Our April 9th late morning run through the slightly choppy harbor found Esoteric at anchor just off the island's shore. The spot we stayed in is just off a white sand beach and there are often a few overnighters such as this pretty sailboat to keep us distant company.
The area teams with life in the air and sea. The pelican is one of our favorite birds to watch. Toward evening pelicans swoop by in flights of one to maybe a dozen birds. Here is a flight of three about 20 feet above the surface, although they often fly very low and appear to just skim the surface. Ospreys are the undisputed kings of the air and build impressive nests that are made bigger year after year. Dolphins abound but they are much harder to photograph then we ever suspected. As evening comes on we cook burgers on our little grill and have a couple of glasses of a nice Merlot. We settle down for an evening of quiet reading, interrupting from time to time to go up on deck for a fabulous sunset view.
The next day we take our new dingy into the beach for a bit of exploring. The shore is decorated by many weathered tree stumps and here Jean rests on one of them. Paul has not started or run a small outboard in many years, but like riding a bicycle........
Back to Esoteric and out into the Gulf. We spot the colorful tug Rita Bouchard doing some heavy pushing on barge No. 215 from New York. The Boca Grande pass itself is well dredged and is marked by major buoys such as Number 12 and we always enjoy taking a closer look.
The next day is spent exploring and reading. Here, Paul is honing his JavaScript skills. Later he'll fire up the laptop computer and try some of this stuff. The lazy days roll by and we're tempted to stay longer. Alas, we are out of fresh water and we do have commitments to keep back on land. We head home after another quick detour though the Boca Grande pass. As if on cue, our close business associate, Paul Benton zooms up with sons aboard on his way to a favorite fishing hole. Let this picture dispel the myth that he is always working! What a strange but nice coincidence. Our last swing though the pass brings picturesque Boca Grande Lighthouse into the viewfinder of our Sony Mavica.
Nerd Alert: On a technical note, the images in this essay were optimized with Ulead SmartSaver Pro. This utility has the best before and after JPG optimizer we've yet seen and a great facility to dice the images and apply different degrees of compression to each section. The best of the original photos are by Jean. See if you can spot those diced images!
Back at home we clean up Esoteric and take all our stuff ashore. Then, we check the email, phone, and FAX, find all is well, and order pizza for a shore bound dinner. A good night to all.