AN AFTERNOON ON THE WATER.....

 We are definitely down at Tannum the wrong week for the tides.  This week we are experiencing Neap tides which they not a lot of difference between the low and high tide, which means they are high lows and low high tides.  This means our window of getting out on the water is greatly reduced with us only have about a three hour window of being out on the water...

The weather also wasn't the best today, with light rain all morning and very still conditions which means the sandflies were out in force.  We spent the morning relaxing in the van.  I managed to catch up on some DuoLingo and Steve did some You Tubing looking at some DIY sites...

We also had a call from my second cousin who had visited us the previous day to see if we would come and join them for dinner that night.  It is ten years since we have seen them, so we had lots to catch up on..

The high tide wasn't until 2.30pm and as we had to be out for dinner by 5.30pm, we decided to we would just check the crab pots this afternoon and leave the fishing until tomorrow.  Today's tide would be the lowest of the tides whilst we are here, as of tomorrow the tides will be building up for the full moon over Easter...

We hitched up around 2pm to head down to the boat ramp.

Ready to head out to check the pots

We are enjoying being out on the water together.  It is definitely a lot more comfortable out on the water in this boat.  Having a comfortable seat is a lot better for my back... At least I don't have the thump thump thump on the water as we head out these days.  Although, the down side is that this boat is a lot bigger than our punt which means that it is a lot harder getting up the creeks to drop crab pots.  Steve is quite keen to keen two boats these days, the smaller punt for crabbing and his new big boat for fishing..

Enjoying being out on the water together..

The water was still a little shallow, so we had to carefully navigating around the sandbanks.  Whilst wTe were heading out we got a face time call from Peter and the boys from Denmark.  Theo was quite fascinated to see us in the boat and we were keen to hopefully show him a crab. 

We spied a couple of bin chickens in the mangroves... first time we have seen them up here...

We got to the first crab pot and we were able to show Theo exactly how Poppy uses a gaffe hook to find the rope to pull in the first crab pot...  He finds this sort of thing fascinating and always has questions.  I love this about him...

In comes the first crab pot and we have a crab... Not a keeper but at least we are able to show it to Theo and tell him all about it.  This one was a ginny, so we were able to show him how to tell if it was a female or male crab and Steve also pointed out the sack of eggs to him before we threw it back into the water...

Emptying the crab pot into his live tank. 

As the bait was still pretty fresh and we didn't have much crab pot bait, we decided to just re use what we had.  Theo got to watch Steve threw the pot back into the water.  We talked him through the process and he was very interested.

Steve then got his his crab measurer out to show Theo how we measure crabs to see if they are big enough to keep.  We were able to tell him that this one would have been big enough to keep, but because it was a female crab we were not allowed to keep it so therefore would have to throw it back into the water.  We also caught a cod fish in the crab pot as well, and this also had to be thrown back into the water, but not before we were able to show Theo the fish also..

Poppy showing Theo how to measure the crab..

We caught Blue Swimmer crab, otherwise known as a sand crab..

Once we showed Theo the fish and crab, they were turfed back into the ocean to grow a little bigger...

Heading up stream to check out the next pot.

It wasn't long after this that Pete had to go, so with Crabbing Lesson No 1 compete, we said goodbye to our family on the other side of the world and headed off to check on the rest of the pots...

Sadly there were no more crabs in any of the pots...

Straight back to the boat ramp, as we had to get ready to go out for dinner...

fun times together out on the water...

By the time we got back to the boat ramp there were quite a few folk out fishing and walking their dogs...  We also had another boat follow us back to the ramp... We have been running into him each day as we head out... We decided to let him load his boat first as we knew that we would take a little time to do ours...

I usually wait in the boat whilst Steve goes up and brings the trailer down the ramp, and then he takes over and drives the boat onto the trailer.  a much easier way of doing it then winching it up like our other boats.  I seriously think he loves this best about this new boat...

A man and his toy...

   

And on he goes...

 

And it's on...

Securing it before dragging it up the boat ramp

Just got to tie it down now before heading back to the park..

Just before came down this year there was a sighting of a crocodile somewhere near Canoe Point, so there has been friendly reminders to watch when going near the water...  These signs are now painted at the boat ramp, which is a little scary, as you are often down on the water's edge when launching your boat.  I just make sure that I stay in the boat to the very last minute...

Croc Territory

Sadly there we no crabs today, but it was still nice to be out in the fresh air and on the water...

It was 4.30pm by the time we got back to the caravan park.  This didn't leave us much time to get ready to go out for dinner... We had been invited to my second cousins house for dinner.  We arrived just after 5.30pm.  Dave and Alison have lived at Tannum Sands now for the past 12 years.  They have a gorgeous home that overlooks the water.  Dave is also a keen boatie and fisherman, and he was happy to show Steve over his boat, whilst Alison and I headed upstairs to check on dinner...

We had a really lovely evening with them out on their front deck, catching up on all the relative news.  We definitely need to catch up with them more often...