West Cocoa Chat

There are days in our lives that we experience pain, fun, or memorable events that etch themselves into our memories. I wish I could show you video (some would have had to have been shot in night vision) or pictures that would do justice to what I witnessed yesterday and last night. I did take some pictures but they won’t convey what is etched on my brain.

We were chased off by an advancing thunderstorm around 7pm. We took shelter along some slips near a marina at the Port. Once the storm moved off we headed back to our spot on the north side of the north jetty. The Jetty is actually on the Space Center Reservation and can only be reached by boat. Of course, stepping off the boat and onto the jetty or beach itself would probably result in a swift response from KSC Security Personnel.

As with many storms in our area, it’s passing turned the water into glassy calmness once the storm had moved out into the ocean. We anchored our boat about 30yards off the jetty. We were surrounded by the biggest schools of bait fish I have personally ever seen. With us were a school of dolphins knifing through the bait fish. They were so close that we could see and hear them clearing their blow-holes as they surfaced.

The bait fish were not going down without “flight” and when they did, “flight” or run that is, the ocean would literally boil with movement, displacement of the water, and sound. As the half-moon started to come out with the receding sun, the boils became almost luminescent. You couple that with cloud to cloud as well as cloud to ocean lightning off in the distance, manatees and dolphins swimming around us, the light of the Kennedy Space Center, and 4 friends fishing and laughing, well, we could have made a great commercial.

Makes me want to break out into a chorus of, “I love you man,” (or woman) depending upon the sex of the reader.