12/20/2021
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year !
Hi Folks !
I have only a couple of the last minute gifts to wrap and deliver. I have both the outside and inside trees lit with lights and an aromatic balsam candle burning in the family room. The wood stove is generating its pleasant warmth throughout and the radio is reminding me of the season with the varied Christmas time carols.
I would like to take this last seasonal report to thank all of the folks that have fished with me over the years since 1997 and helped to make Capeshores Charters the success that it has been. Without you, who knows what path I may have taken all those years ago. Thank you ! I have decided to extend the 15% off Christmas Promotion until the end of the year instead of Christmas Day. Quite a few folks have sent emails inquiring, but did not complete the process. Perhaps the busy holiday preparations caused the lapse, so I am extending as a reminder. The deal is 15% off 2021 charter prices, if paid in advance before the end of the year. There will be a 2022 rate increase due to increasing fuel costs.
With that said, and my report submitted, I decide to take an evening drive down to the Chatham pier for a look at what remaining boats are there.
Pulling into the deserted December parking lot, under the street lamp’s glow at dockside, I noticed there wasn’t a breath of wind to ripple the glassy waters surface. The moon rising over the dune to the east, is completing the serenity I feel here tonight. In the beautiful clear stillness, I watch the remaining commercial boats tugging to and fro at their mooring lines with the ebbing tide. Then in the distance, I hear a vaguely familiar splash, … and then again, but closer. …Alarmed, did something fall in ? No, it wasn't that large, it sounded a lot like the slurp of a feeding fish, or perhaps a merganser or eider duck, but at night ?? Then again I heard it, definitely a slurp and a splash, closer this time. Was it a seal ? It seemed quite large. I heard it again, and this time, I saw the boil at the outskirts of the dockside lamps glow, and halfway into the channel. “Holy cow” ! What the heck is that ? A striper ?? “No way” ! - It was HUGE !, it couldn’t be - it was at least 5 feet long !!!
Then I saw her swimming slowly into the current under the radiance of the lamps glow. WHOA - She had to be 80-100 pounds or more, at least ! As the huge striper swam by, it rolled slowly over on one side and I swear she winked at me as if to say......“ AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT ” !
MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy Joyous Holiday !!
Captain Bruce Peters & “Marilyn S”
