What I Did This Winter by Cap’n Bob

dolphin-yakking

My wife PJ gets in some dolphin yakking in the canals around Long Point Park, Melbourne, FL

Back in the old days, teachers’ first assignment for their students was to have them write “What I Did Last Summer.”  Summers for me since 2003 have been filled with guiding tours, teaching sailing and kayaking, and being a general beach bum at Coastal Kayak.

Now, Jen and Mitch want me to share “What I Did This Winter.”  Being older (and wiser) than fellow guide Tim Bennett, I didn’t launch my kayak in an area that required dodging ice floes and icebergs.  I know what happened to RMS Titanic.

gator

Good thing my hands were busy with the camera. I could have reached out and touched this gator next to my kayak. Myakka River near Sarasota, FL.

Instead, my wife and I loaded kayaks, bicycles, fishing rods, the Harley and other assorted toys into our fifth-wheel toy hauler and headed to snow-free Florida for a couple of months.

The highlights:  kayaking with dolphin and alligators, bicycling the 20-mile roundtrip Legacy Trail between Sarasota and Venice Beach, catching enough saltwater fish for several good dinners, and joining roughly 500,000 of my closest friends in Daytona for Bike Week.

daytona

It’s true. Most wildlife travels in herds. Bike Week, Daytona Beach, FL.

Best of all, no snow.  However, we did come back a little too soon and had to pull on our boots, heavy gloves and coats, and pull out the shovels to clear our driveway of the March 16-17 snow.  That’s it, right?  The last storm of the season?  Right?

yellow crowned

Yellow crowned night heron in the mangroves behind Monroe County Public Library Park, Islamorada, FL. Spotted while kayaking with Jim and Debby Bourke in the Keys

See you on the water.

— “Cap’n Bob”

off my turf

Great blue heron letting a morhen know he’s in the wrong part of the savanna. Foggy morning at Savannas Rec Area, Fort Pierce, FL

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