are tech curious, here are some details I can share:

We are on the latest and greatest of everything now - hardware and software. The server is a 28 core Xeon with 256GB of RAM on a 2 gigabit connection. It is one of hundreds that I have setup and manage for companies in the financial industry. I put us in the coveted Equinix NY4 location, which is actually in Secaucus, New Jersey. I have a 24/7 direct Skype connection with the hands in the datacenter.

I'm looking forward to hearing what y'all have been up to!

Enjoy the day. And fish ever on:

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For those interested, here's the video of Roy Cronacher's swordfish caught on fly. Only the 3rd time in the US it's been done. Roy is well on his way to a Royal Slam of billfish on fly. My son is the Captain in the blue shirt. This was the result of 21 trips over 2 years to learn, and refine the technique for this fish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw5PROoLzn8