Early morning departure

Trip #4 for 2001

Bill Sperling, DCP's Research Associate, arrived on Saturday (8/25/01) to greet the volunteers for our last research trip of this season. John and I were delayed a day for family reasons (my sister's wedding). Luckily we had been able to leave all our gear on the boat and traveled lightly with only three carry-on bags. Everything went smoothly – we even were able to catch an earlier than planned flight to Freeport and meet the boat two hours ahead of schedule at West End. It was a good thing we arrived early because taking the dinghy (18 ft craft) to meet the Hanky Panky just past Sandy Caye would not have been fun. The seas were sloppy with ~3 foot swell and a chop. It was nice to meet our passengers and see Bill and of course the crew again. Captain Peppie always greets us with a big smile and a loud (loud) laugh. We anchored about 3/4 of the way up to our normal anchorage, seeing 4 turtles but no dolphins along the way. If felt great to be on the water again. Hopefully we can add calmer seas and many dolphin sightings to our itinerary tomorrow. Cheers Kathleen