Ben's time aboard Mercy

It has been a great experience for me aboard Mercy. I have to say that I am truly impressed with the skipper's abilities!

The wildlife in these parts of the ICW have been very interesting. Having lived in the south pacific most of my life,these animals are quite different! Yesterday we travalled through a canal that had tons of manatees! Linda decided to look for a good anchorage for the night and let me take the dinghy for a bit.

It was easy for me to find a manatees wake in the glassy smooth canal, I crept up, killed the engine and the manatee cruised right by me. It popped up to take a breath (and who knows maybe to say hi) and crusied on by.

The bird life has been amazing!There have been all kinds of seabirds and storks everywhere! The pellicans have been funny to watch as they are quite clumsy with there landings at times haha!

Almost all the wildlife has been very pleasant, untill today when I was taking pictures of birds in the dinghy, I stayed too long and too close to the mangroves, it seemed I was attacked all at once by a well trained army of these tiny bugs! I high tailed it out of there flailing my arms like crazy tourist getting them off me! Come to find out they where called ''no-see-um's'' (now there's a name that makes sense)!

Well Thats a bit of the adventures I have been having on Mercy. Good times that I will never forget!

Thanks
Ben