I’ve been so busy this past month I haven’t even updated this blog with the few bird photos I took while camping in early July, but it’s time once again for planning the route for another sailing charter. This time I’ve chartered Christelle, a Beneteau Oceanis 505 (a 50′ monohull sailboat) out of Anacortes, WA for a 4 day, 3 night trip into the San Juan Islands in early September, and nine friends will be joining me.
Hummingbird overload at Discovery Park
This past weekend (June 13th & 14th) I spent each morning at Discovery Park, arriving before 7am each day to coincide with the peak of activity by small birds. Specifically, I went looking for rufous hummingbirds before they begin migrating south to Mexico in the next two months.
What ended up happening (after a nice person in the park told me where he’d seen dozens of hummingbirds buzzing about) was probably the two best days of hummingbird photography I’ve had yet. More importantly, it gave me a lot of practice shooting these tiny, fast creatures, as well as an idea on an equipment modification I could make that I’m going to have to try to fabricate (possibly with the help of a 3D printer) which, if I end up doing, I’ll detail in a future blog post.
British Virgin Islands 2015 Trip – Part 6
After a calm night moored in Little Harbor, we took a lazy morning making breakfast and not rushing things. The plan that day was to head to Sandy Cay for a few hours for lunch, before heading back to Soper’s Hole to get the boats checked in so we could leave early the next morning. We’d be sleeping onboard the boats that night, but docked up securely in the marina.
British Virgin Islands 2015 Trip – Part 5
Wednesday evening had been set aside well in advance of the trip as our big communal dinner evening at Clubhouse Steak & Seafood Grille, and everybody had a long afternoon after all their various activities to relax, read books, nap, and, in Charles’ case, reflect on the trip in preparation for a short speech he’d later give.
British Virgin Islands 2015 Trip – Part 4
Wednesday was our “down-time” day where we weren’t sailing anywhere, had no solid plans, and folks were allowed to do what they liked. Per the previous entry, a number of us had signed up for a snorkeling trip, which started at 10am. Several of us had also signed up for the “Out of Bounds Hobie Cat Adventure,” and I’d made arrangements to meet with the local kite-surfing instructor for a lesson in kite surfing.
There won’t be many pictures in this post–during this relaxing day I didn’t carry my camera around much, partially due to all the in/on-the-water activities.