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blorbologist · 2 years ago

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this isnt cr so ignore this if u wish but. rewrite au where willowbreeze lived instead of greypool? 👀

HMMM

okay so I'm playing in your @fatal-rewrites-warriors sandbox so feel free to kick my shins if you don't like this.

OK so basic premise would be that Greypool dies to whatever illness killed Willowbreeze and her litter - so Willow survives but her sister and kittens are dead.

First thing's first I think Willowbreeze still being around would push Riverclan to be a lot more aggressive to the other clans than in canon. Given our Willowbreeze was a bit of a shit and always trying to prove herself to be So Extra Riverclan as a result of being publicly half-clan. The River/Thunder battle that Tigerclaw uses to kill Oak and Red might happen earlier with her warmongering.

You list Willowbreeze dying ~2 years before ITW. Mist and Stone are 3-ish years old. So Greypool likely still adopted them, only to die when they were 'paws or fresh Warriors. I can see Oakheart becoming more obvious a parent to them to compensate for her loss, which might have clued another cat or two in on The Secret. If Willowbreeze finds out, Crooked will be in for hell - not because she'd take it out on him, she would be so thankful he helped keep the heritage a secret. But she would immediately hate Oakheart with her whole heart, and Crooked would be torn between his brother, his Deputy, and his mate. If she does find out, though, she would absolutely dote on Mist and Stone, maybe to an uncomfortable degree - or try too hard to treat them like normal Warriors, which would also be odd.

I can see Willowbreeze also latching onto Silverstream as a surrogate daughter along with Crooked - they're a power couple that do everything together so she's 100% going to project her lost litter onto her a bit, and maybe Lep too. In canon Lep's main authority figures she seems to look to are Crooked and White, so having a molly (and one with such a painful past no less) to give her advice would be swell. I could see Willow taking a shine to both of the girls and pulling Crooked's ear about favoring Lep as a Deputy candidate - though if Sunfish is feeling bold she might call out the favoritism and thus force Crooked's hand to be a little more impartial.

Given Willowbreeze does not have dementia, she would likely still be an active Warrior for the events of the first three books - and one with significant political clout, too. She wouldn't have wandered off before a storm - though I could see Crooked instead dying trying to help Silverstream and her litter, if he has more time to search as a result. Willow would be absolutely devastated, but also, as mate of the last 'star, her backing Lep would make things very smooth for the new Leader.

I don't think Willowbreeze would figure out Silverstream was seeing someone from another Clan. She's the result of such an affair - she never actually directly saw one. She does not know what signs to look for. She would have been completely blindsided by the news, and felt incredibly betrayed by Silver's affair.

Here's where shit would get testy: Willowbreeze would fucking shred Greystripe. She's a senior Warrior, her mate just died, her *pregnant* surrogate daughter just died - as far as she's concerned she's allowed to act out a bit. Her kithood was extremely traumatic as a result of being publicly known to be half-clan, shuttled back and forth between River and Wind, and always having to prove herself twice as much to make up for it. She's just been slapped in the face with the fact that all the stories she told Silverstream, of how awful it was, were ignored and minimized, and that hurts. More than that, she sees two grandkits who will experience the same thing she did. Her biggest fear is to see them used as political props, so seeing Greystripe appear in camp reminds her of her father taking her to Windclan. So yeah, maybe she mauls Greystripe, and Leopardstar's first big political challenge as a leader is figuring out what the fuck to do with one of the Clan's most respected attacking someone who just wants to help, and not accidentally encourage more such behavior.

#ask #idk what to tag this bestie

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kittyking445 · 3 years ago

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Y'know what. I'll say it,

Being Aromantic, SPECIFICALLY aromatic allosexual and interacting with fandom spaces is genuially one of the mose draining nd upsetting things ever, and Centaurworld is a great example

Centaurworld is genuially one of my fave shows still nd one of the reasons is bc it's one of the ONLY children's media, and actually one of the only shows in general were romance is NEVER a main focus.

The only depictions of EXPLICIT romantic attraction in season one was

- Wammawinks crush on Sunfish Merguy

- Sunfish Merguy then revealing he has a girlfriend

- Comfortable Doug mentioning husband and/or wife in his song

That's it. Even Wammas crush is rlly only the b-plot of the ep. It's never dragged out, never made a priority, there's no realationship drama nd one of the MAIN THEMES r the herd r like found family.

Ppl ofc still shipped them. Unless they creators would outright say Wammawink legally adopted them all ppl would still find ways to ship them, even then ppl would.

But then season 2 came out, again the only EXPLICIT depictions of romance are

- Sunfish Merguy and Jeffica appearing again

- the 2 Moletaurs wedding Horse interrupted

- Elktaurs crush on MW and their relationship

- Splendib and Zulius getting together and related, Cheds crush on Zulius

Again, that's it. Most of those r one-off jokes that r barely mentioned nd Elktaur nd MW end with MW bashing his head in. Again, none of it is a main focus. Zulius nd Splendib only happen in the last couple episodes and MW and Elktaurs relationship is only revealed in the last ep nd only for backstory reasons

There's no big romantic plotlines in the show, no drama of "will they won't they", no acting like romantic love is the most important. And in season 2 they're even MORE EXPLICIT of the herd being family.

Horse nd Rider call each other sisters, Wamma constantly acts motherly towards the whole herd, Zulius was an adult by the time all the herd were kids nd Ched as a teenager when Durpleton couldn't be older then 10, they literally have a JOKE in the birdtaurs song where the herd say they're platonic (yes ik this was just a general jab st fandom shipping but it's the same situation)

Centaurworld could not be more obvious it's a FOUND FAMILY show unless the whole herd came onscreen and said they are a family and see each other as family nd family only.

And yet. Every. Single. Godamn time I go into the tags I always ALWAYS see ship art. The show where we get almost 0 shipping potential and yet MOST POST'S r still Abt shipping

This right fucking here is why I'm so SO fucking sick of allos at this point, nd why I genuinely do think being alloaro in fandom spaces is the fucking WORST. No matter what, no matter what the show is Abt, no matter how the characters r depicted, no matter what the characters say, no matter if we finally get a show where the main focus is found family nd there's barely a mention of romance, allos in the fandom will still fucking take this from us and make it about romance.

I'm aroallo, I know I'll probably never see proper representation for me in any mainstream media. I'll get luck if there's at LEAST aroace characters to come by. But there r a few times where there's a show or book or even just one specific character where their main focus is to show how romantic love isn't needed nd ppl can be happy nd healthy and completely fine without any form of romance in their life, nd allos will SOME HOW, STILL make it about them. Elsa needs to date the random village girl when her entire story is about not needing a partner to be happy, ppl ship Ched and Durpleton when they're the mose obvious depiction of brothers I've ever seen, ppl need to ship Lapis and Peridot when they can just be friends and Peridot is already Canonly aroace.

Fandom spaces are not safe 4 aros, their for allos to live out their fantasies by shipping some two random characters together and filling up the tags with it, and then calling us homophobic or "mean" when all we want is to not be reminded CONSTANTLY we don't feel romantic love and most ppl think that's the only way ur supposed to feel.

I'm so fucking tired of it.

#vent #long post #<3 sorry 4 this yall im feeling shit tn

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inaturalist · 6 years ago

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Holy Mola! - The Oral History of an iNat Identification

The iNaturalist community made international headlines a few weeks ago after the first hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta) seen in North America was shared and then identified via iNaturalist and some dedicated participants. It really is a great story that shows the power of collaboration and the importance of keeping an open (and optimistic!) mind, so I thought it would be fun to compile an oral (although in this case, written) history from the participants.

What follows are the lightly edited and condensed recollections of most of the people involved, put together as chronologically as possible. I have not heard back from all participants, but am happy to add your input if you message me.

Jessica Nielsen (Coal Point Oil Reserve): My first observation of the hoodwinker sunfish was on the morning of February 19th, 2019. A colleague, Mark Holmgren, and I were conducting the reserve's monthly bird monitoring survey at around 7:00 am and noticed a tall dorsal fin flopping about in the water about a hundred meters off of the point at Coal Oil Point Reserve. We weren't sure at the time what animal we were looking at as we couldn't see it very clearly in the water, but we assumed it was some kind of marine mammal based on the size of the fin and head. Later the same day, when a 7 foot long sunfish washed up on the beach, we realized that was what we had seen that morning.

I was alerted to the washed up fish by one of our UCSB student interns, Ruth Alcantara... Unfortunately, the fish was already dead but it was still a sight to see such a large and unusual fish up close. I took some measurements and photos and posted the finding to Coal Oil Point Reserve’s Facebook page.

Daniel Spach (Wilderness Youth Project): We were about to leave Devereux that day after tidepooling for a couple hours when a couple of the kids spotted what looked like a dead seal or something in an unusual posture near the beach on the rocks. When we got over there we were stunned to find something I had never seen or heard of anyone finding on a Santa Barbara beach... a Sun Fish? It was longer than I am tall, over 7 feet I'd say, super flat and roundish, with a mouth big enough to swallow my head. All the kids gathered round and were giddily excited about it, noting the shape of the fins and eyes, making guesses as to its watery demise. Everyone seemed a bit scared to touch it though, thinking it would be slimy like most decomposing fish we'd encountered but it's skin was actually extremely hard, dense, and rough, like an ocean rhino or something.

Kittyhawk snapped a few pictures [TI: see above] with her phone. The kids all wanted to make sure their parents would get a copy of the pictures. Might be the only time any of us will encounter this fish for our lifetimes.

Jeff Phillips (@ljefe): My 10-year old son Pierce participates in the Wilderness Youth Project’s after school program every Wednesday. [On] Feb 22, when I met the group to pick up my son and friends at 5:30pm, they were excited about this huge fish they had found on the beach during their afternoon outing (sometime between 2 and 4:30pm). I’m a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so they knew I’d be excited about it. I had them send me the photo and with my son’s help to mark the location, I posted it on iNaturalist, originally identifying it as Mola mola. I thoroughly enjoyed the ensuing discussion among tomleeturner, rfoster, and mnyegaard.

Tom Turner (@tomeleeturner): I saw [Jessica’s] post and went down there with my family, because I wanted my 4 year old son to check it out. I posted it on iNat, of course, because…that is what I do. Everyone was assuming it is a Mola mola. What happened next is a classic example of iNat at its best.

Ralph Foster (@rfoster): I have an alert for Mola spp and was checking through the day's offerings when I saw what I took to be a stranded Mola tecta. I was bewildered when I realised this was in California and not in New Zealand or Australia so I tagged Marianne [Nyegaard, who described Mola tecta], asking for her input.

Marianne Nyegaard (@mnyegaard): Ralph Foster emailed me with links to iNaturalist asking if I could see what species it was, strongly suspecting it was Mola tecta. I quickly checked and thought that the fish surely looked like a hoodwinker, but frustratingly, none of the many photos showed the clavus [TI: aka what sunfishes’ back “fin” is called] clearly. And with a fish so far out of range, I was extremely reluctant to call it a hoodwinker without clear and unambiguous evidence of its identity... I emailed Ralph and told him we needed more photographs and ideally a tissue sample, and posted on iNaturalist that his was probably just a Mola mola.

Ralph Foster: Since there were no diagnostic features shown, I also tagged the observer (@sealovelife) asking if there were more images available, which is when Tom directed me to his observation.

Tom Turner: By this time I was already out on the beach in the dark looking for the fish to get better photos, because what could be more fun than this? Alas, the tide had floated it away again.

Marianne Nyegaard: I then had a cup of coffee and doubt starting creeping in... I spent the next few hours obsessively zooming in on all the photos posted on iNaturalist... Some photos showed peoples’ hands on the sunfish, so I used their fingernails to gauge the scale and compared the skin with my archive photos. Even though the resolution just wasn't high enough to be sure, I started convincing myself the skin at least wasn't incompatible with Mola tecta and that ….perhaps it was a hoodwinker?... But I felt I needed to be absolutely 100% sure before settling on an ID, seeing I had described the hoodwinker and would need to back up my ID with absolute certainty with a specimen so far away from home.

I woke up to an email from Jessica Nielsen saying [she and Tom] were keen to go back out and find the fish again so I sent them instructions of what to look for and photograph, and then sat on the edge of my chair with all fingers and toes crossed that they would find it.

Tom Turner: At low tide (now two days later), I started biking on the beach from the east, and Jessica started walking from the west, 2 miles apart. We met in the middle, at the fish, now a few hundred yards farther east.

Jessica Nielsen: Tom and I waited for the tide to go out, found the fish...and we got to work taking the photos and fin clips requested. It really was exciting to collect the photos and samples knowing that it could potentially be such an extraordinary sighting! Once we sent over the photos, Marianne responded very quickly.

Marianne Nyegaard: I was away from my desk most of the day, but when I checked my emails in the afternoon I literally nearly fell off my chair (which I was sitting on the edge of!). Tom and Jessica had indeed found the fish and had photographed and examined it, and taken a tissue sample. A huge amount of extremely clear photos were in my inbox and there was just no doubt of the ID. They had also examined the clavus by hand to confirm the number of ossicles, which was just brilliant. Eyes and ears and hands on the ground half a world away, wow.

Ralph Foster: If it hadn't been for Tom and Jessica's willingness to revisit and examine the specimen we would not have known with certainty that this was, indeed, Mola tecta.

Jessica Nielsen: We were all thrilled to hear the news. Mola tecta was just recently discovered in 2017 (by Marianne and her research team) so there is still so much to learn about this species. I’m so glad that we could help these researchers make the final definitive ID.

Tom Turner: iNaturalist at its best: experienced novice loops in expert who loops in the expert who then helps us learn about our find and gets info she will use in her research. And it was fun and exciting for all.

Marianne Nyegaard: Ralph Foster also alerted the University of California, who did a beach dissection and collected a large number of samples. Tissue samples will soon be on the way from California to my sister’s lab in Denmark, where I do all my sunfish genetics.

So, within 24 hours after I had first been made aware of this stranding we had confirmed the ID. I just love iNaturalist and am continuously amazed by how much fun it is to “meet” passionate people all over the world

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oudenoida · 4 years ago

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mihali/inanna - can't sleep

It wasn’t unusual that the middle of the night rolled around and found Mihali Paveros anywhere but in his own bed. They were a crepuscular species in general, and Mihali had always found himself better suited to productivity when the moon was high as opposed to under the harsh light of day. It was strange to him to be living in a home so large it seemed a small city unto itself. Magical humans, especially those as fabulously wealthy as Inanna Zabini, seemed to build homes that defied the laws of the world around them, fitting themselves into empty spaces that were far too small for the grandeur of the building. An interesting application for their magical talent but one that somewhat escaped the understanding of the young gorgon. The islands he had grown up in had almost no buildings on the surface, which conveniently hid a spacious underground village in the cave network beneath their shores. But the palatial opulence of The Gardens was something he had never experienced before.

It was a marvel to him that the whole household (well, most of it at least. The spymaster who’d visited the Cretan stronghold Mihali had called home never moved with the rest of the house) shifted what wing of the house it lived in depending on the season. It seemed a strange thing to pack up his few belongings and shift to another suite of rooms as Spring ebbed into Summer, but he hadn’t felt it worth mentioning to anyone else in the house. He was a guest, of a sort, and a diplomat, of an even more strange sort, and frankly he was happy to have a set of rooms that didn’t have one of 78 sisters barging into it at any given moment.

But sitting in the dim of the kitchen, worn sweatpants doing nothing to quell the chill of the marble countertop he sat on, it was easy to reflect on the strangeness of the whole situation as he ate some leftover pizza that Raleigh had cooked, feeding morsels of salted fish to the snakes of his hair that sleepily brushed his shoulders, “it’s a far cry from home, that’s for sure.” The pirate Kamon had brought salted sunfish back from one of his more recent voyages as a gift. Mihali hadn’t even known the “man” knew he’d been living in The Gardens, but the fact that he’d known exactly what was considered a delicacy by Gorgons meant that there was more to him than met the eye. This confirmed the thought that Mihali had that he was only wearing the shape of a man, but wasn’t one. He could smell something underneath the handsome face. Brine and age. Power. It made sense. He’d seen Kamon and Leonidas together, and he knew the handsome vampire only looked in his mid-20s. Raleigh had confided that Leo was one of Madame Zabini’s oldest friends, and was in reality millenia old.

One of the snakes in his hair nibbled his fingers in annoyance as he was too slow bringing another small piece of dried fish up to them. “If you’re assholes then nobody gets fish. Is that what you want? I’ll just sit here and eat this pizza and nobody gets sunfish. Don’t make me tell Captain Kamon that you’re all bad and don’t deserve more treats.” He heard the sound of a gentle laugh behind him and turned quickly, face flushing as he saw Inanna Zabini herself with a baby on each hip.

“I always wondered. Does your hair need to eat? Does it exist as a separate entity? Or is this just a strange piece of Gorgon culture I’ll never truly understand because my hair isn’t sentient snakes with the power to turn people to stone?”

He managed to keep the squeak inside, but there was still a quiet gasp as he slid down from the counter, bowing quickly at the waist, “Lady Zabini. Good evening.”

The snort he got in response was far from ladylike but still perfectly Inanna, “We’re far past evening, snakelet. I think we’re well and truly into morning now but these two have no sense of time yet.” She breezed past him into the kitchen, depositing a very unhappy looking Kalama into his arms, “Hold her for me while I heat their bottles. You also didn’t answer my question.” She looked at him over her shoulder as he held the infant, eyes wide and a look of horror sliding over his features at the tremendous burden placed in his hands, “You people don’t have babies? You won’t break her, Paveros. You can hold her. You’re not cold blooded are you? I see you don’t have a shirt on, is that going to be cold?”

“I’m warm to the touch, your ladyship.” It wasn’t the order in which she’d asked the questions but it was the first thing that sprang to his mind as he held her daughter close, resting her head in the crook of his neck.

“Yes. So Besmertnaya tells the Pack.”

It was only the fact that he had a baby in his arms that kept him from bolting from the kitchen in embarrassment, “Well…. He would know.”

It was edifying to get an actual laugh out of Inanna, “I’m so proud you didn’t just hem and haw around that. No shame in bedding someone as handsome as him.”

It only occurred to Mihali after he’d already answered the question that it might have been a trick to get him to admit to the liaison, but it didn’t seem like there was any threat or danger from the admission, and so he padded quietly across the stone floor to stand next to Inanna at the stove, “It’s not the hair.”

She turned to look at him, pressing a small kiss to Blaise’s head as he squalled at the movement, but didn’t speak, her cool gaze unreadable, but seeming to allow him the space to finish answering her questions.

“It’s the eyes. The snakes that are hair, well at least in female Gorgons, have a powerful paralytic venom, but it won’t turn you to stone.” He bounced slightly as Kala nuzzled against his neck, “Adult gorgons have a structure within the cornea that allows the casting of the transfiguration to stone. Well adult female Gorgons. My snakes have no venom and I can’t turn people to stone. I just have venom in my personal fangs. Also no we’re not cold-blooded. The snakes don’t need to eat, but they like eating. It’s all caloric intake that goes into my body as a whole. They just have their own personal preferences.”

“I wasn’t concerned you were going to turn us all into stone, dearest. You did say adult and you’re still very much not.”

With an exaggerated sniff he stuck his nose up a little, “I’m older than you! I assume. I’m not going to ask your age, that would be wildly inappropriate, however I will say I’m turning 36 next month and am beyond reasonably sure that’s older than you.”

It was a testament to her non-verbal communication skills that all it took for her to get an entire paragraph’s worth of speech across was one single look through long lashes.

“We age much more slowly than humans. We’re not eternals by any means, not like Captain Kamon and Sir Leonidas. But I’m coming up on forty and I’m still considered…” He did some quick mental math as he bobbed up and down, rubbing gentle circles on Kalama’s back, “a very early teenager by our standards.”

“So they sent me a child as an envoy.” Her arch tone was mimicked in her facial expression as she passed him one bottle, keeping the other for herself as a disgruntled Blaise made it known he was not a fan of being woken up for midnight feedings.

“They sent you an expendable resource.” He carefully shifted Kala so she was cradled in one of his arms, offering her the bottle as he rocked her, “I’m young and a boy. Two things they can afford to lose if this turns out to be a trap. The Matriarchs are old and they are cunning. They fully don’t trust you yet, and they especially did not trust Spymaster Pettigrew.” The snakes on his head hiss softly in time with his rocking, weaving a soothing if sibilant lullaby for Kala to take her bottle to. “So if this is just a trick humans are using to lure us out in the open for hunting you’ll just kill me, no great trophy, and the tribe stays safe in our stronghold.”

“They sent me a child as a sacrifice?”

Kala finished the bottle and Mihali grabbed a clean towel from the cupboard, turning her to press against his chest as he burped her gently. Her little fingers ran over the thin lines of scales that ran up his neck when they weren’t hidden by his glamour “ow ow ow with the grain of the scales, Mistress Zabini, not against.” She giggled, almost as if she could understand him, and settled against his chest with a small sigh, “Not as a sacrifice. But as an acceptable casualty. They weighed risk and reward. The reward was the potential for an alliance with more of the inhuman magical races. The risk was it was a trap. We’ve functioned pretty well as a species without such an alliance before so, the Matriarchs weren’t willing to risk much. The runt from the last clutch was about as much as they were send off into the world. They wouldn’t send you one of my many sisters. Not until they were sure you were serious. So you got me.”

Momentarily distracted by the cooing baby on his shoulder Mihali missed the look on Inanna’s face until he turned in his soft rocking to see her staring at him cooly, “You are not an acceptable loss in this household, Paveros. They may undervalue your worth but we do not. Besides. Nobody who is as good with my daughter as you are is anything other than immensely valuable. I do hope you’ll still be around when they grow old enough to appreciate you.”

Blushing Mihali ducked his head to nuzzle Kala softly, the snakes caressing her, “I’ll be around as long as you have need of me, your ladyship.”

Inanna laughed and nodded her head towards the door, ‘Come help me put these two back to bed and you can return to your pizza and whatever strange salted fish my Pirate King brought your hair. We’ll have to cure you of this ‘your ladyship’ nonsense as well. At least when it’s just the two of us. You’re part of the family now.”

He wasn’t sure he’d ever been given a greater honor.

#iomadaidh #m: mihali #opp: inanna #allie asks

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candypops-prince · 5 years ago

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Princey’s AC Diary - Day #3 (This may be a long post, so press j on your keyboard if you’d like to skip it)

Entry 3 for my Animal Crossing Diary!

I wasn’t overly busy on the island today. My sister had control of the switch for most of the day, so I didn’t play much until the night.

I talked to Tom Nook today, and he had me build a bridge to make room for more villagers moving in. I chose what I thought was a convenient location at the river, and decided to leave choosing the house locations until I can talk it over with my sister. I wouldn’t want to put a house somewhere where she was going to detest it, after all.

I also went to one of the abandoned islands and brought home a good amount of apples. They’re my favourite fruit, so I’m starting up a little apple orchard by my house!

I spent a good couple of hours just fishing after doing both those things, until I came across a spooky but familiar face.

It was Wisp! I pole vaulted right over and completed the task they asked of me (recovering their spirit fragments), hoping that I’d get some sort of Amiibo integration once I did. It’s what they did in New Leaf, so it didn’t seem like a bad assumption to make, and I have been waiting for my chance to use an Amiibo card!

Unfortunately, though, I was wrong, and all he gave me in return was a wallpaper.

It didn’t even fit the bill of the wallpaper I want for my house, so immediately after checking it out, it got stuffed into my storage. Oh well, I still think it's quite pretty and will probably use it in a different room later on.

After my encounter with Wisp, it was right back to fishing. I didn’t catch a whole lot of new fish (I think I managed to catch most of them already, except for some very rare ones), but I still managed to obtain some prize catches, such as...

A couple of sharks, a VERY pretty Emperor butterfly, and a crab that I hadn’t encountered at all until now.

I managed to rake in a fair amount of bells for all my catches over the night (I managed to reach 90,000 bells after taking this screenshot), and added a small number of creatures to the ever-growing museum pile.

(You can’t even see everything!)

Also, props to my sister for catching enough sharks for both herself and the museum, as well as the lovely sunfish. She has quite a knack for catching fish of these types, and it meant I could sell my own sharks for a good amount of cash!

That’s all from me for tonight. Hopefully the museum will actually open up tomorrow.

- Princey

#acnhdiarychallenge #princeys ac diary

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000tin · 4 years ago

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I‘ve been feeling really nostalgic lately too. I thought I didn’t remember a lot from my childhood but some random memories are coming back spending time at home. I even dreamt about people I haven’t seen or thought about in years. I dreamt about this boy from elementary school, but grown up and we were at a bar. And waking up I remembered how we‘d taken a picture together at the school festival of him dressed up as a groom and me as a bride lol The photo hung in our kitchen for a while, but my sister kept teasing me for it and called me gay until I tore it apart and tossed it. I guess I must have repressed that memory, but after dreaming about it I could remember how sweet his parents were, how cool his house was, how we’d trade Pokémon and fight in the sandpit lol It made me wonder about what kind of life I could have lived if I didn’t withdraw as much as much and actually tried to make the experiences and connections happen that I deserved and needed. But like of course my self worth had been diminished at that age so I’m not going to regret something that wasn’t in my control. What I concluded from that was that every bad time in my life should have taught me how wrong it is to think of myself so lowly and that everyday not making ~something~ out of life is a missed opportunity or whatever But mostly I’m just wondering if my bestie from Kindergarten and elementary school is playing animal crossing too. Playing it just reminds me of sleeping over at her place and fishing for sharks and sunfish at night 🥺 I want to reach out to her!!

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janetgannon · 8 years ago

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Spring Break cruising “stay-cation”

Last week we had my sister, Tracy, and nephews, Jack & Ryan, aboard for spring break. Since the kids were all out of school for a full week, our original plan was to head to the Keys and anchor out near Key West to do some spear fishing and kayaking and then head into Key West for the weekend before our return. Unfortunately, the weather this time of year just doesn’t want to cooperate with it’s cold fronts that come through. There was to be 15-25mph winds in Key West and so we decided to stay local. We decided to do a “cruising stay-cation” and visit our usual haunts that we love to anchor out in. First up was heading South to New Pass for a couple of nights.

New Pass

New Pass was our first stop since it was close to the marina and a great place for the boys to get into a routine of kayaking and fishing and being out on their own. We anchored in our usual spot near the dog beach and the boys had the run of the place. Randy got them settled in on their kayaks and they went ashore to swim, fish and do what boys do. We gave them money to go to the Lover’s Key snack bar each day and they dined on burgers and ice cream. Our plan was to stay just one night and head to Cayo Costa the next day, however, we had an issue with an oil leak in the engine (which turned out to be nothing) that kept us there an extra day. No complaints from the boys about staying another day as they were loving it there. After 2 nights anchored at New Pass, we headed the next day to Cayo Costa State Park.

The boys paddling over to the beach. Big brother Jack tows Ryan.

Tracy and Captain Randy relaxing on the bridge

Ryan gets some quiet time on the bridge and reads his book

Randy and Ryan paddle to shore to check on the other boys

Randy waiting for sunset—Who’s that photo bomber on the left with a fork full of steak?!

Sunset at New Pass, Ryan and Corey blow the conch horn

Our conch horn band

Beautiful sunset

Three happy boys kayaking to the beach again

With the boys gone, Randy troubleshoots the engine issue

Hanging out on the front of the boat

Randy, Tracy and I head to shore via dinghy to see what the boys are up to

Three amigos

Corey and Ryan stop and pose for a minute

Blue Turtle with the New Pass bridge in the background

These boys are so entertained by a skim board and a bucket

Randy and my sis

Jack pulls Ryan around on the skim board

Freeze boys! Mannequin challenge!

My sis and I

The boy’s transportation for the week

Cayo Costa State Park

Cayo Costa was our next destination and we made good time getting there and getting anchored by mid-afternoon. We first anchored near the entrance of the park and later moved closer to the dock after learning that we would be getting some wind. It was a great spot since we were very near to shore for the boys to paddle over to and they enjoyed fishing off the dock after 5pm. We had towed our sunfish sailboat along with us so we could use it at Cayo Costa. Randy set it up and Corey and Jack went for the first sail. Our trawler had all the toys attached to it on this trip—3 kayaks, a dinghy and a sun fish. The weather was beautiful, absolutely perfect weather for anchoring out. The boys fished and kayaked and Randy took Ryan, Tracy and I out on sails on the sunfish. Sophie even accompanied us when we circumnavigated a nearby island. One of the days, we rented bikes and rode around on the trails. Did I mention the weather was gorgeous? We couldn’t have had a more perfect week for my sis and nephews to spend time with us on Blue Turtle. After 4 nights spent at Cayo Costa, we headed toward home but stopped for one night at Captiva Island.

Ryan and Corey eat breakfast on the way to Cayo Costa as Jack tries to sleep in on the couch

Corey wake boarding en route…need I say more?

Arriving at Cayo Costa

First evening, we went ashore to see what the boys were up to

We found them huddling in a puddle trying to stay warm since the sun had gone in

Post-jog around the beach with life jackets on for added warmth

Corey and Jack go for a sail while Sophie watches them

Randy goes on a solo sail (left) while I setup for a quick TRX workout on the aft deck (right)

Blue Turtle beauty

Corey and Jack getting their gear together to head to shore

Ryan is ready to paddle to shore

The boys paddling to the Cayo Costa docks

Randy takes me on a sail (left) and then my sister (right)

Ryan and Randy go for a sail

The gangs all here! At the docks heading to rent bikes.

Cayo Costa entrance sign

The boys picking out their bikes to ride

Riding the main trail on the island

The start of the Cemetery Trail

Trail end at Boca Grande Pass

Our rented bikes

Gorgeous view of Boca Grande Pass

Our handsome boys

Jack and Ryan climb the dead tree

What a view!

The boys rolling a log

Resting for a bit before heading onto another trail

The boys pose with the sheepshead that Corey caught on the dock

Randy, Sophie and I circumnavigate a small island on the sunfish

Sophie says, “this isn’t so bad”

Heading back to Blue Turtle

Blue Turtle with all the toys attached

Corey shows off a stunning redfish while Randy and I photo bomb via sunfish (left); a sheepshead and redfish was our dinner that evening

Blue Turtle anchored near the dock

Ryan catches a catfish in his pjs

Another sunset, another conch horn band performanace

Corey and Ryan blowing hot air

Captiva Island

We spent one evening anchored at Captiva near The Green Flash. This gave us the opportunity to resupply at one of the nearby shops and enjoy an awesome dinner at one of my favorite spots, The Green Flash. Randy took my sister and I ashore so we could go to The Island Store and re-provision since our 3 hungry boys had eaten every snack aboard Blue Turtle. Once we had our groceries restocked, we had dinner and then headed over to the beach for sunset. The next day, it was time to head home.

On the way to Captiva, we had a rare moment of quiet while the boys actually read their books

Ryan came with Randy to pick up my sis and I from the grocery

Blue Turtle anchored by The Green Flash

Having margaritas at The Green Flash while waiting for our table

Randy and I

Our boys climb the tree on Captiva

Fort Myers Beach

After one evening at Captiva, we headed for Fort Myers Beach the next morning. We planned to anchor out by Matanzas for one night before heading home, but first had to head to the marina to take on some water. On our way through the pass we noticed several Fish & Wildlife and Sheriff’s boats by Bowditch Point. A couple officers appeared to be near a body on shore. We later learned that the body of a 65 year old man washed up ashore there and that they found his boat nearby. Never a dull moment on FMB. After filling up with water at the marina, we went back to Matanzas to anchor for the night and ding to shore for dinner. The next morning it was time to head home and end our week-long cruising stay-cation. We had such a ball enjoying our family and watching these growing boys.

Fish and Wildlife and Sheriff boats near Bowditch Point

Jack and Corey on the front cruising past the shrimp fleet

We saw Pilgrim II cruise past, a couple we met at Franklin Locks

All piled into the dinghy to go to shore

Our adorably handsome boys

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