Today’s morning briefing started with chart notations of snags, stumps, spoils, stakes and foul areas. That got our attention! As we pre-planned our route, we learned that we would cruise through Mosquito Lagoon (quick! Get the bug spray) and an area called Thousand Islands (thank goodness for that magenta line on the electronic charts!)
It was nice to do a bit of navigating rather than move along a straight line. And this part of the ICW is far away — in every sense — from the mansions and mega-yachts we oohed and ahhhed over in the southern part of Florida.
Here you see economic distress with roofs and docks still unrepaired since Hurricane Irma. Ragged yards and storage sheds. Smaller houses, sadder boats, double-wides and RVs that look like they’ve been parked forever. Not all of it, of course, but these dominated a big chunk of this day’s 40 mile trip.
You might wonder what I mean by “sadder boats.” I think that every boat’s ownership begins with a dream — whether it’s a fixer-upper, new off the showroom floor or purchased use. The dream might be freedom, relaxation, escape from “_______” (fill-in the blank with your own **). Maybe it’s just the idea of warm sun and sparkling water or a cool, fresh breeze respite from hot, muggy weather. When you see boats looking untouched, unloved, unused, dirty and abandoned often and sometimes littered with parts and junk, sailboats without masts, powerboats listing, wood peeling, names fading — it is just sad. I think a couple gallons of “Spray It And Forget It” might nudge some of the boat owners on the dock we were on in Titusville back to their dreams. But that would require ME to spray the boats and boat boxes.
You may know the “trick” of putting a plastic owl in your yard to repell pests like mice. Boat owners use them to scare away other birds. It doesn’t work. On the boat next to us, a dangling plastic owl was joined at the driving station by pigeons galore. They looked like they’d been roosting there for quite a while. Oh….and the lady in the boat across from us had a rabbit hutch in her cockpit. Don’t think she’s cruising much.
We arrived at Halifax Marina in early afternoon. The marina is huge and crowded with boats that I am happy to say looked tended to….crowding out my thoughts of sad boats and lost dreams.
That owl must have been very very bad! A jury of pigeons condemned it to death by being hung by the neck!!!
Just minding its own “owl business” and then those pigeons took over:-) I’m telling you….the fake owl DOES NOT WORK!!
Poor Rabbits