While walking along the jetty at Scusset Beach State Park with friends we started picking up trash that had fallen down into the rocks, Dawn has a good habit of doing that anywhere we go and it seems to be infectious. I looked down near the waterline and noticed a fishing rod handle sticking up out of the water about 6 inches. I scrambled down to the water’s edge and reached down and grabbed the foam handle. I expected to pull up a busted or broken rod, instead I pulled up a 7 foot long Penn fishing rod and a newish Penn spinning reel complete with a full spool of line and a lure attached. 

Still not convinced of what I had in my hand I inspected every inch of the rod looking and expecting it to be broken. I didn’t find anything at all wrong with it besides some surface scratches. I figure someone dropped it at high tide and couldn’t get to it. It had not been in the water more than a day or so. The following day I took the reel apart and cleaned all the saltwater off it and applied new grease and oil to all of its internals. 

Months later while sailing off the coast of North Carolina I caught my first fish as a live aboard sailor while actually sailing. It was a King Mackerel.  Not a trophy, and just barely legal, an extra 2 inches but it was a fish. I quickly had it filleted and the fillets in a bag in the refrigerator. 2 days later in Norfolk, Va. it was grilled and shared with several other sailors from the marina. It was a delicious fish and was bounty from the sea, caught with bounty from the sea.