Sunday, August 9, 2009

Just a " Day Tripper"

After getting some things done around the house Saturday morning, I decided to take the Expedition Windsurfer out for a short trip. I headed to one of my favorite places to paddle and sail...Bishop Harbor on the east side of Tampa Bay. I was only on the water for a short time when a thunder storm started brewing in the east. You can see it in the background of this photo.

This portion of Bishop Harbor was at one time going to be a housing development. The developer had dredged up large amounts of bay bottom making dry ground to build on. The dredged ground looked like fingers sticking out into the water. This disrupted the natural tidal flow and also allowed for invasive exotic plants like the Brazilian Pepper and Australian pines to take over.


Recently the state of Florida bought the land and they have returned it to its natural form. They eradicated the exotic plants and replanted with natives making the area look as though it might have looked before the developer came along.
It appeared that the storm was going to hit hard but just at the last moment seemed to split apart right over my head. Here is a shot of a lightning bolt I was able to capture. It only took about 10 tries. This is why the Tampa Bay area is the lightning capital of North America.
This photo makes the storm look worse than it actually was.
I never did get to sail but the paddling was great.
Great Adventures,
Trey

1 comment:

Ian Berger said...

Wow, that's gorgeous trip. The Hudson Valley is pretty but we get nowhere near the wildlife that you get. Makes me want to grab a snorkel and check out all the critters in the water.

I can't wait to see Expedition Windsurfer 2.0.

-Ian