Sunseta and the Green Flash

This is our sunset crew anchored by Mac and Linda Lutz in the foreground. Mac is as close to a sunset expert as we have here and he never misses one, in fact I don't think Mac misses much at all. Some nights its just them and us and some nights we have quite a crew like in this photo. The sunsets are always different. Now in Alaska we have beautiful sunsets, in fact spectacular sunsets with the alpenglow and the mountains...BUT...In the summer they're in the middle of the night and in the winter the middle of the day so I seldom see on. But here in Mazatlan we have the edge because they're convienently timed about half way through cocktail hour, everyday. Now thats nice.

The next pic is of my effort to record the infamous "green flash". The green flash is real, it occurs just as the sun disappears. It happens on cloudless days and has something to do with how green is next to yellow on the spectrum and how that relates to the curvature of the earth. Then theres some who think its a simple product of stareing at the sun to much and being half blind when the sun finally dissappears. Or maybe its both. All I know I've seen it many a time and I'm a steady guy so it has to be real, right?
This pic is my favorite sunset, the cloudy one. The sunlight reflects or as some experts say "refracts' around and bounces off the clouds in a wonderful way. This sunset is like a movie, it changes and changes and changes and is sometimes best way after cocktail hour. The only thing better than the cloudy sunset is when you can find it with clouds in various shapes that only you can see. Remember when you were a kid and you'd spot a cloud that looked like horses head but your buddy couldn't see it ?

This sunset is what I call the "airiel assist sunset". Any sunset expert has to keep a close eye out for the help of a gull, pelican or frigate bird. I personally like the airial assist best when its a single bird, it adds a bit of the isolation and tranquility effect to the sunset and reminds us how big the world really is and our place in it. If you click on the pic to enlarge you'll see he's pretty cool. I'm still working out the details of my "fish assist sunset" so stand by and I'll try to get that worked out.

Last but not least is what I call the "human assist sunset". We all know man can screw up just about anything but a sunset is one thing he can't. Boats, planes, choppers, man oh man the human element works for sunsets. The boat you see here is the Patrcia Belle, they do sundown cruises. My friend Patrick who skippers the Belle is magic. He sails out returns from behind the islands and every time does it at just the right time to reveal the sunset. Magic, plain and simple. If you're ever in Mazatlan you need to do the sundown cruise on the Belle, when the sun dissapears and boat rises on a swell you actually see the sunset twice...two green flashes, now thats ultra-super-doublea-magic.