Pre Dawn Delights

Boot Key Harbor, Marsthon, Florida

It is my habit to wake at 0600 every morning. No alarm clock needed. I make a quart of coffee, then listen to Morning Edition on NPR while perusing the NYT and Washington Post and Drudge on my computer. When I get to the second pint of coffee, I turn away from the news and do 30 minutes on the physics courses that I've been taking since November 2012.

This week is fund raising week for public radio, so I skipped that. Instead, I did my news perusing in the cockpit. I have nearly an hour before the first light if dawn.

Yesterday and today were particularly nice. I had a spectacular full moon setting in the west. I also had unseen visitors - a pod of dolphins. This year, a pod of 4 adult and 2 child dolphins have been frequenting the harbor. But hearing them without seeing them in the pre-dawn darkness was fun. You see, each dolphin surfaces about nice per minute to breath. You hear a soft splash and a whosh-whosh as the exhale-inhale. Hearing six dolphins, I was pretty much able to follow their path among the surrounding bosts by sound alone. I tried, but failed, to recognize individuals by their sound. Very cool.

A picture taken with Libby's iPad. The bright light is the moon. The other lights are not stars, but rather anchor lights from other boats.  Below is another shot at first light.