In The Rocket's Red Glare

At Sea, Abacos, Bahamas
26 44.30 N 077 20.19 W

It worked. We watched to the east last night in the growing twilight. We also listened to the countdown on CNN. Then, about 30 seconds after time zero, we spotted Space Shuttle Discovery rising. I snapped a picture, and caught an image of the rocket leaving a long red trail and silhouetted by the mast and rigging of Viking Rose. We had just left from a visit to Viking Rose minutes before. Unfortunately, in the dim light, the camera shutter stayed open a long time and the image was blurry.
I emailed a copy to Viking Rose anyhow.

As the rocked rose higher, our view of it was cut off by a big cloud that was hanging over our heads. Too bad. We didn't get to see the booster separation. Still, it was very impressive to see how well the rocket could be viewed from 224 miles (320 km) away.

We decided to bypass Green Turtle Cay today. Last year we spent a lot of time there; nearly two weeks. Tomorrow there is a cold front coming through and after that it might be a long time before it is safe to cross The Whale again. Don't know what The Whale is? It is a narrow passage that we must pass through to get from the Northern Abacos to the Southern Abacos. If the weather is not right, waves in The Whale can become very big and very dangerous. Read our stories about The Wale on this
blog's archives. See the post Bahamas Follow Up from March 30, 2008.

After passing through The Whale I'm a bit undecided what to do next. Treasure Cay is nearby and we've never been there. On the other hand, there may be 2-3 days of windy rainy weather coming up. Perhaps it might be better to sit indoors in Marsh Harbor playing Balderdash or Banangrams on those days. I've written before about Balderdash. Banangrams is a Scrabble-like game taught to us by friends Pat and Walt aboard Wings of Eagles. Coincidentally, we met them at Green Turtle Cay which lies
just abaft of our beam right now. Anyhow, Banangrams is more fun than real Scrabble.