Saturday, October 10, 2009

On the Water

I had the priviledge of rowing this afternoon and into the evening.
I should clarify that most of the time I view it as a priviledge.
We as gondoliers are so dang lucky to have this job.

The day started out as a clear, sunny, and windy one, with winds playing all kinds of tricks on me and my gondola in the late afternoon - bouncing off in unusual directions and challenging me to guess what they would try to do next.
Steve Elkins approaches in one of our motorized gondolas...

...and then heads off in the opposite direction


A gondola from my friendly competitor's company begins his cruise.
The post-sunset colors were spectacular this evening - reminding me of just how many colors can be seen at the end of a day.


As the sun disappeared, things calmed down a bit and the tide dropped.

I rowed and sang for my various couples, and around 7:30 I saw something in the water I'd never seen - a bioluminescent green thing in the water.
This squiggly glowing worm was right there next to my boat.
I couldn't believe my eyes. I've been operating gondolas in Newport since '93 and tonight was the first time I'd seen such a thing.
As you might have guessed,
I'll be researching those glowing green worms.




Rowing into the night, I enjoyed the smell of wood-burning fires carried by the cool night breeze, and appreciated the coming of Fall.

5 comments:

DG Beat said...

First time, Greg? Alamitos Bay seems to get that algae quite a bit. It's a nice conversation starter for the cruise. I like seeing the glow when kids are on my boat. Then they don't seem so bored. Sometimes I jump in place and that causes fish to move around underwater creating huge streaks of blue/green. They like that.

Gondola Greg said...

Hi John.
We get the reactive glow once or twice a year. It's fin to swish the remo back and forth through it and see the glow, even cooler to see a propeller stirring it up.
This was different though; looked like a glowing worm. It was almost as bright as the glowing necklace things they pass around at amusement parks at night.

DG Beat said...

oh, wow. i can't wait to read your research on it.

Bepi said...

Did you just write that a propeller, in some way, is better than a remo? My eyes are bleeding.

Gondola Greg said...

Get Out!
I would NEVER say that.
well, after rowing 10 hours against wind and current, I might think it, but only for an instant. Then my inner "Tyler Durden" would check me back into reality.

The propellers I was talking about were from yachts.