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| Brenda and Gary onboard S/V Pandion, with kayaks ready to go exploring (photos courtesy of Dave Hibberd). |
When we were anchored off Cistern Cay in the Berry Islands a few weeks ago, Dave Hibberd from S/V Cool Runnings flew his drone around the area and captured aerial footage and pictures of Pandion and her motley crew.
Dave is an expert at flying his drone, and it was fun to watch as he maneuvered it around our boat. He can fly it as high as 400 feet, with 20 minutes of flight time per battery.
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| S/V Pandion off Cistern Cay. |
We have recently acquired our own drone, after it finally caught up to us in Eleuthera. After ordering it in March back in Naples, it arrived too late as we caught a weather window for our first passage to the Dry Tortugas.
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| Ready for another adventure! |
No worries. We then had it shipped to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Office in Key West (one of our partners with Rookery Bay Reserve), along with a replacement anchor windlass motor.
As luck would have it, once again the drone arrived too late, as we had another weather window to catch for our Gulf Stream crossing. No worries. We had it shipped to Brenda's sister Cathy, who was planning to meet us in Eleuthera in June.
Now that we have it (thanks to Cathy!) the plan is to not fly it directly into the water on our first try.
Are those Sargassum rafts surrounding the Pandion?
ReplyDeleteHey George! Actually, what you are seeing are seagrass beds surrounding Pandion, at a depth of about 8 to 10 feet. Most of the seagrass that we saw around Cistern Cay in the Berry Islands was turtle grass, a species that we have in Florida, and named for the fact that sea turtles like to munch on it. Manatees, too.
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