4533 sandhill cranes

That's a lot of tall birds in one place. I went to the White Water Slough National Wildlife Refuge in Douglas Arizona this winter to see a gathering of Sandhill cranes. Boy, did we see a lot of birds! Yellow headed black birds and more gave us a great thrill. The photos where taken the third week of February 2010. The "bird on the rock", is a Mexican Jay waiting for us to pass the nuts to him.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT WINTER?

Spring refit is under way between Spring showers. Lots of wood work on the cap and rub rails and paint and varnish every where. My ankle/foot is getting better. No crutches or canes, just some swelling and a slower captain.
It is not summer yet, Puffins where spotted at Cape Lookout on the 10th of March, but the sun is coming back and by April 1st we will be sailing again out of Beaufort.
I hope all is well with former sailors aboard Good Fortune and I'm looking forward to meeting a whole host of new sailors this season. 2010 is our 30th year of business, time flys when you are having fun. Or, as the frog said; "Times fun when you are having flies".

Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season or Fins To The Left Fins To The Right

So far so good. El Nino has kept the big ones out in the Atlantic and the East Coast clear. My foot is much repaired but not quit back to normal. I have yet to make it to the beach, but with the help of a fine mate, and some great weather we are back in business. There are lots of dolphins off the beach, and the water is still very warm.
Good Fortune will be at the Beaufort docks until mid October and then back to Peltier Creek, in Morehead City, for the Winter sailing season.
The cessation of the Menhaden fishing industry, three years ago ,allowed millions of fish to survive to adulthood, and in time to reproduce. The increased number of menhaden has replaced the "missing link" in the food chain that has been over fished for eight decades. The benefit of all these fish is, of course, more fish of all kinds. That means more marine mammals, birds, and "game fish" for all to enjoy. When I arrived in the Beaufort area, the use of DDT, to control crop pest and disease carrying mosquitoes, had wiped out the fish eating birds. Over the last 37 years, the affected bird populations of herons, terns, ospreys, pelicans, cormorants, and gannets have rebounded. Now its time for our fish populations to do the same.
The photo was taken by Scott Taylor from and aircraft flying between Beaufort and Shakelford Banks. This occured in late August of 2009. Sharks like to get together at the end of the summer to to compare notes on the success of the tourist season. How was your summer?

August and Rehab the sailor

I fell out a of a tree and landed on one leg on the 20Th of July. This has put my right leg out of commission and I'm now living the life of a mono pod. The Ortho. Doc. has assured me that I will walk on all two's by the fifth of August. With me at the helm barking orders, and Capt. Peggy womaning the for deck, I think we can, again, provide charters until the snow flies.
I may not be on the beach for a few weeks but Peggy is more then able to take up the slack.

SPRING 2009

The summer is just around the corner. Most of the winter birds have left except for a few Greater Cormorants and Loons. The summer residents, turtles, dolphins and a whole array of birds are arriving every day. The water temperature is 72 degrees F, and still very clear.

The photo is a hundred, or so, Northern Gannets feeding off of Atlantic Beach in late April. You will have to increase the size of the photo to actually see the large numbers of birds. The Gannets spend the winter along the south east coast and then fly to Newfoundland for the summer. They never break a sweat.

Good Fortune on the ways

Good Fortune has been hauled out of the water on my railway for the last two weeks getting a new paint job. Here are a few pics of the process. Her launch date is March 26th. I will start chartering full time on or near April 1st.

The first pic is the masking job, the second pic is the finished product.

February at the Cape

The last week of February sported a few warm days so I dropped the dock lines and headed for Cape lookout. The wind was north east so the sail was calm and one tack all the way to the bight.

I launched the skiff as soon as the anchor was set. Tiller was off the deck and into the skiff and ready for dog activities on the beach. Our first discovery were two Kemp Ridly turtles freeze dried on the beach. One hundred feet down the beach we found the decayed remains of a young Minke whale. We salvaged a few vertebra and moved on. Just a stones throw from the whale, tiller stopped to investigate an adult Loggerhead turtle. We were located on a cul-de-sac beach facing north. The prevailing winter winds pile, all the sea life that dies in the bight, onto this little beach on the sound side. The cold winter temperatures keep everything dry and cool. I call this the winter grave yard. When the spring warmth arrives, the winter die off will succumb to insects and bacteria.

In the rush to get to sea, I left the camera on the bed at home. That means no good pictures of all the great finds. I took cell phone pics of all the critters but the quality is so poor I feel bad showing them. Its all I have so I will post them.

A short hike across beach brought both us to the jetty. This structure was built in the early 1900's to create a harbor for the N.C. Port. It was decided to locate the Port in Morehead City so the jetty was left to the wind and waves. After 100 years it is still there, with some of the best fish and invertebrate habitat in the state. The speckled trout were so thick that a cast into the school would immediately hook a 27" trout. Every time I pulled a fish on to the beach the dog would run in circles and bark. It was mayhem casting and snagging fish until I put a hook completely through my finger. This ended the fishing. This is why fisherman carry wire cutting tools with them. I had to push the hook through my finger and cut the barb end off. The dog continued to circle and bark during this process. The hook was removed and the fish gathered up in a discarded onion sack ,and we headed back to the skiff.

We were treated to a dolphin show just at sunset. That sure went well with an evening cocktail.