"Let's take the dogs on a sunset boat ride!" I eagerly suggested. Up to this point, we've never ventured out on the boat in the late afternoon or early evening. Usually, we schedule our trips during midday when the sun is high and the water is easy to read. As the saying goes: Blue, blue sail on through, green, green, nice and clean, white, white, you just might, brown, brown, run aground." I still have a fear of hitting bottom, again, and breaking another prop. The sound of the lower unit scraping across the hard, rocky bottom, one that we've heard several times since our boating adventures began around Sugarloaf Key, is anything but pleasant. However, with each passing boat ride, we gain more and more confidence to the point of taking an early evening sunset boat ride.
The breeze was gentle, the temperature was cool and comfortable, and the evening colors in the sky were changing by the second. With Zuzu and Tootie resting in the cuddy, we paused for a minute in the sound to take in the view.
Then we were off for a quick tour of the sound via the channel leading to Tarpon Creek.
The sun had set and the evening sky began taking hold.
Blues changing to black.
The water reflecting the changing hues of the evening sky.
Clouds in the distance still ablaze from the setting sun.
We flipped around at the entrance to the creek and made our way back towards our canal.
Zuzu and Tootie found comfort and security from the darkening skies inside the cuddy cabin. Zuzu still does not like being out after dark. Tootie does her best to comfort her sister.
The moon, a waxing crescent, just a sliver in the southeast sky, was barely visible.
As the sun dips deeper below the horizon, civil twilight diminishes rapidly.
The channel marker posts are still visible while we follow our defined path on the chart plotter.
It was a beautiful evening to be on the water, and Zuzu was a trooper as we kept her out beyond her comfort zone.
Now we'll just have to try sunset at Marvin Key and chase the evening sky back to our dock.
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