The Gulf Of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by North America, Mexico and Cuba. The shape of the Gulf is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and at it's deepest point, the Sigsbee Deep, it is 14,383 ft deep. Most of the Gulf, 50%, is shallow shelf waters. The size of the Gulf is approximately 615,000 miles and is connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits and the Caribbean Sea through the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba. The Gulf contains a volume of roughly 660 quadrillion gallons of water and was formed around 300 million years ago during the Jurassic period. Due to its limited connection to the Atlantic ocean the tidal ranges are minimum.
We had a great time out on the Gulf yesterday. The Carters have brought their boat to Panama City and so the six of us loaded into the boat and headed out to the Gulf through St. Andrew's Pass. The Pass is always a trip in itself because you never know how rough it is going to be until you go through it. Yesterday is was not bad and I don't think anyone got wet. Usually, someone, ME, gets wet while going through the Pass; both coming and going. At least it is after I have put the sunblock on! We were on a mission to go fishin'. We put out our lines and started trolling in waters that were 75 to 85 ft deep. We are usually pretty lucky on catching King Fish. I got the first bite of the day and pulled in a small king fish. We decided not to keep it so Bob released it into the Gulf to grow up a little more. We then proceeded to practice what I like to call "the fishing patience". It is the time spent waiting for a bite and hoping something will hit the line. We did become pretty good at catching seaweed. There was a lot of seaweed in the water where we were fishing but that gave me the opportunity to practice my reeling in skills. During our 'patient' time the six of us, Bob, Robin, George, Lisa, Tim and I, solved all of the U.S. and World's problems and checked out each others trivia knowledge. Bob caught a fish as we decided to call it a day. He also caught a King fish that was a bit bigger than the one I caught. He threw it back in too. On our way into the pass we decided to see if we could see any of the dolphins that hang around Shell Island. We were lucky enough to find some and play with them. The two that stayed around our boat was a momma and her baby. Dolphins are amazing animals and even though they are big they seem so gentle around humans. These were especially tame dolphins. We were like little kids on the boat and so excited to see and play with the dolphins. I got some great pictures! We then headed back to the campsite. After dinner, we went down to the pier to check out the sunset and got to see motor air gliders flying over the coast. That had to be so cool sight from up there and is now something I will have to put on my bucket list. The sunset started out looking good but hit a cloud bank. We watched a fisherman catch a stingray, he was going to use it as shark bait, and then enjoyed a nice evening checking out what was happening on the pier and the beach. All in all, it was another great day and spending it with great friends even made it better!
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