Cozumel, Whale Sharks and Hurricane Grace

 

I won't write too much here as the video will describe most of what happened on this trip.

In an attempt to miss one hurricane, Fred, heading to Florida, we changed flights to go through Dallas only to be delayed by severe weather in DFW. We did make it to Cozumel in one day but it was a long day.

And then we got to experience another hurricane, Grace, head on. Originally forecast to follow Fred, Grace decided to make a straight line to Cozumel. It did eventually move to just south of the island but you'll see that we had to shelter in the hotel and take precautions nonetheless.

The main purpose of the trip was to swim with whale sharks! Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean. Are members of the shark family but feed on plankton so are filter feeders.

They congregate off the coasts of Mexico and Belize in the Caribbean Sea in the months May - September. Dave did all the work finding a tour company and making arrangements It turned out to be fantastic. Highly recommend Blue H2O Cozumel. Cozumel Scuba and Whale Shark Tour Experts - Blue H2o Cozumel

The video is about 12 minutes long. There are lots of video clips included. Click here for the video of the trip. 

BWCA 2021 Edition

 Well we did it again. The foursome of Brian, Jenny, Julie and Jeff ventured into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, BWCA, Wilderness.

This was the 20th anniversary edition. I think Jenny is the only one that has made them all.

I created a video for this year's trip. The link will be below. But a short recap...

The plan was to paddle Hog Creek from Entry #36 to Perent Lake and find an island campsite on the lake. That would be no portages. Side note - portages are where the team carries the gear and canoes from one body of water to another.

We had been warned that because of the drought our planned all paddle / no portage trip would be twice as long with several places where you had to get out of canoes and transport gear. Well, fortunately it did not turn out that way.

There were a few places we had to do just that but mostly the slow downs were caused by three large beaver dams that we would have had to negotiate anyway. Beavers are amazing architects and construction workers.

We did make it to Perent Lake and landed a very primo campsite. Nice layout on a private island.

We had an unbelievable encounter with a bald eagle. Saw a darling trumpeter swan family. Also, more loon action than we had seen in a long time. And a pesky red squirrel who we are pretty sure is now the proud owner of an orange spork.

Click here for the video. I suggest watching in landscape mode. It is 6 minutes long.