Captain's Choice blog: Jeopardy and other loop knowledge

What a beautiful morning Wednesday to take a boat ride...blue skies, light winds, warm, as we headed to our anchorage at Cape Haze. Almost perfect until we ran into the dead fish...we aren't talking a few dead fish we are talking hundreds of dead fish. Well this required a search on google to find out what was going on. It's Red tide, a harmful algae bloom that can affect both marine organisms and humans. The toxins can kill the fish and cause respiratory conditions in humans. It was rather gross. The anchorage was nice and well protected, just off the ICW.
Then we get a text Wednesday night that Jeopardy has a category called "The Great Loop", we frantically searched for the correct station and found it just in time. Of course we got all the answers correct, the contestants, well that is a completely different story.

And viola! we wake up Thursday morning and no dead fish. I'm not sure where they are but I am glad we didn't have to motor by them as we made our way to an anchorage at Punta Blanco South which is right near Cayo Costa State Park. We were welcomed by the dolphins, manatee and osprey as they were building their nest, otters, raccoons and many different species of birds. This has to be the best anchorage to sit back and watch the wildlife, so peaceful, serene. It's hard to believe that we are only a couple weeks away from Christmas and yet I have no stress. After watching all of the wild life we headed over to the park by dinghy. What a great day! We headed through what seemed like a jungle with mangroves, palm trees and a lot of greenery to the other side of the park and the gulf. We walked for several miles in the surf and then headed along the trails. We came upon a sign that warned of alligators and much to our surprise there they were, 2 of them sunning themselves along the side of the inland water. Photo op for sure...Mark didn't think we were close enough so he tried to get a little closer but they bolted into the water as he approached. Continuing on the trail we found an old cemetery. It was neat how they lined the perimeter of the grave with large shells. After our park exploration we dinghied over to Moon Shadow as they were anchored not too far from us and asked them to join us at a beach for "beachtails", which they did. Unfortunately when we got there we were inundated with no-see-ums. Mark dinghied back to the boat and got our bug spray and our Thermacell and it worked, they were gone. If you haven't heard of a Thermacell, they are a must have. It's a flying insect repellent with a butane cartridge that heats a mat that releases the repellant in the air. We heard about it from loopers last year and was recommended at the rendezvous and it is a life saver against mosquitos and now we see it works with no-see-ums too!

Another grey day on Friday, cold for this area (high 62) and very windy. Since we have had such wonderful weather up to this point it gave us another opportunity to work on a few more "weather day" projects and some drawing/painting. When I was dealing with the no-see-ums yesterday I googled "do their bites itch". The answer was "the more fortunate may endure tiny red bumps, others develop pea-sized welts that itch like crazy". I can give you one guess which category I fall into and they say it lasts 1-2 weeks. Luckily for them, Mark, Dave and Colleen all fell into the no bite or just red dot category.

The wind was still blowing on Saturday and was forecasted to stay strong but it died down enough that we were able to dinghy over to a bay just south of the park docks and watch the manatees. There were at least 5 in this small bay, we turned off the dinghy and sat and watched them foraging for food and swimming around, one even swam under the dinghy as we felt and heard the bump. The water is very murky so pictures of them aren't great so I put the camera away. It was more fun to watch and listen to them snort then to try and get their picture anyway. We then headed over to Cabbage Key for a late lunch. It is known by many as "the bar with all the money on the walls". This is also where you can truly get a "cheeseburger in paradise", no way to get here except by boat.

With the itching still driving me crazy we decided to head out Sunday for Ft. Myers to get some expert advise from a pharmacist. We will be staying at our friends, Chuck & Cheryl's condo dock and Chuck met us out by the point to show us the way in. Normal routine once we are secured is to flush the engines and clean the boat. I am trying a new recommendation for the bites, I am a little better.