Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Sanibel Island & Blind Pass

This morning was 'Turtle Walk' day. So, if you want to read how that went, check out 'Turtle Talk'.

It has been a while since I've checked the progress of the Blind Pass project. This evening seemed to be a great time to do that.

After parking on the Sanibel side of the bridge, and then walking onto the bridge, I was very surprised when I looked down. The little boat that the workers use was turning around to go back under the bridge and toward the bay.

The containment cell is gone now, except for the wall next to the Gulf. There has been a considerable amount of progress since I was here last, but the project still may not finish by the projected date, because of equipment break downs.

Now, the next thing I was going to tell you was, that there is an armed guard standing by the out flow pipe. Just in case you had an idea of going out there to look for shells. But, on second thought, I'll tell you the truth. :-)) I've heard that people have been finding some nice shells there. Even though shelling hasn't been prime lately, I have friends who have found an outstanding shell during an afternoon of shelling on the beach off of West Gulf Drive. One of them found a very nice Scotch Bonnet and another one found a very nice Helmet shell. Both of those are only found frequently. There were also a few big Kings Crowns found there too, which doesn't normally happen. Maybe it's possible that some of those shells came from the Blind Pass dredging and rolled east?? I guess we'll never know the answer to that one.



This photo is the Captiva Island side of Blind Pass. There were a lot of pelicans sitting on the rock jetty.

Here you can see an Egret and just in front of it is a pelican with its wings spread out to let the sun and wind dry its feathers. It's a little hard to see against the dark rocks. I love watching the pelicans.


There were several people fishing. There is a really steep drop-off there.


This man fought for quite a while to get this fish in. I could tell it was a nice size, when he held it up as if he was measuring it, or maybe sizing it up for dinner. :-)


The video is of the Gulf side of Blind Pass. The equipment was pretty loud today and that was just from 1 Dredge, the other one is broken now. I can imagine how loud it must be if both were running at the same time. Also, none of the other machines were running when we were there either. There was a smell of diesel exhaust in the air, blowing toward Captiva. It's the 1st time I've noticed it since the project started.

Best viewed in HD on YouTube by clicking on the screen below.

5 comments:

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Tootie, I'll bet you've been on the Turtle Walk several times. I can understand why you don't go every year. I guess it's more for the tourists, don't you think?????

Blind Pass looks better and better. And I'll bet that those 'rare' shells have come from that dredging...

Thanks for the great post.

Hugs,
Betsy

Snowbird said...

Wow, it's great to see all that water under the bridge. I just hope it lasts this time.

Alice In Wonderland Rocks said...

Im so glad to see what it looks like,I hope to see it in person soon. My hubby works with equipment like what they are using there & those machines always break down.
Thanks for the post :)

Unknown said...

Tootie, you're tempting me to risk being shot by an armed guard in order to go shelling! ;-) Those friends of yours are really finding incredible treasures. Wow!

RottenMom said...

Thanks for the update Tootie. About the outflow pipe, in the Lee County Blind Pass Updates they always show a few pictures of progress, the last one I received had a picture with about 15 people shelling around that pipe. Thought it was funny, since they strongly discourage it!