PANTHER KEY

For the past several days, we have been poking around a region of south Florida known as the Thousand Islands. It, or rather, they, make up a big part of the Everglades National Park. When we were on the beach yesterday, it became clear that these are essentially coral islands that were lifted out of the water, or emerged out of the water due to falling water levels, many, many years ago. Almost without exception, these islands are covered in mangrove forest. Mangrove forests are comprised of many different kinds of flora, mostly hardwoods. They tend to be very thick and seemingly impenetrable. The shoreline, for the most part, is all mangrove “knees” or the roots of the mangrove trees which are partially in and partially out of the water. You could pop a rubber dinghy on these roots if you got too close or tried to land. As such, in many places, there is no way to get to shore because there simply is no shore.

Panther Key, however, seems unique in that, on one side of the island there is a long sandy strand beach. We went to this beach yesterday and did some exploring and shell collecting. The sand was very white, but not powdery. Rather it was a sticky sand that remained quite solid and seemed to crackle under foot. The water’s edge, however, was muddy/sandy and was very soft. We collected a lot of cool shells including the complete exoskeleton of a creature that lives on the bottom, has a hard external shell, and a barb tail that is as long as it’s body. I haven’t had the internet connection over the last 5 days to go on line and figure out just what it is. It is almost a foot long from its front end to the end of its barbed tail. One could almost wear it on one’s head like a “Daniel Boon” coon hat, except that it is shell.
As we walked on the beach, we enjoyed an abundance of wild life. There were an interesting assortment of birds, and fish right on the edge of the water. We had a manatee surface 10 feet from the beach. We watched for it for a while but it did not stick around. This was particularly interesting because we think we heard one making noise under the boat the other night.

We were watching a movie and at around 10:30 pm we heard what sounded like a deep “whooomp, whoomp”coming from under the front of the boat. It sounded like the anchor chain was rubbing something. This, I knew, was not possible . Furthmore, the sound moved towards the back of the boat. Slowly. Brenda and I turned down the movie and just listened. Then we got the big spot light out and went on deck to see if we could see anything. The water is very tannic here and the light would not penetrate more than a few inches under the surface. We looked up and down both sides of the boat. The sound stopped. We saw nothing. Then it started again, this time moving forward towards the front of the boat. We looked and listened. The sound slowly faded off again away from the front of the boat, and it was gone.

In the morning, we discussed it and thought it had to be a manatee. Having never heard a manatee “speak” we could only really speculate. However, with the wind and the tide working in the same direction, we got enough internet connection on the Droid to look up manatee sounds. It turns out, manatee make a range of sounds from clicks, squeaks, grunts, and long blowing noises apparently associated with digestion, if you know what I mean. We listened to a list of different sounds, from the sounds they make when they are scared, to the sounds they make when they are trying to locate other manatee, to the sounds made between a mother and her calf. Finally, we came upon the sound we heard. Apparently, manatee will make a deep “whooomp, whoomp” noise when they are moving through the water. As such, we think we solved that mystery.

Other than a beach walk, we spent most of the day doing boat chores and drinking coffee. The weather has been super: sunny, light breezes, with temps in the low 80’s. We baked bread yesterday and ate most of it. I still have some dough in the fridge, however, so we will be enjoying fresh, hot bread for the next couple days at least.

One of the greatest things about exploring coastal areas OUTSIDE marinas is the silence at night. Most people have seen the sun dance on the water, or even seen the reflection of the moon in the sea’s surface. Many, however, have not seen starlight dance on the water. I awoke early this morning and had the privilege to sit out on deck and listen to the silence. The water was completely still and there is a full moon. Even as bright as the moon is, there are still millions of stars in the sky, many of which reflect on the water in the stillness of the morning. If you can free your mind of the day to day stuff and the things that cause you concern, then you can allow your senses to enjoy this time of the day. Star light, moon light, and the stillness of the water are exquisite. Things are so quiet and still. All you can hear are the leaves in the water bumping together as them move in the stream of the outgoing tide. It’s that quiet.

We’ll be leaving this place today en route to Marco Island. Hopefully there, the flies don’t bite. Talk to you later.