Rose Marina, Marco Island to Dismal Key Pass

2/9/13

In the morning, I returned to scrubbing down the boat, and cleaning the windows, trying to get the volumes of smashed bugs off the insides of the glass. I wondered how many people vacuum bug corpses out from under their windows.

Casey and Mary arrived, and we loaded their gear aboard, and headed out the inside passage back past Goodland and Coon Island. It is really a beautiful ride through there, and it seemed half the boaters in the area were cruising that waterway as well. When we got past Goodland, the cruisers turned into anchored, and drifting fishermen, and running the deeper water was a jagged course dodging boats!

We decided to go into Dismal Key Pass to a gorgeous anchorage. Unfortunately, and bugs found us as we entered from the bay. They weren't bad at the anchorage, but we still had a bunch hanging on the boat. We went up the pass about amile and a half to anchor N25 52.623' W081 33.981

We puttered around in the Whaler for a little bit, walked the beach, and returned to the Mercy and sat on the roof, where, with the slight breeze, there weren't bugs. Well, the bugs were at least tolerable. For a little bit. Then we went inside, ate, and called it an early night.

The one positive thing that I can say about these biting gnats is that they die quickly. Shortly after dark, all we had left were little black corpse-dots sprinkling the decks.