Captiva beach, the end of the wheel of the year, the sea monster.

[urbpan]

As I said earlier, we stayed at the Tween Waters Inn, in a room on the top floor of the building behind my dad in this picture. We were told that since it's "cold," that the manatees have moved away from the ocean into warmer inland waters.



So on the morning of the 21st I was looking out across the water with my cup of coffee when I saw an enormous animal poke out of the water. You can see a brown form at the center of this photo, slightly toward the right. I could see a distinct head that raised up out of the water for a brief moment. I stared hard at the water, seeing the same thing happen in a different location three times. I wracked my brain: dolphin, whale? The head was too distinct. Leatherback turtle? Is that a thing that comes to shore? Crocodile, alligator?

While I was staring, a woman standing on a docked boat nearby was below me, looking at the same part of the water. She said out loud "Oh, look at them all!" in a blandly pleased tone of voice that one does not use when referring multiple crocodilians. I told my dad and we went down to the dock to look. We didn't see anything, but verified that the woman was seeing manatees. Still, it looked fucking HUGE from the second floor.


High above, a magnificent frigatebird rides the thermals.

After our visits to Ding Darling and Sanibel Beach we went back to Captiva. I realized this sunset was the last one before the days got longer. What a nice
opportunity--see the last sun of the wheel of the year go down into the ocean.










Good night, and let us toast to longer days ahead!

Comments

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

they are indeed hard to catch