Cruising, Living Aboard, Blogging, and Photography

Many  of you who read this blog have plans or dreams of your own of one day leaving your job, living aboard, cruising when the mood suits you.  It's something I dreamed about for many, many years.  Now that I'm actually doing it, I'm here to tell you that I'm not disappointed.

For me, writing about it and photographing it enhances the experience.  In our travels, both in our boat and in our vehicle, I'm more observant, looking for things to share with you guys.  Like my recent blog post about the local fair and the pics of people on carnival rides, or our trips to the beach where I see the same driftwood but in different light and tide levels.

Here are a few photos from yesterday's beach trip with the dogs.   Some of the photos are good, some are bad.  Why include bad photos?  Well, I write this blog not only for you, but for Pam and I.  It is a diary of our life.  When I'm old and in the home, I hope to be able to go back and relive fixing up Drift Away and casting off the dock lines.  I want to remember both the good times and the bad.  I want to be reminded of the little things that make our lives fun.

When we got to the beach on Jekyll Island, we noticed a couple of dolphins just off the beach.  Small fish were jumping out of the water to escape.

This photo took some time and effort.  Most of my shots were of ripples in the water where the fish jumped in.

This photo violates the photography rule of not shooting into the sun, but I loved the sparkling water.

The surf was higher than normal and the dogs enjoyed it.

I like this shot because all three dogs are lined up to body surf.  Get a load of Ruby's ears.

As a photo, this is bad, but I included it because Olivia swam out too far and Ruby swam out and nudged her around to swim back in...

and as they got to the beach Mother Ocean slapped her for it.

Again, you're not supposed to shoot into the sun, but how else do you get the sparkling water?

I love the different textures of the driftwood, sand, and swirling water.

Nope.  No idea what dog this is.

Love Olivia's ears in this one.  Also, notice Ruby.

Ruby got it in her head that Pam shouldn't be in the water and made her get out.  I don't know why.  Maybe she sensed something.

Maybe she was afraid of the approaching shrimp boat.

Every time Pam waded out into the surf, Ruby went out and made her come back by barking and pawing at her.  So with that, we decided the tide was getting too high and it was time to go.

See?  When I'm old and decrepit, I can read this blog entry, remember the fun we all had and smile.

So consider writing and photographing your cruise.  Not only for others, but for yourself.  You'll look at life differently if you do and you'll have a diary to remember it.

Oh, one more thing.  I just sold another photo on DepositPhoto.com today.  I'm going to sign up with SmugMug.com next.  Not only can people buy and download photos there, but they can purchase prints, tee shirts, coffee mugs, and other assorted merchandise with my photos on them.  I'll let you know when I do.  I just need to sort through the thousands of photos I've taken with my Nikon since Spring to see which ones are tee shirt worthy.