Well, as some of you now know, I finally ended up getting a tinny (after a fair while of waiting).

Thar she is:

Well, as they say BOAT stands for Bring Out Another Thousand, and I've gone through that multiple times..... But at least I knew this coming in, and had planned for it. Especially all the 'optional' safety gear (EPIRB, VHF, offshore flares, sea rescue membership, backup battery). Anyways, constantly worry about money and you'll have no time for fun, so nevermind, off we go.

Woke up when still dark (and drizzly) on saturday and put the boat in the water. First time i've ever actually reversed a trailer but got it second go (albeit slowly).

Headed out to a snappery spot, but got there a little later than i'd have liked, and werent any fish there (except a wrasse that took a 7/0 circle).

Went to try some squid but friend was feeling a bit sea sick so had to head in. Dropped her back at home, then back to Hillarys for round 2:

No problems launching boat in water by myself, which was all good (again, hadnt dropped it in the water by myself before).

Headed out to a mates squid spot, but didnt have much luck. Tried some areas nearby and managed to get onto some good squid, so boat is now 'inked'.

Seems like a pretty good area and managed to land a few more squid including a beauty of about 25cm mantle length, and heavy as hell which i managed to snap some U/W shots of.

Picked up one or two more squid from the spot as well. Woulda got more squid if i'd been more attentive with the rods though (mucking around on the boat or the sounder/plotter). Looked up a few times to see both rods going off but too slow to get them before squid was off (might spool up one spool with mono perhaps...). Even had one jig come up with a squid tentacle chunk :p. Jigs were also weeding up a bit, so next time should get into a few more (as i get more organised with the boat.

Weather was nice, so decided to head outside the reefs. Picked a nice passage and headed out. Little bit of swell but no problems.

Managed to spot some nice ground on the way out though

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Once out, I headed for the inside of the three mile to see if I could find some whiting ground. Went over a school of fish on the way around, scrolled back, pressed mark, then drove over them, were still on the sounder, so scrolled back. Ok, they're are bearing 170, 15m back, and 5m deep, so I cast a rig out, let it sink, then two cranks and I was on. Unfortunately was just a wrasse, but at least the humminbird gave me some practice in case its some proper fish next time.

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Gave some areas a drift for more wrasse (marked on sounder as areas to avoid :p), and finally stumbled on some whiting ground. Got a few bites, but only managed one. No question I was on sand though. (not sure if that flare up is fish, or motor interference though)

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Didnt have much time, so had to head back to the ramp. Chucked the tuna skirts out but no luck (was only 10 min to the passage though). Very easy to put the boat on the trailer which was good. Only need to pull boat between rails, throw rope over bollard, then on trailer, very easy to pull boat up by hand, and even easier to winch. If i put the trailer in enough, I dont even need to hit the rollers and the boat floats above the first one and the rails square it up . Supposed to be drive on too, but didnt have a need for it.

Got checked by fisheries at the ramp though, who wanted to see catch and RFBL. Unfortunately didnt have my skippers ticket on me (easy to forget when its paper and on a desk of papers :p) and didnt come up in the system (too new) and same with my boat/trailer transfer costs (but at least the boat was in my name on the system :p). Was all ok, but delayed me a bit. Did manage to make it to a friends house with 2 min to spare though. Then out in the evening for another fish on his boat, but this is about a tinny, so moving on.

Plan was to hit Woodies and try a KG spot someone had given me. All hopes of getting there early were sidetracked by sleep and stopping by oceanside, but got the boat on the water by 11 :p.

Headed out to a sand whiting spot someone had given me, but mostly turned up blowies and only one sandy, so decided to hit the KG spot. Water was crystal clear and could see the bottom no problems. Had the perfect wind to drift too, but several drifts didnt produce any KG's unfortunately. Got some small skippy and small pinkie though.

Now, where's his daddy

Wind started to pick up slightly, so decided to head back (considering i was almost all the way to rotto :p). Figured, why not head down on the outside of carnac/GI instead of inside straight back to the ramp and try some sand whiting spots. Wasnt a lot of wind, but wasnt glassy either. Boat seemed to travel pretty well at 18 knots so stuck with that (would go up to about 24, but bit bumpy and motor felt less laboured at 18).

Dropped down on a whiting spot i'd fished with a friend (who'd given me the mark) and had bites straight away. Couple of drifts and i'd gotten a pretty good back of sandies for dinner. I think I drifted for something like 1nm and was getting bites the whole way, so its certainly a good area.

After that, sun was close to the horizon, so headed back in. Wind was up a bit more and getting a bit of spray, but not really much of a problem. During a periodic check behind me, I noticed there were small breakers either side of where I came through. Thought that was a bit odd as the chart plotter said all good (but you can still get breaks where you dont suspect looking at a chart), but turned out it was still showing start position not boat position, der. Though, of course, I had planned my trip through the gap on the plotter, lined up a mark and used that for directions, watched the water first, and of course kept a full eye out the whole time (back, front, sides), checked the depth and was going faster than the swell, so wasnt relying on my plotter anyways. Good thing I knew to not rely on a chartplotter beforehand, some lessons are always best learnt beforehand. Though, the swell wasnt big enough to worry anyways, but just serves as a reminder thats its good to go over proper procedure in your head first before heading out (which I did :p).

Tried a few drifts for squid and picked one or two up but was a little slow. Still, I had a good number of whiting in the esky, and there was still 5-6 squid between the two days, so headed back in at dusk to turn this:

into this

Managed to cover a fair few miles on both trips and get a feel for the boat and what to do, where to put stuff, etc, as well as getting a good feed, so a sucessful weekend out. Next time, get some KG's or tailor at one of the reefs (but not doing the later by myself or while theres any swell around...)

Now, whens the next weather window

Lessons learnt:

The motor steers better without the muffs on...

Put sea sickness tablets in first aid kit for deckies

Connecting nav light leads to positive terminal in a wet boat sucks, install some switches.

Dont leave knife on baitboard if you want to keep it on the baitboard :p