Sanibel Island

Trip to Sanibel Island, July 2004

The Plan

Saturday, 17 July 2004

Long Island, New York

I’ll be taking a 10:30 am direct flight on Jet Blue, from JFK to Fort Myers. Gotta love a direct flight! From there, I shall pick up the car rental, make a pit stop at Publix for vittels, and drive once more with jubilation over the causeway to a resort on West Gulf Drive. According to my soul, Sanibel is by far the most beautiful place on the planet.

Initially, I had wanted to stay somewhere different, on the lighthouse end of the island, but ran out of time and patience doing the research. Then I received an email from the folks who own the Sundial and various other resorts on Sanibel, with an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I ended up just booking a studio with the devil I know.

With the stops for the car and the groceries, likely I will arrive at the resort approximately 3:00 PM. The plan is to put away the perishables, slather on the SPF, and hit the beach without further delay.

I’m eagerly anticipating that first sight of the jewel-green Gulf of Mexico, and the bathwater-like experience upon first plunging in. As the time of my departure grows ever-closer, I find myself day-dreaming about it with an intensity and frequency that would be otherwise alarming, were the experience not so filled with peace, joy, and tranquility. There’s a spring in my step, and a relaxation in the face of the more vexing frustrations at the workplace. I guess you could say I have mentally checked out of reality!

Objectives for This Vacation (in no particular order)

Hakuna Mattata! – a.k.a., Rest and Relaxation. Complete and abrupt separation from grim reality. Liberation from schedules, time-crunches, enslavement to the “gotta” list, and neglect of the “wanna” list.
Self-Indulgence – Sleep in once or twice, schedule a massage, go shopping, meet friends for hanging out and/or a meal, reading for pleasure (mindless fiction!), etc
Shelling – research in advance: tides, moon phases and rise/set times, weather conditions, locations, and any other influences that may affect when and where maximum shelling can occur; exploit maximum conditions and have fun!
Photography and Nature – hike around Ding Darling with digital camera; capture wildlife and scenery. Possibly schedule a day trip to Cayo Costa (combines the Photography/Nature objective with the Shelling objective).

Upon examination, one immediately notices that the Shelling objective may be in conflict with the Hakuna Mattata objective, since Shelling will be schedule-driven. This is an activity that is based primarily upon low tide times during my stay. One of the basic concepts of project management is that anything that is date/time driven will create a dependency for all other activities to work around it. However, Shelling is on the “wanna” list, so that cancels out the negativity of the scheduling aspect. Also, it is fortunate that all the low tide times during this trip will fall at either one end of the day (early morning) or the other (late in the afternoon/early in the evening), so impact on the times available for the other activities will be minimal.

I’ve done some research to discover the the environmental conditions that will be present during the time that I will be on Sanibel. Thus, I am somewhat able to hypothesize regarding how these conditions will play together to form either optimal or dismal conditions for shelling. I had some key questions in mind while researching.

Will my vacation fall either during the new or full moons? During these times, the tide flows out further, exposing more beach, and therefore more shells.
Will the low tides fall during times of the day where there is visibility on the beach? Sunlight is optimal, of course. Light from a full moon is not so optimal, but sometimes workable. It is not advisable to use a flashlight, because it is turtle nesting time, and light distracts the baby turtles from finding the water after they've hatched.
Will there be thunderstorms that either prevent me from being on the beach during low tide, or else deposit additional treasure on the beach? It happened one year during my stay that there was a terrific storm out in the Gulf, which made it rain all day; however, the following day, remarkable things were found on the beach and in the shallows!

At this particular juncture, the only condition I am unable to capture is weather conditions. The ten day forecast for my trip will not begin to reveal itself until Monday the 19^th of July. By the 26^th, two days before I fly down to Fort Myers and begin my week in paradise, I will know the entire 10 day forecast, and be in an even better position to judge optimal conditions for shelling. I will then be able to determine which day to hike Ding Darling, which day to sleep in, catch a massage, and read, read, read (a mostly rainy day, I think), etc.

Shelling means enough to me, because I get to do it so rarely (once annually), that I completely recognize scheduling it as a necessity, and not even an evil one; I actually chose my dates for this trip so that they would surround the date of the Full Moon (31 July). You wouldn’t catch me scheduling like this for a Disney trip!

As soon as I’m able to correlate the ten-day forecast with the data I’ve already captured, I will be in a better position to make some decisions. However, right now it looks like the early-mid evening of Saturday 31 July is a harmonic convergence of sunset time, full moon, moon rise time, and low tide time.

Hey, Topper and alot – unless you will appreciate being dragged out onto the beach circa 8:00 PM that night, maybe lunch on Saturday, or brunch on Sunday is a better idea than dinner on Saturday!