[CAGE RATTLER]

My morning turkey day fishing trip wasnt a pleasant one.

Left the dock around 7:30 by myself and the fog was the worst i had ever seen. Heading out of back River i coulnt see either shoreline but just kept an eye on th GPS. Didnt get much better after going through the cut either.

Got near the brewerton channel and planned to fish the channel edges but was nervous about any barges or ships. When i got there, someone on a trophy popped out of the fog doing some trolling. He was only about 100 yards away before i seen him come out of the fog.

I decided to just jig around the edges where i saw some good marks. that way i could keep a close eye out on any incoming traffic. Started hearing a fog horn but couldnt make out which direction it was coming from till i finally saw a huge dark thing coming out of the fog towards me. I decided to leave the engine running just in case and was able to move out of the channel before a huge ship got to close.

Visibility got a lil better around 10 so i put out a 4 rod spread to troll the edges since i wasnt picking anything up jigging. trolled for about 1.5 hours and picked up 1 20"er and lost another half way in.

Started hearing a slight squeal from the engine compartment and noticed some water leaking around my engine mounted sea water cooling pump. the water was getting on the belt and figured the seal was leaking making the belt squeal a bit.

Decided i better call it a day and brought the lines in and stored my gear. I had shut the engine off and when i went to start it, it squealed even louder. Shut it back down and noticed the belt tension was a bit loose so i broke out the tools to tighten it up. Semed to work and i started heading in but after about a mile it started squealing again.

Decided to limp in and the sqeal had subsided so was able to pick up the speed a little. I was already late for dinner by this time and i was hungry.
got about 1.5 miles from the marina and sea water pump locked up and i had to shut it down. I was dead in the water, late for dinner but luckily i was drifting straight for the Key Yaht club pier. Did a lilttle paddling which is no easy task on the 26 foot boat with a 10 foot beam but got her in and tied up at the end of the pier.

no one at the yaht club but i left a message on the answering machine to let them know what the deal was. after a quick check, noticed the the pulley shaft was wobbling around pretty bad so this pump is shot now. water was leaking in pretty good but my bilge pump can handle it and luckily there was a shore power hookup where i tied up so my on board charger will keep the batteries charged.

left and went and had a nice turkey dinner and tried to forget about the boat problems. Stopped back to check on the boat afterwards and the winds were above 20 knots and she was banging the pilings pretty good. wind was so strong i was afraid i was going to get blown off the pier. Great night to leave my boat unattended. Im used to a floating pier at my marina and was worried all night about what i might find in the morning.

just got off the phone with my marina and they are going to to tow me back to my slip shortly. Im heading to check on the boat now, hoping it survived the night. Fingers crossed!!!