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Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2009
Mon17Aug2009

August 15-16, 2009

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Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2009 | August 17, 2009 | Print

Seas: 3-8 feet
Winds: 10-35 SSE
Temp: ?? F
Viz: ?? feet
Thanks to the system that would become TD4 this weekend in the Gulf of Mexico, the weather turned to crap mid morning Saturday and got progressively worse throughout the day and into the night. We did get one break in the weather around 3:30p and headed out to see how badly the viz had gotten. Drifting with the tide and with minimal viz of only about 8 feet we were actually still able to shoot a few hogs and pick up 5 bugs too in about an hour. By the time we headed back it was already after 5p so we started making plans for dinner. But this time, it wasn't about what we would make but where we would be dining.

After a short discussion we decided on the local restaurant Chappy's Steak and Seafood. Chappy's is a large Tiki Hut at the foot of the 7 Mile Bridge that is of course an open air restaurant (luckily they have roll down vinyl covers for the open sides of the restaurant). While we were there, one of the storm cells rolled through with winds that easily reached 35-40 mph and some very severe thunderstorms. So we dined and drank and waited out the storm until it was time to head back.

Sunday we woke to pretty skies, but very windy conditions. We took a ride in the boat to check out the water at some closer spots, but the storms that rolled through overnight stirred up the water pretty badly and the viz was no more than 1-2 feet at best. We did have one friend that has a larger boat and weathered the seas to go out for some lobster and he let us know that the seas were easily 6-8 feet with an occasional 10 footer. In spite of the heavy seas, he mentioned that the water at the reef was crystal clear. He held out for as long as he could before getting tired of being tossed around on the bottom and decided to head back in, calling it a day. It confirmed the fact that we should not have gone out today so at least we could take solace in that. Other than that, the weekend was pretty much a wash (at least for those of us that don't measure the success of the weekend by the restaurant we eat at).

Right now we have a couple of storms threatening out on the Atlantic (Ana and Bill) and we will just have to wait and see what track they take and if it will be worth trying to go out next weekend or not.

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