And Then There Were Gnats! Always Gnats!

SHIP'S LOG:

     Cleaning out the trunk of my car, will wonders never cease, I found one of those web-bags, like you get in the markets, but this one had stenciled on the front, "Charleston City Marina." WOW, I picked that up almost two year ago now on my trip up-&-down the ICW. So inspired, I went back in this Blog and did a little reading of some of the experiences of that journey. i find it almost hard to believe that I actually made the journey and that, except for the first few days with Bob and Fred, the "Bucket Brothers," I made it all alone.

     I randomly opened to the section on Georgia on the return trip. Gnats were a big topic. They were something fierce and they were everywhere. I suppose, of course, as I was traveling through marshes and swamps ( marshes are swamps with no trees so I found out), that it would be natural  there would be some gnats, some mosquitoes and the like, but down there, there were more than "some." If you didn't use bug spray, you could probably survive just on the protein you got from all the bugs you ingested but then you would loose it all from all the blood the survivors took in return. If that sounds like an exaggeration, you ain't been to Georgia!

     Reading what I wrote back then about some of the places I dropped a hook for the night I find many of them surprising when I look at them on a chart or satellite photo. Man, before that trip I would never have stuck the nose of my boat in any place that "imperfect" for anchoring. And after 30+ years of sailing, I docked more times during those 8 months than I did in all the rest of those 30 plus years. Docking doesn't bother me now and I have the dings and scratches and scraps on the hull to prove it.  I even got much more comfortable in dealing with bad weather, both anchoring and sailing in it and have a lot more confidence in ABISHAG now than before.  I guess it's time to go sailing, too bad the weather and the season is against it. Bah!