Happy Mothers Day everyone! I’ll be Zooming with my mom, my dad, and our kids tonight to celebrate. Zoom celebrations have become the new get-together for my family during the pandemic. Since we’re living on a boat now and almost always moving to a new location, my parents are elderly and live in Brooklyn, New York, and our kids live in Utah and Pennsylvania, in some ways this new normal is better than in pre-Covid-19 times. We all get to see each other, whereas in the past we’d be on the phone and not all on the same call. Thank goodness for the little improvements!

Life aboard a 38′ catamaran sounds plenty exotic, but life aboard during lockdown hasn’t been much more exciting than if we were still living on land. We do get off the boat regularly to exercise, do laundry and go shopping. But mostly we’re inside like everyone else on land.

After a particularly long few weeks aboard, we took our new dinghy (small tender we use to go to land when the big boat is at anchor) out for a spin. We were staying in the Jacksonville, Florida area and other than takeout food, everything in the area was still closed at the time (I think the state has since begun to reopen, for better or worse). The marina we were docked at was located near the inlet to the ocean and on a large bay, so we decided to use the Florida fishing licenses we’d bought and the bait sitting in the freezer and try fishing.

First let me say that, although I like to fish, I’m not very good and rarely catch anything. My rod and reel cost about $20 on Amazon and are kid-sized. Still, after about an hour and a few small bites, I finally hooked a fish. Or so I thought…

The line on a crappy pole like mine is maybe 10 lbs, meaning that anything heavier is likely to snap the line. So reeling in a fish I thought was 20+ lbs on this little line wasn’t easy. When I finally managed to pull it it closer to the

boat so my husband could help, I realized it wasn’t a fish at all, but a juvenile hammerhead shark!!! Scared the crap out of me!

We took some photos, of course, then we let him go and he happily swam away. A few days later, when we took the boat out again, Bob snagged a smaller hammerhead. We released it as well. No eating fish at all for us. Good thing we don’t have to catch our supper!

We learned later that the bay is a safe harbor for juvenile sharks, who are subject to being eaten by their elders. The one I caught was at least 3 feet long and 30+ lbs. Bob’s was a bit smaller. They are beautiful animals, and I’m so glad to have had the chance to see one (a SMALL one) up close.

We’re now in South Carolina and making our way up to North Carolina, where we hope to see some friends (probably with masks and at a distance). We’re headed to the Chesapeake Bay to have some work done on the boat before heading to New York City in August (hopefully). We’ll be stopping in Wilmington, North Carolina in mid-May, which coincidentally, is also the release day for my new Coastal Carolina series book, Chasing the Story, which is set in Wilmington after Hurricane Florence. I can’t wait for the release and to be back in North Carolina!  

Wherever you are, I hope you’re staying safe! -Shira