Lots of Wildlife

6/4/07 – I left my anchorage in Jupiter this morning and continued my way north through the Intracoastal Waterway. I made about fifty miles in about 10 hours of sailing. I just put my jib up in the morning because I had to go through a few bridges so putting up the main would be impractical. I passed the last low bridge in the late morning and put up both sails. I had a fair wind so I turned off the motor and continued for several hours under sail alone. I arrived in Vero Beach in the evening and the area that was marked as an anchorage on the map had been taken over by the local marina and turned into a mooring field. I did not like this because it usually costs money to tie up to a mooring. I knew that the tide was rising so I felt comfortable searching around the area for a good anchorage but I suddenly came to a halt as I was motoring around. I had run aground on an uncharted mud mound. Luckily, I was able to back out of my situation and came to the conclusion that it might be best to just tie up to a mooring for the night.

6/5/07 – I got up and made myself a good breakfast of oatmeal. I had to make it watery so I could drink it from a cup since I still had no spoon. I got going in the morning but there was again very little wind. I put up both sails but had to keep the motor going to continue along at about 3 knots. At around noon, the wind picked up and I turned off the engine again. I began hearing noises that sounded like a cross between a shrieking child and a giant rodent squeaking. I was really confused as the noises continued to slowly increase in volume until I saw a fin and an air spout. All of the sudden, many more fins and spouts popped up all around me as a school of dolphins surfaced around me. I tried to get photographs but the shutter delay on my camera was just long enough for them to dive again before I could get any pictures. I continued to sail for the day until I got to another anchorage. I came to the designated anchorage and realized that it was not protected at all from the waves since the wind was from the east rather than from the west. I found a place on the chart that on the other side of a bridge that looked better and saw that I was not the only one to have the same idea when I arrived at the location. There were about five other boats anchored in the same spot. I dropped the hook and ate another canned soup dinner before bed.

6/6/07 – I left the anchorage this morning and there was again very little wind. I didn’t even bother putting up the sails because the wind was variable and just motored at a leisurely rate. For the previous two nights, I had seen what I later learned were “love bugs.” They are about ½ inch long and do not bite or sting. This morning, they were particularly bad, with dozens crawling all over the boat. They slowly increased in number until there were several hundred crawling over the boat and swarming in the air all around me. I saw a boat coming through a bridge that I was heading towards and everyone aboard was swatting furiously. I thought that they must just be wimps because I had the bugs as well and they were annoying but not overly so. Once I got up to the bridge, it became apparent why they were more worried about the bugs than I was. Suddenly, a new wave of them appeared in the thickest concentration of bugs I have ever seen. Thousands upon thousands were crawling over the boat and swarming all over everything, including me. They were so thick that I killed at least 30 in one single swat of my hand against the seat. They slowly decreased over the afternoon until there were just a few hundred crawling around by the time I arrived in Titusville in the afternoon. I noticed that none of the other boats at anchor in Titusville had the thick blanket of dead bugs that my boat had. I spent the next several hours killing bugs while I set the anchor and ate a canned soup dinner.