Fiesta All-Krewe Ball

After all the heartache and depression which has weighed on us since the eco-disaster in the Gulf, it was nice to escape for a few hours last night and enjoy a fun-filled evening. The Fiesta All-Krewe Ball was held at the new Sanders Beach-Corrine Jones Community Center in Pensacola.

It was the first time I have ever attended this event and was amazed at all the (krewe) royalty! I didn't even realize how many Mardi Gras Krewes we had in the Pensacola area.


Lloyd Hess and Shelley Johnson, King and Queen (a/k/a Captain and First Mate) of the Krewe of Wrecks.

Courtney and Jim Winstead, Queen and King of the Mystical Krewe of Nereids, our fabulous mermaid krewe.

Ted Pence and Ella Hess, King and Queen of Coma.

I don't know all the people in the photos below or even the names of all the krewes I photographed, but I hope you will enjoy seeing some of the photos.

Carleen Wheeler and Melanie Waite are on the Krewe of Wrecks board.

Sandi Johnson.

Ms. Carleen and a handsome young Naval officer.

Update

I spent the morning in a dentist's chair. UGH!

The afternoon was spent trying to find a camera repair shop which could help remove a catawampus lens hood from my Canon 40D which hit the floorboard of my car Sunday afternoon when a car suddenly pulled out in front of me near the core area. Luckily I have good brakes.

Consequently, I didn't have a chance to check out the beach today. I can, however, share good news from the Santa Rosa Island Authority's update on the oil spill this morning:

Charter Report From Dr. Dive, June 07, 2010

Captain Jim Meyers of Dr. Dive took media representatives out on a boat trip today and found no oil, no sheen and no tar balls in the water. They travelled more than five miles southwest of Pensacola Pass and circled back to Pensacola Beach. They then cruised west along Pensacola Beach to return to the Pass and saw many beach-goers enjoying the beach, as well as clean-up crews, but no apparent oil on the beach or active clean-up activities. The beaches look "clear" and the water was "spectacular" according to Captain Meyers.

In addition, Captain Meyers took a group of divers out to the Russian Freighter (about 9 miles SSE of Pensacola Pass) yesterday and reported good visibility and plenty of healthy red snapper and amberjack. No oil was spotted. Images have been posted on the oil update page of VisitPensacolaBeach.com.

Fishing at the point

More good turtle news!

We received more good news this morning regarding our sea turtles! A loggerhead came ashore on Pensacola Beach during the night and nested.

Keep up those prayers, good thoughts, and visualization practices! Even though it is difficult to be positive right now, we cannot give in to depression which so often tries to envelope us (at least me!) in a dark cloud.

Mahatma Ghandi said, "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." This surely applies to us during this eco-disaster when we feel so helpless and frustrated.

On your good days, be there for a friend who is struggling. On your bad days, know that however many generations it takes we will fight to reclaim and restore our beautiful Gulf water.

Fiesta Sand Sculpture Contest 2010

The beach was beautiful, but hot yesterday. High winds fought rather unsuccessfully against high humidity to keep us cooled off and also made it more difficult for the sand sculptors.


As always, I love going to the beach to see the Fiesta Sand Sculpture Contest.

There didn't seem to be quite as many entries this year, but it just gave us room to spread out and enjoy the awesome work.

Approaching initially from the other side, I thought this was an odd-colored octopus - minus two tentacles. Ha! Then I walked around and saw it was a giant pineapple! Cool!

Wow! For real? Did he/she say yes?

Trash to treasure...

Is it just me or does this Sphinx have an uncanny resemblance to George Washington?

Tiny hatchlings...may they be safe.

Whoaa!!!!

Obviously we're hearing this phrase a lot lately.

Twenty-thousand leagues.... up and the giant squid is still wrapped around the submarine!

Margaritaville!

Jimmy Buffet's very first Margaritaville Hotel is set to open right here on Pensacola Beach later this month or July. We had a great view of it across Little Sabine Bay this morning while having brunch at a friend's home.

The hotel is beautiful and its draw with the Margaritaville name couldn't have come at a better time for Pensacola Beach! Cars lined both sides of Ft. Pickens Road on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as locals took advantage of the new hotel's job fair.

To read more about how this came about, you may click HERE.

It's a beautiful day!

"It's a beautiful day-uh-ay..." I sang out loud during my morning patrol of Ft. Pickens (and heartily apologize to U2).


This gorgeous sight -- an oil-free beach despite wind from southwest -- is what made it seem so appropriate. There was no harsh odor of oil in the air. The surf was up and life seemed normal for at least a while.


Nearing the point I noticed some new material resembling pom-poms had been staked in at the high tide level.


It all looked clean and oil free also.

That's not to say that there weren't oiled objects on the beach occasionally...

I came across single items such as this debris which had been well-coated at some point.

But this was the best sight of all...our first and only sea turtle nest of the season! It is a Kemp's ridley nest and hopefully we will see hatchlings sometime in August.

Let's just hope and pray our hatchlings will have an environment -- the Gulf of Mexico -- in which they can survive.

Tristan DeLuna Landing Ceremony

The re-enactment of Tristan DeLuna landing in Pensacola 451 years ago took place this afternoon, but when it rains, it pours!

Boats were still coming under the Bob Sikes bridge when the clouds gathered low and heavy.

If you click on the photo above you can see boats lined up in the sound waiting their turn to pull up to the pier while people began hustling off the beach at the sound of thunder.

A faithful few waited next to the boats...

But bolts of lightning convinced them to head for cover. Incredibly, a couple of young men stayed in the water!!!

You may click HERE to see photos from the great event last year -- back when we had sunshine, clear skies, and no oil!

Surfin'

News of oil balls doesn't stop surfers from trying to catch a few waves. Let's hope our water stays this clear!

More booms

A barge of booms was pushed to shore at Ft. Pickens yesterday afternoon.


Hopefully the oil in our area will not get so heavy that Pensacola Pass must be closed since it is a commercial waterway (Intracoastal Waterway).


Our poor herons are confused about these yellow intruders that aren't coughing up any fish for them.

But for now they are just walking around them, like I did yesterday.

TURTLE NEWS!

Yippee!!! Some good news at last! Despite the fact that the island, including the Ft. Pickens area, is now crowded with media trucks, hundreds of visitors, volunteers already on the job picking up oil balls, and ATVs galore assessing the situation, the Kemp's ridley which attempted to nest this morning returned a couple of hours later...and NESTED!!!! Yessireee!!!

Unlike Loggerheads which come ashore at night to nest, Kemp's ridleys will both nest and hatch during the day. If I beg hard enough, perhaps I can get the bio-tech who monitored the situation to share a photo with me.

Wow. I needed this. I'm smiling!

Ray of hope

One tiny piece of good news this morning! A Kemp's ridley sea turtle was observed in the Ft. Pickens Area of Gulf Islands National Seashore this morning! Although she did not nest, visitors who spotted her contacted the Campground office and a bio-tech immediately went to the area to keep an eye her. Sea turtles can get disoriented and suffer from exhaustion if onshore too long.

Now that she is back in the Gulf, it is hoped that she will return later today and nest either in Ft. Pickens or Perdido Key. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!!!

Kemp's ridley sea turtles are listed as an endangered species and are the smallest marine turtle in the world. You may learn more about them by clicking HERE.

Oil blobs

I walked down to the beach to see if there were any "oil balls" in my area and, as you can see, there were. I forgot to bring anything which I could use for perspective in photos -- guess I was still trying to be positive -- so I used my own shadow, typical blonde (or senior) moment, huh!

The oil blobs look like spoonsfull of chocolate pudding which a child may have dropped here and there. Some large, most very small.

The positive news is that there was no odor in the air other than our salt breeze and many people were out soaking up the rays, not allowing another day to go by without appreciating our beautiful Pensacola Beach.

Oil on Pensacola Beach

I am so sad to tell my blog followers that "oil balls" began washing up on Pensacola Beach overnight.

Two weeks ago I completed an online HAZWOPER course which was required to continue sea turtle patrols if/when the oil made it to Pensacola Beach. Now that oil is washing in, we expect word to come down today which requires us start wearing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) during our patrols. Basic PPE for us would be rubber boots, a tyvek suit and gloves.

As I told a friend, in my worst nightmare I could not have dreamed of someday needing HAZWOPER credentials and Personal Protective Equipment to complete my sea turtle patrols in this place we call paradise.

Even worse is the fact that we are now into June and have not discovered a single sea turtle nest in our area (as of yesterday) which includes Pensacola Beach, Perdido Key, and the Santa Rosa and Ft. Pickens areas of Gulf Island National Seashore. The sea turtle species which nest in our area are already on either the threatened or endangered list and we have no idea how this eco-catastrophe is impacting them. I can wear protective gear during a patrol while the beach is being cleaned, but the sea turtles are basically swimming in a poison soup in some areas.

Many people in Florida, self included, fought to stop offshore drilling in our state, but I don't think most of us knew the extent to which we could be affected by the wells farther away. My heart breaks for the people of Louisiana, their shrimpers, their beautiful marshlands and estuaries, and the innocent wildlife which is being destroyed. The eco-system will be affected for decades and the whole Gulf Coast is grieving.

BP's current ad which states, "We will make this right," would be laughable if it wasn't such an affront. They have forever changed us, our way of life, and our beautiful Gulf water and beaches. This event can't be made right in our lifetime. Our children, grandchildren, and generations to come will be dealing with the aftermath. Yes, we will be able to clean up our beaches over time, but some of the more sensitive marine and wildlife could be lost forever.

Each of us would "like our life back", too, Mr. Hayward.

Passing by the palm

There is one area of my Ft. Pickens patrol that has always intrigued me and that is the where the Sabal Palm grows outside the old fort...about halfway between the southwest fort wall to the beach.

Everyone I've asked has said it's been there "forever", so the origin of this lone palm remains a mystery. Sabals (also called Cabbage Palms) don't produce 'coconuts', so it didn't start from a coconut that washed ashore one day. It stands tall and straight, so I doubt it escaped from a decades-old landscaping project on the mainland. Hmmmm...where did it come from?

Sabal Palms left on their own usually have a cross-hatch of old leaf stems going up the trunk, but considering the number of hurricanes this palm has gone through, it no surprise they have been torn away, leaving the trunk smooth.

If anyone has any speculation or old stories you've heard about it, feel free to weigh in. I love a good mystery story, but I'm that irritating person who has to check the last couple of pages to see how the story is going to end. In this case, I want to know the beginning!

Injured Great Blue Heron

I was very sad this morning to discover that one of our Great Blue Herons had a wing injury.


I reported it to the Park so that they could try to help it out. These birds are so magnificent that it is frustrating when someone like me can't do anything to help other than report the injury and location.


Another photo of a smaller Great Blue Heron from earlier in my patrol.