Yellow-crested Night Heron

 

Our friends Jack and Nikki have a home in Punta Gorda and they have adopted Mrs. Bird, a rare Yellow-crested Night Heron. They feed her shrimp twice a day. She comes right up to the back door to make her request. Here she is being fed by Patti. (and no, I don't know what the DAY Herons look like:)

Number 85 Ready for Action

My first sailing day. What a hoot! The boat performed perfectly against all those pesky buoys:)

My New Boat

This my new Soling. It's about 6 years old and very well built and recently refurbished.

Solings in the Breeze

The Solings race during a practice day. On a race day they have 50 boats in 4 fleets broken  down by prior performance.

Micro Magic Sailboat Racing

Suncoast model sailing club in Punta Gorda has racing 4 days per week and hosts 4 different classes. This is the smallest. These remote control sailboats are about 20" long and have lots of hi tech carbon fiber in their construction. Today they raced about 20 boats in two fleets in about 15 knots of breeze. Several skippers switched their sails to a smaller set to try to keep the boat more upright and easier to sail. We watched the East Coast 12 meter class yesterday, they measure 72" long and 84" from keel to masthead. $$$$