Arrrggg..me hearties, tis anuther shipwreck!!!

What a great weekend....two walks on the beach. I'm so happy happy, oh yes I am!!! Of course, I'm paying for it dearly today too as my knee is so swollen I can hardly bend it. Dang it all.....hate to be getting old..hehe

Yesterday we went down to Fort Morgan. We love to go there because it's part of the Bon Secour National wildlife reserve. I love the name Bon Secour....just rolls off your tongue.....the reason I really like it is because in French it means "safe harbor" and that's exactly what it is. It's an ecosystem which serves as a refuge for endangered and threatened plant, fish and other wildlife species. It's also a hot spot habitat for our migratory birds ranging from our ospreys, herons and seven species of hummingbirds. One of our endangered species that lives among the sand dunes and sea oats is a cute lil fella called the Alabama beach mouse. They are small and very, very FAST. I have seen them but have never been able to get a picture of one because as soon as I get my camera up and ready.....it's gone!! Another endangered species that loves the shoreline along the reserve are the green, loggerhead and Kemp's Ridley sea turtles. So much wildlife living in one area that we are so blessed to be able to glimpse into.

Would ya just look at those big bird feet tracks? 

HEHE...there's the big bird they belong to too. Wonder if this is Hank?

I'm sure you're asking how in the world can we even get close enough to glimpse into it....well....the area that we can not walk in is posted and as far as I know....everyone abides by just the signs. We are allowed to walk on the beach and oh my, what a stretch of beautiful almost uninhabited beach it is. (most of the time)

One of our local photojournalist, Michelle Carroll Stancil was at Fort Morgan about 21 hours ago and captured some amazing shots of a new shipwreck that Mother Nature has uncovered after so many lost years. The Islander one of our local papers (online version) did an article on it which includes Michelle's photos and just what this mystery ship may be. If history and shipwrecks interest you, please take the time to read.

I posted the above so that if you did go and read (YOU did, didn't you? hehe) that you will see just how fast Mother Nature can reclaim a treasure. These are some of the shots I took yesterday on our visit there. No where near as good as Michelle's but I try with my lil camera. ^_^

Amazing what a day can do at the beach, eh? It was a beautiful day even if it wasn't a full sunny day. The sun was peeping out here and there and it reminded me of something my grandmother use to say, "The angels were sweeping and the gates were open".

I was hoping to find a whole bunch of shells too since not many folks wonder up and down this beach. I found a few of the big broken shells that look like angel wings to me and I'm thinking about painting a few with what I see.

We walked for about an hour and then drove over to where the ferry picks up folks to take them over to  Dauphin Island. The ferry was closed but we love to sit and watch the pelicans and sometimes the dolphins playing in the bay. No dolphins yesterday but there were some pelicans sitting on the pier post apparently doing the same thing we were.....just relaxing and enjoying the view.

We sat for about 30 minutes (hoping to see the dolphins) and on our way back up the short trail we discovered a cute little creature eating his dinner. Oh yes, we kept our distance!!!

It was a great afternoon spent together doing something we all love. I hope that you had a wonderful weekend and I would love to hear all about it.

Until next time............Hugs,
Regi

Mystery Ship at Ft. Morgan

It seems this mystery lady doesn't want folks to forget about her. But just who was the lovely lady that keeps making her appearances after major storms in our area?

                                                          (Photo by Joe Boyington)                      

Was she the two-masted schooner, Monticello, with a Civil War story to tell about evading the Union Blockade in 1862 and heading to Havana? Or was she a rum-runner trying to smuggle whiskey during the prohibition era? Or is she in fact the three-masted schooner, Rachael., that was carrying a load of timber that was forced ashore during a storm in 1923? 

                                                        (Photo by Michelle Carroll Stancil)

This beauty has been turning up since Camilla hit in 1969. With the changing seas and sands she disappears for awhile only to be once again reveled. Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Hurricane Ike in 2008 and now in 2012 Hurricane Issac. Several folks have commented on it being very interesting that Hurricanes all beginning in "I" and four years separating each have brought this beauty out more with each passing. 

                                                                      (Photo by Regi)

The Chazman loves history and he realized that today on our adventure to see this mystery lady that he was standing with something that might go back 100 years. Of course, when we got home we had to do a bit of investigating.

                                                             (Photos by Regi)

You can see the metal turnbuckles that time and the ocean have not been able to completely destroy. Metal turnbuckles were not used during the Civil War according to Greg Cook, of the University of West Florida, that studied the vessel in 2008.  Since the Civil War theory was taken out,  it is believed that she might just be the 155 foot schooner, Rachael, one of the largest Biloxi schooners built at the time in the early 1900's.  She was a lumber schooner and it's believed that she was carrying a load of lumber with a small crew when a storm caught them. The crew could not handle her and put out the anchor only to run aground.

                                                                (Photo by Regi)

If only this wooden hull could talk...oh the tales she could tell. We may never truly know who she was but it's a fact that she has a ton of folks whispering, owwwwing and a ahhhing!!

Until next time.....Hugs,

Regi (and the Chazman)