It Only Took 31 Years, 3 Months, and 16 Days
Boynton Beach, FL - March 12th & 13th, 2005

I was born in November 1973. My parents lived on a small yacht moored in Clinton Harbor, CT for the first few years of my life. My grandfather was Commodore of the New Haven Yacht Club. My father is a career yacht captain. My stepfather owned a 23ft fishing boat for 10 years. Needless to say, I've been around boats, the ocean, and fishing for the majority of my life. It's no wonder that one of my dreams was to have a boat of my own someday.

A single purchase I made in 1995 placed me in a position to make that dream come true 10 years later. Thanks to the rapid increase in Boca Raton's property values, the 2 bedroom condo that I bought is now worth almost triple what I paid for it. I was faced with 2 major financial choices: 1. Sell for profit and put a down payment on a small house with a garage, or 2. Keep the condo and use it's equity. The problem with option 1 is that I wouldn't be able to stay near my home town, mostly due to the high property values and subsequent taxes. So, I decided to buy a boat instead.

The seed was planted about 6 months ago. I was really getting involved in fishing again, but the limitations of shoreline fishing kept me from going after some of my favorite species: Mahi Mahi, Kingfish, Wahoo, Tuna, and other reef and bluewater beasts. I started researching different boat manufacturers and wading thru the endless numbers of used boats online and in Trader booklets. Although I could buy a decent used boat at a bargain price, I've heard too many horror stories of defects, damage, and massive repair costs. Although more expensive, I began looking toward new boats and engines primarily for the warranties. I eventually narrowed my search to boats in the 19-23ft range. A little more searching focused my attention on a 21ft center console made by Sailfish Boats of Cairo, GA.

Despite it's relatively small size, it's a very offshore-capable boat. It's deep-vee hull does an excellent job of smoothing out what would normally be a jarring ride when cruising in moderate to rough seas. The trade-off is that it tends to rock-n-roll a bit more while drifting or trolling. There are a surprising number of built-in features for a 21-footer. A large walk-in center console offers a place to use a porta-potty, or store a massive amount of gear. (I choose to use it's storage capacity.) 19 useable rod holders and storage for 6 more rods in the gunwales. A pair of 5ft insulated fish or storage boxes in the bow. Raw and fresh water pumps. Transom mounted, powered, 25 gallon livewell. T-Top with life jacket storage. Leaning post with storage. Flush mounted pop-up cleats and bow light. Low profile bow rail, and a wide 8-1/2ft beam. It feels much bigger than its 21ft. Wanting dependability and functionality, I chose to go with a Yamaha 4-Storke 150hp outboard engine and advanced Raymarine electronics. After 2 days behind the wheel, I'm very happy with my choice of boat and options.

Day 1: Saturday

My orginal plan was to dock my new boat at my long-time friend Sly's house, just off the intracoastal in northern Boca Raton. The location is close to my home and the dockage would be cheap. I picked up my new boat from the dealer in Lake Worth and cruised south down the ICW with my good friend Chuck on "Uncle Buck's" maiden voyage. About an hour and a half later, we arrived at Sly's dock. It didn't take long to determine that it would be extremely hazardous to leave the boat there. Being a "wake" zone, the convergence waves coming into the canal would have destroyed my new boat in a matter of hours, or less. After about 20 minutes of fending the hull off the dock while trying to make phone calls, it was obvious that it would be much safer to untie and get away from the abusive situation.

We kept heading south while making phone calls. I found out that a former neighbor was launching his 27ft Wellcraft from a launch ramp that we were approaching. I docked at Silver Palm Park for about 30 minutes to say "hi" as he was loading his boat. Our phone calls revealed no dockage solutions. Chuck and I determined that the only safe place I would be able to keep my boat short-term would be a marina. The closest public marinas were a few more miles south in Deerfield Beach. We were hungry too, so that's where we headed.

As we came upon Boca Inlet, I decided to see how my new boat handled the predicted 2-3ft seas. So, we headed out to sea. Uncle Buck behaved beautifully. The manufacturer's claims of a "soft and dry" ride were true. Heading north, we slowed to trolling speeds and tossed a pair of ballyhoo out. I wasn't really expecting to hook anything, but I bought this boat for fishing, so that's what I was doing! It would have been great to hook into a sailfish on my first day as a Sailfish Boats owner, but nothing hit.

A few more phone calls later, and I finally made the decision to bring the boat to a dry rack stroage marina in Boynton Beach. It was the same marina that I had known from when my stepfather had his boat. It was where I eventually wanted to keep my boat anyway. The rates are expensive, but the service, safety, and convenience far outweigh the wear and tear of leaving a boat in the water, tied to a dock. We reeled in the trolling rigs just before reaching Boynton Inlet. Chuck had brought out a bottle of champagne with the intention of Christening "Uncle Buck", but there was a lack of solid metal to safely smash the bottle on. So, we simply snapped a photo instead. We'll officially Christen the boat at a later date.

By 4:30pm, we were up on the washdown rack outside Palm Beach Yacht Center's main storage barn. Chuck's stepdaughter picked us up and drove us back to my car, which I had left at Sly's house earlier that day. Even though there was a fair amount of stress associated with the dockage dilema, by the end of the day I could finally relax knowing that I was now a proud boat owner. Finally!

Day 2: Sunday

I was pretty tired from my first day out on the water. I had plans to take 2 of my friends fishing on Sunday, but not too early in the morning. The weather was cool at night, so I had my windows open. I nearly jumped out of bed when I heard a loud "CHHHHH!!!!" ... What the hell was that?! I looked out my window and saw a low-flying hot air balloon drifting directly towards my condo. Whoa! I grabbed my digital camera and fired off a few shots as the balloon slowly passed over, and landed in a field a few hundred yards to the east. That was certainly an interesting way to wake up.

I picked up Tito and Sly and headed north to Palm Beach Yacht Center. We got the boat loaded and were cruising out the Boynton Inlet by 10:30am. On our way out, a few miles northeast of the inlet, we saw this crazy little helicopter buzzing by some of the other boats we were heading toward. Not long after, I noticed that the chopper was roaring up along our starboard side. What I thought might be a law enforcement or Coast Guard chopper turned out to be from BoatPix.com. There were large letters printed on the pontoons that advertised this fact. It was a good thing I waved as it passed by, because they were taking photos of us!

I slowed down to idle speed and rigged up a few rods for us to use for bottom fishing. I determined that the west wind was blowing us offshore, so we headed in to shallower water to drift out. I made one very important statement before we dropped our lines. "I don't care who hooks it... but I bring the first fish aboard my new boat." Tito was the first to get a hook-up and he kindly passed the rod over to me. It wasn't too much of a fighter, so I figured it would be a snapper, blue runner, or some sort of typical reef fish. Wrong. At first glance I thought it might actually be a cobia! But no... it was a large remora. An interesting "first fish", and one that I hadn't expected, but nonetheless it was the fisrt fish caught from Uncle Buck. I wanted to let it stick to the hull for a laugh, but it jumped off the hook before I could get a good grip. Tito did manage to snap a pair of photos for proof.

A few drifts later, we only had one other fish, a 2lb blue runner, in the boat. That sucker was the first bait ever in the livewell. I decided to go look for some shallow reefs, so we headed toward shore until we were in about 30 feet of water. Heading south, Tito spotted a pod of dolphin. (Porpoise, not the mahi mahi.) A very large pod, in fact. Probably close to 60 of 'em! I slowed the boat and turned toward the pod to get a closer look. Apparently, they wanted a closer look too, because they swam right up to and under us! While Tito and Sly were freaking-out with excitement, I said "watch, I'll get 'em to play with us." I trimmed the engine up a bit and sped up to just before planning the hull. This created a huge wake at about 15 mph. Sure enough, the dolphins joined us and started to surf our wake and play chicken with the bow. It was an amazing experience having all these wild dolphin around us. I changed things up a bit, making hard turns, slowing down, and speeding up. The dolphins seemed to be having a good time too.

After toying with the dolphins for about 15 minutes, we headed over to the reefs just outside of Boynton Inlet. A few drifts here produced another big blue runner for the livewell. I had already used the 1st runner for bait, but it seems that the hook pulled. We were nearly out of the limited amount of bait I brought. Tito and Sly had reeled up their lines, but I still had the 2nd blue runner out. I was taking a break and just enjoying the atmosphere when the drag started singing on my 4/0 Penn Senator reel. Fish on!

I set the hook. The 30lb Ande mono started ripping off the reel. A rythmic thump, thump, thump confirmed that this was no piece of real estate. I slowly started tightening the drag to stop the fish from taking all my line. It didn't help. After about 5 minutes, I told Tito to get behind the helm so we could chase this beast. We finally caught up to the east-bound fish. With the line nearly straight down in 70 feet of water, I tightened the drag even more to try to convince the big fish at the other end to surface. It didn't work. It just kept cruising steadily into deeper water.

Another 10 minutes went by. I tightened the drag as much as I possibly could to keep this fish from going past 100 feet. It still didn't work. This beast was making a fool out of me and my 4/0 Penn gear. It kept taking line as if I were free-spooling. After a total of about 30 minutes, the line went slack. Damn. I cranked up the line to find my hook still attached. It simply pulled out of the fish. I quietly put the rod in its holder, and began stowing gear for the ride back to the marina.

Upon closer inspection, I determined the fish (most likely a big Bull or Lemon shark) to be at least 8-1/2 feet, and probably over 400 lbs. The leader's abrasion was 7-1/2 feet, from the hook to the start of smooth line. That's a big friggin' fish. Now that I know I could be battling with big fish like that while reef fishing, I just may get myself a heavy rod and reel capable of hauling up these monsters.

So, that's the first weekend of adventure on Uncle Buck. This upcoming weekend's weather predicts much of the same conditions. Perfect for near- and offshore fishing. Don't call me during the day. I probably won't answer! haha

-->Capt. Bill Buckley

parrothead1973@mac.com

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