22 Sep 2022 - Thursday
Starry Night
The improvement in the weather and the lowering of the humidity has meant it's now possible to do some night timelapses that won't be washed out through clouds. Attempt 1 below.
Whilst on the boat trip yesterday, the guide mentioned that Manatee sometimes congregate around the Coquina Beach area in the morning to warm themselves up. This gaveus both the idea to head down there this morning. Generally, we've been awake just before sunrise (07:15 today) so this was an ideal time to check things out.
Not a manatee
Sadly, no Manatee, but we did catch sight of a dolphin out to see.
Oddly, we'd seen a manatee swimming along the shore from our apartment the yesterday. They are not in sight for very long, only taking a breath now and again. Most of the time they are just a large shadow in the water, but from our height, we could track it as it swam past.
At that beach is on the Southern tip of the island we could see the sunrise from one side and then walk around the tip to the Gulf of Mexico.
On the way back, we stoped off at this Cheesecake place that we'd been looking at during our holiday. They had been closed last week, so we took the chance to grab a small cheesecase (and a coffee) whilst we were nearby.
Both cake and coffee were very nice - they should be at $5 a coffee and $7.50 (plus tax) each cake!
Pool's Fixed
On our return to the apartment complex we checked the pool gates and they were working again - last night I'd emailed the rental company who said they'd get things working again. Happy days! So we got ourselves changed and headed down to the pool for a couple of hours. It was quite busy in there - maybe 10 other people, which is quite a lot for such a small pool.
Lunch, then we got ready for another trip out. Linda had rebooked with Fun Boat (of broken propeller fame) for tonight's sunset cruise. So we set off at 17:30 to board.
It was a full boat - slightly overfull in my opinion, so we ended up with me sitting on one of the drinks coolers. Still, it meant I was right at the front of the boat which was fine by me as I had noone in front of me for photos.
We sailed around in the bay between Manatee and Cortez bridges, there we sawplenty of dolphins and a couple of sting rays too.
At around 7pm, captain Jeb set off under Cortez and under the South bridge to put us into the Gulf of Mexico. Here we bobbed about whilst we watched the sun set - there were almost no clouds, so it went down quickly.
Finally, the captain turned the boat around and we headed back to port. It's a reasonable trip back so first mate Christina kept us entertained with a bout of karaoke which got a few up and dancing. We got back in the dark and headed for the apartment.
A light tea in the apartment.
Tomorrow's our last full day :(