The trip planned for today has been postponed until the near future. Getting everything ready for a trip on the water is taking longer than expected. The basic boat setup can be super involved. Fishing, diving, and other essentials take a little bit of prepping before a good day on the water. It takes a major prep to start. After that, prepping becomes an ongoing thing, it’s an ongoing process of adjusting, readjusting, and maintaining. When done well, with the right pieces, the ongoing minor adjustment should be all you need for an extended amount of time.

One useful piece of boat equipment that was set up today was a good camera mount. The base of the tripod chopped right off so the tripod head could slide right off the legs. Now it fits into the rod holder and into the bow for interesting fixed camera angles.

The spears were also in need of some preparation. When swimming around out there in the ocean you often encounter unexpected things. You might spear a piece of hard metal on the bottom after an unexpected fish comes swooping by. Also common is shooting a piling. A hard fish head might also bend the tip of the spear. A simple grinding of the tip to make it sharp again is all you’ll need. One thing to keep in mind is that rust may come off your grinding tool, and with a bright shiny boat rust stains can be a real challenge to remove.

Despite using stainless steel spear tips on the end of a fiberglass pole, rust and corrosion is almost unavoidable. The marine environment is the most highly corrosive environments imaginable. Salt is highly acidic and will eat away at just about anything. A way to keep your spear-tip from corroding into one solid piece is to use oil when threading the tri tip to the metal fixture on the tip of the pole. This way your pole will be useful many years into the future.

Additional items you might need to ensure an effective day are a boat parking permit. Daily fees for a trailered boat only can be 5 dollars or more. The county offers a dual permit for boat ramps and beaches for 110 bucks.  Getting the ramp addition to the beach only (Sand Key) permit may be somewhat of a challenge, as you’ll need to contact the county directly for the addition.

You’ll also need a fishing license. If yours has expired 17$ should get you a renewed saltwater fishing permit, and you might also consider the snook or other tags that will legally allow you to take specific fish. Only a few types of fish require a special tag, tarpon and snook are two of the inshore species.

Your lucky if your at an age where you don’t need a “boating license”.  At one point adults were never required to get a boating license.  Today that is no longer the case.  If you were born after January 1, 1988 you’ll need to take an approved boating safety course, and obtain a boating safety education identification card (“boating license”).   It really isn’t much of an issue to be honest because most of it’s common sense, and there aren’t exactly dotted lines with lanes out there.  Isn’t that one of the best things about it?! The most important thing to keep in mind is that props are really dangerous.  It’s important that you stay a safe distance away from the prop as a swimmer, and a safe distance from swimmers as a boat driver. You’ll also want to ensure the boat is in neutral anytime anyone is even close to the prop.

The stoke level is still rising! It might take a little tweaking to get everything dialed in just right, but it looks like we’re so close!