Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Pirate's Life For Me - Not !!

Last evening, a couple of our friends here in sunny Buttonwood Bay, Jan & Barrie, invited us out on their pontoon boat for a 3 hr trip around Lake Josephine to enjoy a cruise and see the sunset from a different vantage point. 

So at 5pm, armed with drinks and nibbles, every camera and lens I had at my disposal and coated from head to foot in factor 56 so that the sun couldn't get to me nor could mozzies even land on me, we stepped onboard the good ship NONAME.......as amazingly they'd never named their craft.

Normally I'd not bother with sun block at 5pm but here things are quite different from home. The sun is at it's hottest about this time and to prove this point, I set the outdoor part of my indoor/outdoor wireless thermometer on a patio chair in the sunshine today and it shot from 85F to over 100F in minutes.  It finally topped out at 122F and that was at 5:15pm.

I also needed some sort of head protection, being that I'm folically challenged as you know. I could've used a baseball cap but as we were going onto the water, I found something much more suitable........


Not quite the headgear for Lake Windermere or attending the Henley Regatta maybe, but on Lake Josephine, it worked a treat.

The lake we see from the pier is impressive enough but this aerial view shows that it is really a chain of three interconnecting 'lakes'.


It's not a great photo but over on the right is the long North/South strip of US-27 and I've crudely marked the park so you'll see which of the chain of 'lakes' is ours. You'll also see why it took us 3 hrs to cruise all around them and be back near the pier for sunset at 7:30pm.

I wanted video more than still photos so I was using the little Nikon compact camera for this purpose. It takes quite decent video and of course switches easily for still photos too. So these two photos showing Debby and myself on the boat and finally one of the sunset, were taken with it.



It was a lovely cruise and for that I thank Jan and Barrie, who came from Selby originally. Small world isn't it ?

It was also very strange to look at the oh so familiar pier from out on the lake and after waiting months to do so, I decided that I much prefer the view from dry land.

I guess I'm that rare breed of pirate; one that prefers the land !  Yarrrrrrr.

5 comments:

Daphne said...

Envy envy envy! I've SEEN that lake you know, when I was in AMERICA. Though I didn't know that the lake went into other lakes - how lovely! I'm really glad the trip was as good as it looks.

Debby said...

Ohhhh how gorgeous! I wish I was there. Oh wait, I was!

rhymeswithplague said...

Very nice sunset photo, Ian!

I've been dying to ask, and you don't have to answer if it's much too personal a question, and perhaps you've answered it somewhere in the dim, distant, blog past, but what I really want to know is:

Who is Debbie again? And why do you spend six months there every year?

Not that you don't have every right to do what you please. I am just curious, and we know what curiosity does....

Debby said...

It's Debby....and he's my toy boy. He comes here for 6 months because they won't let him come for longer!

Is the cat dead yet?

Kate said...

Arghhh, hearties, that be some wonderrful vessel that be able to fly up in yon sky as well as cutting a foamy path through the storrrmy seas...

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