18 Sep 2022 - Sunday
Queue Day Four
Today saw the last full day of the queue for the Queen's Laying in State. Queue length fell ovenight and as I just checked (4pm EST - 9pm BST) it has fallen back to London Bridge and is 7 hours long now. I suspect it'll be possible to join it right until it gets to Lambeth Bridge. Many have waited over 11 hours during the worst parts.
Off on a Boat
This morning we had a quick breakfast and headed off to a local jetty to pick up a boat for our 'Donuts and Dolphins' trip.
On arrival we were told that we were the only people that had booked that trip. We were lucky to get the trip to run I think, as these sort of charters will usually only go out with a minimum number of people.
Still, the sea was calm and the sun was out so off we went.
We'd been travelling about 10 minutes out into the Anna Maria bay when the boat suddenly jerked forward. I thought that the captain had just spotted dolphins and had stopped suddenly, however this was not the case. The propeller had become detached from the motor. Some casing which would hold it in position so it can spin had come off leaving the propeller just static. This left us only able to move very very slowly so we turned for home.
It wasn't long though before that slow progress was removed when the wind picked up and started pushing us off the line. The area has a few sand banks so the captain (Jez I think) was worried we'd run aground. He'd called the owner of the boat who was trying to organise a replacement part. Meantime we floated on.
The weather was a lot hotter now as the sun got up to strength. Fortunately, we had cover and food in the shape of local donuts, baked that morning.
Christina with the dolphin donuts
These were all less usual flavours, chocolate, sprinkles, maple and bacon amongst others.
Whilst we were sitting there, we did briefly see one solo dolphin which swam over to see what the fuss was about but soon left before I managed to get it on camera!
Anna Maria bridge raises in sympathy
Dropping anchor
The captain decided to drop his anchor to stop us drifting more. The first mate, Christina, managed to get through to another tour captain in their harbour who was able to come out to pick us up. So a short time later, we saw his smaller craft apear in the distance. They tied on and we were slowly pulled back to dock.
Our ride approaches
Latching on
Heading home
We were back on dry land about a hour later. As we were back a lot earlier than expected, we drove north to the newly repaired Anna Maria pier. This was mostly destroyed during Hurricane Irma in 2017. It was rebuilt then damaged again in 2019 by a collision from a tug weeks before the planned opening. It finally was re-opened in 2020.
The old pier used to contain boards which were inscribed with people's names. Some of those boards now make up part of the fences that are near the entrance to the pier.
As usual, we stopped off at the Two Scoops ice cream shop for a cool ice cream.
It was then back to the apartment for a late lunch then off to the pool for a swim.
The evening meal was a trip to the Longhorn restaurant just off of Cortez Road. A nice meal.
Longhorn 'Perfect'
