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THE FURTHER MISADVENTURES OF A VACATION COMEDY
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THE FURTHER MISADVENTURES OF A VACATION COMEDY  Here's the first part... A Vacation Comedy Itinerary DAY TWO (continued) Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long for the tide to bring the water back to us. In the meantime, as some of you may know who have been there, we suffered from an unbearable stench and a plague of insects. This is when fair skinned Julie began to realize that she was different from the rest of us. For some reason the vast majority of the insects found her to be sweeter than their usual fare and attacked her relentlessly. I am not sure what they were, they were so tiny, but they must be kin to "noseeums" and within an hour or so she had thirty angry red welts from hand to shoulder (and that was just on her right arm, the left was worse). I did most of the driving since I had some experience with boats, but "captain" Perry was in charge. He always had the final say in where we would go and when. "I am paying for this," he kept pointing out. When the tide had returned we made our way to to the little backwater of Everglades City to refuel and load supplies (mostly more tequila). There was a small cabana with a palm leaf roof serving drinks and the place was packed. We thought this was strange since it was only about 10 am in the morning. We joined the throng to find out what was going on and it wasn't long before we discovered that the entire town had been arrested for trafficking the week before. We learned that the white haired and scraggley potbellied man who was pumping our gas at the dock was in fact the recently released mayor of that city! (This adventure occurred in June of 1997 for anyone who may be aware of the incident). "Captain" Perry next wanted to go south to the Keys but I showed him from the chart that we could not make it with our limited fuel capacity. So we headed north towards Naples instead. We were about a mile offshore which was about the limit of my comfort level with this boat. Still, after the tidal flats disaster we tried to stay in deeper water. I was cruising along at about 10 to 15 knots and taking soundings. The depth was decreasing and up ahead I could see discoloration in the water so I slowed down as quickly as possible. Not quickly enough though. A large tubeworm reef loomed ahead. It was pink colored rock and it was long. I had the boat almost stopped when we struck the reef so fortunately we were able to back off the dang thing. I studied the chart again. This reef was not even listed. Hmmm, further investigation showed that the chart was published in the 1940's and had not been updated! So now we go out even further into the Gulf to go around the reef. The water was getting very choppy and I could see a squall on the edge of the horizon. The boat was rocking wildly from side to side. At this point "captain" Perry decided to go from one end of the boat to the other and during his traverse a particularly violent swell hit us. Perry was thrown against the edge of a fixed table and badly bruised his side. He was black and blue and having trouble breathing. We hurried to Naples and got him to the Emergency Room where it was found that he had two broken ribs and a bruised Pancreas. While he was being tended to, Georgia and I took care of supplies. We needed gas and also more tequila. We wanted to buy some CD's since we hadn't thought to bring very many. We didn't see anything worth buying there though. The day was ending, but our adventures continued that night when we skinny dipped with the alligators! (to be continued)...  |
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Glad it was you swimming and not me   WITHOUT PASSION LIFE IS NOTHING
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Glad it was you swimming and not me  blog on!
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Swimming with the alligators, you are a brave man.  
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Swimming with the alligators, you are a brave man.  blog on!
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Ha! Stay tuned for even more reasons why vacationing with me is hazardous... blog on!
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I was beginning to feel jealous of your adventures till you mentioned alligators! ~~Anais Nin~~
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Sounds like most of our flotilla's here. One neighbor always has some spiked concoction for all to enjoy.
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I was beginning to feel jealous of your adventures till you mentioned alligators!  Thanks for following this story so far, and blog on!
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Welcome to Hollyblog, where we use all the tricks of the trade... blog on!
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Aw, Pinky can never be severed from Brain.  Also, I am more of a Mary Ann fan. I hope you noticed Georgia = Mary Ann, and Julie = Ginger in this tale...  (It's in a comment somewhere). blog on!
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Sounds like most of our flotilla's here. One neighbor always has some spiked concoction for all to enjoy. blog on!
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