Day Tripping with Capt. Brian

One of the highlights of any of our Sanibel Island trips, is the day we schedule with Captain Brian.  We've been cruising with him for many years now, and no Florida trip would be complete without a day on the water because it's always an adventure.  I usually tell Brian what we want to do - hmmmm...... funny, it doesn't change much from year to year....  Sightseeing, shelling and beaches.  Somehow Brian always manages to mix it up and take us to new places to discover.

Chablis makes custom signs, so she designed one for Brian and crammed it in her suitcase to bring along for him.  He has an awesome back porch with an amazing collection of shells, driftwood and beach items that he's collected over the years.  The sign is for his porch!

Usually we meet him in the morning for our trip, but this time we arranged to meet at noon and spend 6 hours on the water.  Bright blue skies, large fluffy white clouds and warm breezes looked promising!

Almost immediately we ran across a large pod of dolphin.  There was about 10 of them total and we spent quite a bit of time sitting and watching them play.  There's something about dolphins that is magical and they rise and fall above the water line so effortlessly and quietly.  I find myself holding my breath as I wait for them to return.

 

 

 They kept circling the area and pretty soon a man on a jet ski with 2 little kids came by to watch.  The one little boy was screaming with delight and I'm sure that he will remember his dolphin encounter for years to come.

 

After our personal dolphin show, Brian took us to a shallow grassy area where we got out of the boat and waded around, looking for shells.  We found quite a few Venus Sunrays. 

 

Capt. Brian always finds the neatest secret spots to take us and we soon arrived at a special island where only his discerning eye could find the path through the vegetation....

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the island and walking the beach, deep in conversation and bending to retrieve the occasional shell. 

Off to the east though, the skies were churning and heavy clouds began rolling in.  One of the things I like so much about Brian is that he keeps a careful eye on the weather at all times.  I noticed that he kept turning and checking the skies and after about 15 minutes he announced that it was time to leave.

Sadly our afternoon was cut a little short due to the storms, but it's better to get back to Sanibel than to be stuck out in the rain.  Our finds for the day consisted of many Venus sunrays shells, a couple of baby's ears, a dried starfish, and my coveted horse conch....

We also saw many live shells, a cute crab and my favorite find was a fighting conch that still had his critter living at home.  I was sick to have to return him to the water because it was the largest fighting conch I've ever found and it was a beautiful brown and gold color.  Go over and check out Brian's blog post on our day with him to see more great photos.  But more than anything we had another memory-making day on the water with one of our favorite people.  After all, it's the memories you hold dear in your heart that are the true treasures.