Welcoming a New Mermaid to Double D Fishing Charters
This week looked a little different for Double D Fishing Charters of NW Florida. Instead of heading offshore or working the inshore waters around Pensacola, we pointed the truck north and made the drive to Wilmington, North Carolina, to pick up the newest addition to our fleet: a 2023 Twin Vee 260 GFX powered by twin Suzuki 200-horsepower outboards.
And yes, she’s another Mermaid.
The Drive North
The new boat is a beautiful seafoam green/turquoise color, and after months of planning, searching and working through the details involved in adding another vessel, seeing her sitting behind the truck made for a pretty satisfying moment.
We loaded up the 2500HD with the 6.6-liter Duramax, tools, grease and enough sunflower seeds to get us through the trip, then headed for North Carolina. The drive north took about 11 hours, with the truck averaging roughly 20 mpg. Before leaving Wilmington, we jacked up each trailer wheel individually, checked the wheel-bearing tightness and put roughly half a tube of grease into each hub before installing the caps and getting underway.
About 30 minutes down the road, we stopped and checked every trailer hub by hand to make sure none were building excessive heat. One was. The starboard rear hub was too hot to comfortably touch, so we jacked the trailer back up and found that the brake pads on that wheel weren’t fully releasing from the rotor. That drag was generating the heat we were feeling at the hub.
We corrected the problem, got everything turning freely again and went back down the road. For the next several stops, we checked the hubs at roughly one-hour intervals. Once we were satisfied the problem was fixed and all four wheels were running normally, we settled into the long haul home.
With the Twin Vee behind us, fuel economy dropped from roughly 20 mpg on the trip north to about 8 mpg coming south, and what had been an 11-hour drive became about a 13-hour tow. We drove straight through and rolled back into Pensacola at approximately 4:30 Saturday morning.
Getting Her Ready
Getting home didn’t mean the work was finished. We immediately went into upgrade-and-cleanup mode. The trolling-motor batteries were replaced with LiFePO4 batteries, we scrubbed every inch of the boat, cleaned out every compartment, reorganized the storage and began setting her up the way we want her for offshore fishing and future charter service.
We also mounted another multifunction display and treated the electronics screens and console cover with a PTFE screen cleaner and protectant. By the time we finished, the new Mermaid was clean, organized and declared ready for her maiden voyage.
What’s Next for the New Mermaid
Our plan next week is to start putting some offshore hours on her with a few slow-pitch jigging trips. Those trips will give us an opportunity to learn the boat, see how she rides and fishes in Gulf conditions and continue dialing in the equipment layout before she begins carrying charter customers.
We’re still a couple of weeks away from having the vessel properly permitted and fully placed into charter service, so she isn’t quite ready to join the working fleet yet. But we’re close, and we’re plenty excited.
Adding another vessel represents a significant step forward for Double D Fishing Charters of NW Florida, and we’re proud to finally have her home. Most importantly, we want to thank everyone who helped make this possible — especially our customers. Every charter, every returning customer, every referral and every person who has supported our family fishing business has helped us reach this point.
We look forward to sharing our newest Mermaid with all of you in the not-too-distant future.
Captain Paul & Captain Eric
Double D Fishing Charters of NW Florida
Pensacola/Gulf Breeze/Navarre/Pensacola Beach/Milton/Pace
To see pictures of some of our catches, visit our social media pages:
