Well the plan was to take a few hours to get myself, wife Kristy and Jack (now 2+) out to catch some sea bass since Jack has been asking for the boat and fishing since I splashed the Kristy Marie. We only had a very limited amount of time after I finished up my PM shift this AM, got the bigger kids to school and return to get them from the bus. Well those plans got ruined pretty quickly because of an accident on the turnpike!
We decided to still head down to make sure all was good with the recent rains. We untied the Kristy Marie and went for a cruise to the inlet and poked our head out front. Conditions were good for my liking with about one-mile visibility in fog. Knowing the wife wouldn't put up with the fog for long I decided to let her drag bait about a mile outside of the inlet while I harassed a bunker school. Neither tactic worked but, I expected that. Very quickly the fog deteriorated to about 1/4 mile or less and I could tell she had enough with me monitoring the radar and newly connected AIS so, we activated the hailer, used the radar/AID and made our way slowly back to the inlet.
I tell you what, I really like the new AIS/radio/hailer! Having it connected to my GPS gives you some tremendous information which increases safety in low-visibility situations and will certainly have a benefit with fishing intel. Although we got screwed with our plans it was still nice to get out and even better to have fresh practical experience with my safety equipment.