Yellow Crowned Night Herons

I just love the birds at the marina. They are so beautiful.
The yellow crowned night herons are one of my favorite.
They frequent the area of the marina like the little green herons do too.
Although the little greens hang out more on the dock lines and the yellow crowns stay mostly to the mangrove fringes.
The wildlife is simply amazing. I hear dolphins feeding at night around the boats. I see dolphins feeding at low tide in the shallows. I hear splashes on the hull as Atlantic spade fish try to eat growth off the side of my boat... Fish splashing all night long as I drift into sleep.
It's so special and I am so fortunate to be in this spot, even though at times I feel so secluded and far from my friends.
click on this pic to enlarge and see the beautiful detail of this bird.

Early March Trip to Panther Key

Sailing to Panther Key with company...
I guess this is what it's like to sail with an autopilot. Set course, and sit back and relax...
Somewhat odd to be sailing on Athena and not constantly at her helm...
Kinda nice :)
I was able to run up front and watch all the pods of dolphins that kept playing at Athena's bow! Camera wasn't ready for pictures at that time though, unfortunately :(
Dolphins everywhere and all around us.
Two fantastic days of sailing.
A sea turtle surfaced right off starboard about 12 feet from us first day of sailing.
Anchored out near Panther Key the next morning, a sea turtle surfaced first to our starboard, then within 6 feet port aft. The sound of the turtle's breath just amazing as we relaxed the morning away on deck. Certainly didn't feel like leaving when the time came, but return I guess we must.
I decided to click some pictures of Coon Key, since I didn't get many other pics this trip.
Forgot easy click camera and batteries of good camera were not charged. Decided to charge them off the boat batteries with an inverter.
Past Coon Key at high tide and the shallow spots, decided to extend the trip and sailed into Sugar Bay, where we dropped anchor for lunch and more dolphin watching and relaxing before turning on the motor and finally heading in to the dock.
After beautiful days of sailing, when the sails are brought in and the engine turned on for motoring, the sailboat all of a sudden seems to be such a slug. Moving so gracefully and beautifully under sail, the sailboat is simply not to be motored. There is no peace in the motoring of a sailboat.
The next day after sailing, all was not right in the world. I don't know why, but even after being off land for only 26 hours, I feel so out of place back in the office. blah. Wish I could go back out tomorrow.

It is March and all...

It's been two months since SV Athena has been off the dock, and it's more than past time! We head out tomorrow! So, much work to do getting her ready to go. Been trickle charging the batteries. they were up to 12.90 for the house batteries and 12.72 for the starter battery. Not terrific, but okay. Ran Athena's engine for 35 minutes. Waited a half hour and checked the batteries. house were up to 13.14, and starter was up to 13.13. yae :) that must mean the alternator is working... Russell and I had been having some difficulty getting that alternator to sit right.
I was also actually able to convince a friend to come sailing too :)
But, he's allergic to cats... so, I took apart the wet vac, cleaned it out and proceeded to vacuum the boat. I've been meaning to clean that darn wet vac for forever. What better excuse :)
I also filled the forward water tank and as I was in the process of doing that, I thought I would take a peak in the Anchor locker... good thing I did! It was full of water! Guess I know yet another task to do... I tried to unplug the drain... ended up bailing the anchor locker. Glad I checked that...
There's another cold front coming down, but hopefully we'll get some good sailing in our favor as the winds slowly clock around the next two days...

Memories of Key West...

So, I was going through my camera tonight and found that I had actually taken a couple pictures during Key West Race Week...
From the condo, watching the cold front come through.
In the picture on the right, if you click to enlarge... there's what I think is some type of barge. I forget what this type of vessel is called... Seeing that barge reminds me of hurricane season 2004... the year of Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne all hitting Florida. That was the year I was doing quite a bit of flying between Boston and Key West... flew in and out of Florida in between a number of those storms, including the one storm, i forget which one now, where Travis and I blocked his sailboat, SV Tybee, inside that very barge motoring down the channel in the top left of the picture on the right. At the time, that barge was also blocked. The weather watchers were predicting some serious tidal surges, which actually never really happened, but how were we to know. Everyone was preparing for the worst.
You just never know...
The travel lift was pushed to the limits. I doubt I'll ever see again a sailboat at the very limits of a lift, the bottom of the keel just inches over the end of the barge as the lift brought the sailboat over and lowered her into the barge's belly.
We just barely eeked the sailboat on stands within the blocked barge.
Then we drove off the Florida Keys as the Keys were being evacuated for the oncoming storm...
Hoping for the best.
Not sure whatever happened to those photos. I meant to write our story of blocking a boat inside of a blocked boat and send it in to one of the sailing magazines... never did.
2004. The year I fell in love with sailing.
2004. The year I moved to Florida.
2004. The year I fell in love with Florida.
2004. The year I moved into an incredible segment of my life... which seems to still be ongoing, although different in so many other ways.
Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple.