A day out on the water is always so wonderfully relaxing. When I lived in Florida we owned a pontoon boat and would get over to the ICW as much as possible and cruise up and down the waterway. These days I am land-locked in New Hampshire, but I did get a chance to visit my son in Florida over the summer and we headed to the east coast four times to fish off his little boat. Two of those days turned out to be wash outs with storms chasing us off the water early in the day. One of those days was a very close call. As the super dark and threatening sky moved southward toward the boat ramp, we flew at full throttle down the ICW hoping and praying we would get there before the storm did. And we almost made it. As we were unloaded the boat the rain pelted down while the wind blew. We got soaked, but at least we were on shore.
But the other 2 days we went boating were really wonderful. I took this photo one of those days when we had pulled up to a large shallow area near an island. Most of the islands we were near were inaccessible, but the shallows around them were nice to explore. It also gave us the opportunity to get into the water and cool off. If you can cool off in 85 degree water!
This large area was full of crabs, hermit crabs, and a few stingrays. It’s also where I found the large horse conch pictured in a previous post. It was high tide, or close too it, or this area would have been all sand and no water. To the right and left of the island the water was deeper, but we were in about knee high water.
My son goes out fishing in the backwater areas often so he maneuvers his little boat around the shallows like a true expert. This is a picture of my two sons who were busy splashing each other and being boys, while I explored the area looking for empty shells to collect. And I had no luck except for that horse conch!
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