Flashes of Panic

Yet another set of photos from last weekend’s cruise:

On the left is Whitecap’s dinghy, beached on Indiantown Island. (Yes, we then tied it to a tree; we’re not interested in being marooned by the tide. I could easily swim back to Whitecap, but the shore was pretty sludgy.) I snapped this shot on the way back from the geocache we did on the island. I like this dinghy; it has two sets of oarlocks, and unlike most of our dinghies, it is best rowed from the very frontmost seat (unless you’ve crammed three people in the boat.)

We normally name our dinghies; when we had Snowbird, the dinghy was Birdie, and Whitecap’s predecessor Second Wind had the dinghy Puffin. This dinghy hasn’t been named, but there’s always the name my younger niece wanted to give Whitecap: Red Ink. (She didn’t know why this was funny, but her grandparents were, naturally, captivated.)

On the right, a familiar sight: an osprey nest in a day beacon. Day beacons are practically an osprey habitat program; they serve as nest boxes on artificial trees, with a nearby fish buffet. I haven’t seen many day beacons without an osprey nest; most of the rest of the nests I’ve seen have been on telephone poles near the waterfront. This beacon was hosting (at least) two juveniles; they peeped at us as we went by. The parents, after feeding them to this size, were now following the usual tactic of clearing out until the kids get hungry enough to teach themselves to fly and fish. “You’re going to have to jump sometime,” I called back.

Now playing: The Day I Let Glory Steer from This Town Is Wrong by Nerissa & Katryna Nields