It Really Happened

To Saturday Centus .... April 27th a day of serious tornadoes assailed the Chattanooga, TN area beginning at 8 a.m. and finally ending by 9 p.m. Unlike so many loosing , literally, everything; lost power [thank goodness for generators] and comcast [phone, internet, tv]. Power was restored by Sunday and comcast took 2 weeks to get us back on line. I must say, having participated here only a few weeks, this challenge I missed most. So, hello ..... again and my 100 word offering of It Really Happened.

The air hung in riverlets against the skin as The Spindrift, a 22' Mako open sport fisherman, drifted in the flat, windless gulf stream. "Arrrr me maties" didn't stir a soul; after hours of trolling the broken weed lines, the only recourse was to head home. Changing the heading, she breezed through the deep blue. Only days before, the storm had brought the seas to 6' and 8" swells. Frigate birds wheeled and dropped. The ride had been a roller coaster into the feeding fish.

The first outrigger bowed and the pin snapped. "Fish on!!" Then almost at the same time the second outrigger bent relentlessly. "Fish ..... really, BIG FISH on!!!!" Oh my word .... Bulls ... 2 huge bull Dolphins ... 55 to 60 lbs each .... a boat load of schoolies [5 to 8 lbs] is one thing but BULLS. They can hurt you once in the boat .... and we have two!!!!

We had been sing/humming Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch; suddenly we broke into " Hush little baby don't you cry .................... " as we hurled ourselves onto the thrashing fish. The watch, we later found on the forward deck.