Shoes & Ships & digital cameras..

One of the disadvantages of my new digital camera is that it doesn't have an optical view finder, just the digital picture type. This is most disadvantageous when the sun is bright & you wear self tinting glasses. This is what the sea looked like where we were out fishing yesterday, about 7 kilometers off the coast. Looks inviting doesn't it? Almost looks good enough to swim in doesn't it ? I wouldn't though. What I was actually trying to take a picture of was a shark fin that sadly is just a little out of picture. Judging from the size of the fin & the distance between the dorsal & the tail fin, it would have to have been a good 10 foot at least. Like us, I think it was just enjoying the day on the water, although the shark would have been substantially cooler that we were. Damn it was hot. Even with the 5 to 10 knot sea breeze as forecast, it was still uncomfortably hot out there.

We weren't the only ones enjoying the day either. We must have seen at least 10 penguins puddling along doing their thing on the way out. Them & a nice little pod of Mr & Mrs Dolphin out for a stroll with junior quite made our day. I take my hat off to Auckland Coast guard though. Talk about busy ! Hundreds of trip reports & a variety of emergency calls ranging from a snagged anchor in the Rangitoto Channnel to a fire on board off Cleveland. A very busy day for them. Must have been about 200 boats out just from the ramp that we use.

One of the beautiful things about our gulf is that even with the amount of vessels on the water. we could still find our own little patch of water & catch enough fish to feed us & to give some away to friends. Both the cats gorged themselves to a standstill & Jude enjoyed two nice little fillets off a gurnard that I caught. I made up a butter & white wine sauce for it & she really enjoyed it. She enjoyed her day out too. That makes it all the more nicer for us both. Yet another day to treasure & remember.