What a weekend

Wow, what a beautiful weekend it was. With fall fast approaching we took this weekend as an opportunity to make a trip to Shell Island for some relaxation. In just a few short weeks we will be pulling the boat for some serious TLC. This being a non-holiday weekend the island was not too crowded. We were the first sailboat to anchor out but was soon joined by some familiar boats from our marina. Guess everyone else had the same idea. The nice thing about Shell Island when it’s not crowded is the seclusion one can feel on the Gulf side of the island.

What a pretty walk it was on the beach and with the recent storms, there was plenty of pretty shells for the picking. What on earth do I need more shells for…uuugh I can’t stop myself. Dirk and I decided to do a little snorkeling to see what could be found. What we found is that the water felt like fall was here. It was 79 but with a breeze blowing it felt cooler. Guess that’s the last dip of the season for us. Unless of course I wear a wet suit. We also spotted a jellyfish that we had not seen before. The first one we saw was so big I probably would have trouble reaching around it with both arms. The tentacles were about 10 feet long on it. I have a book on board to identify marine life and the closest thing it resembled was a Lion’s Mane Jelly.
Anyone have a clue if this is what it was? Dirk was going to go in and check out a few things on the bottom but after seeing this he changed his mind. Our intention was to have a relaxing day and then try to do a little floundering later in the evening. Well, the winds never died down enough so we instead had a nice dinner of grilled steaks and tomatoes followed by a nice sundowner and sunset.
Boy, I think I can get used to this. Of course it was to bed early as I always seem to get very sleepy on the boat early. Why is it I can’t sleep at home, yet on the boat I drop like a log? The next morning as usual we are up with the light and after coffee and breakfast we headed back to the marina. We decided to throw out a line to troll and see if we couldn’t catch some dinner. As we were in the pass we got a hit. It was a nice little grouper.
A few inches too short to keep, darn……. Oh well, at least we know we can catch fish. Back at the marina we took several measurements and made a list of parts to order so in a couple weeks we can pull the boat. Not looking forward to all the work that we are fixing to take on, but looking forward to having it done. We are now officially at 268 days and counting, but then again, who’s counting.