Oh What a Life

Caya Costa Park, N26 41 W82 14
January 22, 2006

Oh this life is hard. Yesterday we rowed in to Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. We found a creek that went up through the mangrove forest. Halfway up the creek we found a hidden entrance to a lagoon. We had to duck low under branches to get into the lagoon. When we got in, the lagoon was about ¼ mile in diameter and it was very charming. We fished there for several hours just drifting in the dinghy. Didn’t catch any fish but we did have fun. One fish in particular tried to do a flying fish imitation jumping out of the water again and again really close to us.

This morning we had a nice wind, 20 knots from the east. We sailed northward at a breakneck speed through narrow channels under sail. Just after noon we came to Pelican Bay near Caya Costa park where we are anchored. We rowed to shore and spent the afternoon walking the trails and the beaches in the park. We saw a snake and lizards and a tortoise and a possum and buzzards and sand pipers. On the beach we saw a string of disturbances in the sand just above the high tide mark. We figure it had to be sea turtles that made the marks. It’s not the season for laying turtle eggs so we guess that it must be the season for making turtle whoopee on the beach.

The weather was perfect both days.

Oh what a hard life this is.

Tomorrow morning we are near a sea inlet so we can go outside. We have the choice of sailing north to Venice or back southward. We decided to spend our extra time waiting for the trip to David’s graduation in Marathon in the Florida keys. But there’s no hurry to get back there.