Mar 11 - wow, what a ride !

I was expecting to be able to write about the shuttle launch, figuring that the boat ride would be ... ho hum ... same old boat ride, but no shuttle launch. When we got back from the boat ride the shuttle had been delayed until the next day and then later it was rescheduled for Sunday. Each rescheduling moves the time a little earlier so we're running the risk if a daylight launch soon ... hopefully it will go on Sunday.

The boat ride was something else though !!

Sandy had an appointment at the Vet with Abby to get her ears cleaned. It turned out that the cleaning was necessary; that there were bacteria in her ear (I suspect that there are always bacteria in all of our ears) but anyway, she now has clean ears and drops to deal with whatever bacterial infection. Once Sandy was back, I hooked up the boat, Angelika got off her conference call and shut down here email, and we were off.

This really brings back memories of my vacations -- always on email, always taking conference calls. When Angelika arrived I had to get the MAC address off her PC and input it into my router to allow her to connect. There it was ... the EDS COE ... shudder. When I say that it "brings back memories" -- they're not bad memories, it was just a way of life ... work was 24/7.

Back to the boat ride -- we launched as usual, the parking lot being almost full. I suspect that both the great weather and the impending shuttle launch have both increased the number of people in town as well as impacted the number of boats on the water. No doubt some of those people expected to stay out long enough to see the shuttle launch from the water. Yesterday was not meant to be, however. It was high tide, so we didn't see any dolphins on the way to Ponce Inlet. As usual, we headed out the Inlet towards the ocean ... I always do that to see how rough it is.

That's when we had a pleasant surprise. For the first time, it was calm enough to go out to the ocean. The waves were probably about one foot high, but they were swells, not chop. Ocean swells are spaced far apart so I could travel full speed. We cruised out to the far buoy and there were dolphins out there. These would not be the usual Intra Coastal Waterway dolphins, but a pod of ocean dwelling dolphins. We cruised southward for a mile or so, getting an entirely different perspective of the beach. The beach was fairly busy -- lots of cars and people -- and as we got close we had to watch that we didn't get caught in the swells as they rose up to break. Beyond the breakers it ranges from 20-50 feet deep, but it's 20 feet deep for a long way out.

On the way back from our southward run, I spotted a chunk of wood floating in the water ... wait ! it's a sea turtle ! As we got close it dived, but of course they're slow moving so we got a good view. We continued back towards the outer buoy at the Inlet and saw another turtle. This time, however, I knew what I was looking at and we got closer. Other than the swells, the water was glassy calm. Dolphins were everywhere, but since they had a 50 foot vertical column in which to fish, they were not constantly breaking like the do in the ICW at low tide.

There were two sailboats out from the outer buoy. I expect that they were the sailboats from the Smyrna Yacht Club and that Norm Himes might have been on one of the boats. I'll have to check with him.

After we got back to the outer buoy, we went north from the Inlet - just a bit - and then headed back in. At the end of our ride we came back to the Inlet but by then there was a bit of a breeze and the water was choppy. Angelika was riding in the bow and was getting wet ... we turned around ... we'd had our fun earlier and it was to be treasured.

So ... nice weather, a calm ICW, we headed up to Caribbean Jack's for lunch but not before stopping at the sandbar for a walk and to let Abby chase minnows. At the end of the sandbar we spotted a school of what I think were baby sharks. We have seen those before at Daytona Beach in the shallows -- 12 to 18 inches or so long -- but they might have been something else that had the same look. I needed my fishing gear !

The trip to CJ's was uneventful. By the time we got there it was already 2pm. We had a good lunch and headed back. On the way back we saw many dolphins, as the tide was by this time fairly low. A chop was building, but not enough to slow us down. At one point, though, we passed a fairly large boat -- turned out to be a 55 footer -- which was producing huge waves. The angle that I crossed the wake coupled with Angelika sitting in the bow earned us a huge spray over the bow getting Angelika wet and I got a face-full since I was kneeling with my face over the windshield. Sandy was sitting and was protected by the windshield.

What a great day. Back home, there had been some deliveries. My Transit frame-mount rack and new fork had both arrived. I fiddled with the frame rack for a bit, calling Performance technical support to inquire about the number of frame clamps -- they're going to mail another two to me -- and then I installed the fork crown race and assembled it on the bike. I have not cut the fork yet ... I'll continue that work after I have breakfast this morning. I don't know which bike I'll be riding today, but I'll be going out for a ride.

That's it. It's time for breakfast for me and Abby and then time to get working on the new bike.