Fort Myers beach sunset
Fort Myers Beach Dolphins
Its’ raining today! Well, at least for the morning, or maybe for the next hour, or for the next twenty minutes. If you’ve lived here in South Florida for any significant amount of time then you know the routine. Growing up here in Florida I think has made me a bit insensitive to the strong possibility that most people in the rest of the states do not deal with so much erratic unpredictable weather, at least on a daily basis, or some days even an hourly basis. For instance, in Connecticut if they say it will rain, it does. Here, however, if they say it will rain, it might. It might rain for 5 minutes somewhere across the street, it might rain all day nowhere else except over your house, it might be sunny and beautiful, or it might just in fact rain everywhere. Our weather forecasts are about as reliable as my husband’s old dodge truck, some days she cranked right up, many days she didn’t, on her feisty days she cranked up but then the rest of the day I would have to park on some sort of down-cline with an unobstructed runway so I could get a running start to get her to turn over. You never really knew what to expect but to always be prepared, have a backup plan, and savor what the day brings. Ah how I miss that old truck…not really.
So back to this rain, we have canceled our morning fishing charter, and dolphin cruise because of it. Bummer. Not only do we not get to “work” and make any money today, but we are all somewhat addicted to our work, we miss it when we don’t get to take our tours out, to see the smiles, hear the ooohs n ahhhs, the thank yous, and sometimes even get hugs from our passengers because they not only enjoyed their trip but they enjoyed us as well. This line of work is definitely for that kind of reward, being paid in the process is just a bonus. Some days are tougher than others and the wildlife doesn’t always cooperate. All of us here genuinely care if our passengers are having a good time, and experiencing more than what they were expecting. Believe us, not finding dolphin on a tour is our biggest fear, and in the rare times it does happen, we feel beat up and defeated knowing when we get back to the dock our passengers are leaving us disappointed. But like I said that doesn’t happen often, maybe once a month, maybe.
Well, we must be doing something right because we sure do have a lot of regulars and returns. Our regulars the Filburn’s are in town and they have gone on several fishing charters and most recently chartered our boat for a private sunset cruise. Let me tell you what mamma Filburn sure can fish! We have been watching their children, and grandchildren grow up over the past few years. We love that. Their sunset cruise was spectacular, with dolphins chasing our boat out the pass into the Gulf water,2 and 3 dolphins jumping at a time. When the dolphins tired of us and swam off, we set up a nice drift to watch the sunset out over the Gulf. There were some low lying clouds too that made it extra colorful, the attached picture doesn’t do it any justice. On the way back to dock, flocks of egrets, ibis, and heron were flying in to rest for the night and the sky was lit up with hues of pinks, orange, and purple. A beautiful sunset cruise for a beautiful family. Well, I’m going to go take advantage of a rainy morning and work on my new photo book collection! Like my good friend Andy says- “Hasta la Rasta” -Cristina and the Good Time family
