Saturday 10 June 2017
A
Bass fishing tournament
Here we are all snug under cover. The local excitement today was a bass fishing tournament. The docking for weigh-in was conducted over
at the transient pier where we were moored the first night here. The bass fishing tournament director and his
crew roll into town with a big trailer with a fold-down stage where the
director conducts business at the end of fishing. There is a large parking and ramp area about
a mile from the marina where the boat are launched. Each boat is given a little float with a
number on it, and the boats are sent off in “flights of 25 or so boats and
given a time eight hours hence when they must present their float and have
their LIVE bass catch bagged in a special bag to be carried by the fisherman up
to the scales under a tent set up alongside the trailer. After being weighed, the fisherman walks back
to the pier with his bagged fish where the fish is released. After all the weigh-in is completed, the
director calls out the name of the putative winner, and the two of them walk
down to the pier for a thorough inspection of the boat to ensure it meets all
tournament equipment regulations and that no unauthorized equipment is aboard
which would give the fisherman and unfair advantage. The prize money depends on how many are
entered, 109 boats in this case – at $300 apiece entry fee.
If you do not own one of these 50-80 thousand dollar fishing machines but
want to be in the tournament, you can register as a “non-boater,” and you will
be assigned to a boat by lottery unless you preregistered some months ahead and
“link” to your boat-owner buddy. The
boat owner has control of your fishing while you are aboard, and call tell you
as a non-boater to sit down and not fish anytime.
So much regulation – sheesh. But
it was fascinating to watch and talk to the people involved.
Mary and I took the courtesy van into town to eat lunch at the Grill at
Jackson Square and for her to hunt up a couple of what turned out to be nonexistent
fabric shops.
Boat-wise, I measured out the lengths of 1/0 battery cable needed to
complete the battery charging modifications I will install using two ACRs. I came up with 40 feet total which I placed
on order with the marina manager. I also
fixed a couple of drawers which were trying to droop when pulled out due to
broken track guides. I found a couple of
new-in-the-package guides aboard which I used to repair the situation.
The generator starter solenoid was bit of a challenge to the marina manager
to find, but it is on its way from Florida.
The exhaust manifold gaskets should be here in a couple of days. The generator should go back together in a
couple of hours once all the parts are here.
Tomorrow will be a mostly waiting day unless I can find some more stuff
to do aboard Pathfinder.
The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, our reference point, is now not
expected to go below 20 feet above the zero gauge level until 27 June. It is approximately 6 steaming days to Green
Turtle Bay (one steaming day from the Big Muddy) where we have planned to wait
on the river to come down; so even if we completed all repairs tomorrow and
left the next day on the 12th, we’d be sitting at GTB for over a
week.
