The Wild Life

While things may have been wild on our boat, I'm talking about the wild life we met while sailing this summer.

Ospreys in the Chesapeake are a given and while I'm not bored with them, I'm used to them. It had been years since I'd seen pelicans and I was thrilled to finally spot some when we got a bit south into the Patuxant and Potomac Rivers. We didn't see a lot of them but just enough to make me happy.

It was in Oxford that I watched an adult swan beat the snot out of a baby swan. Having read The Ugly Duckling as a child I was appalled, and felt quite cheated.

I thought herons were rare but I saw so many of them during our trip that after awhile I quit grabbing the binoculars every time I heard one of their signature screams. And anyway, they sound just like Wilbur.

A couple of pods of dolphins zipped past us but never close enough to photograph, and seagulls were a dime a dozen.

Ducks are always fun and while one group loved the left over flour tortillas I tossed to them, another group completely turned their bills up at them. I found it a bit odd though that there seem to be a lot of female duck gangs out there. There always seems to be a female duck ring leader and I got the impression that there was a Mr. Duck out there who'd 'done her wrong' and she and her posse were out on a mission to find him and give him what for!

Possibly the most disturbing animal activity I witnessed during our trip was when two cormorants had a huge fight over a snake. Honest to God, it was beyond disgusting and I actually jumped up and down in the cockpit and screamed.

I heard a commotion and grabbed my trusty binoculars just in time to see a cormorant trying to suck down a snake like a strand of spaghetti. Another cormorant tried in vain to steal it and a little game of 'keep away' took place. Cormorant # 1 kept trying to suck down the snake. Cormorant # 2 tried to steal it and #1 would jerk away all the while tossing its head around while attempting to disentangle the snake from its bill. Just when it seemed like the snake was a goner, it would erupt from #1's gullet and writhe crazily about. Finally to the snake's and #2's dismay, the snake finally disappeared from sight and I had to have a beer.

Jelly fish were a huge problem and they ran absolutely amok this summer. If it weren't for them Wilbur would have been able to swim a lot more and we all would have therefore benefited from the exercise. At each anchorage I would peer, ever hopefully into the water, and damn! all of a sudden there they'd be; tons of amoeba like creatures, undulating as they passed under our boat with the tide.

But my favorite creature by far was the blue crab. I had no idea how friendly they were! I know they scuttle sideways when running along the beach but I'd never seen one swim.
We had just docked at Tangier Island when I saw something in the water slide on past the boat. What on earth? Then another one. They were crabs, and they were swimming upright all the while happily waving their claws at us as they whizzed on by.

I've never felt so welcome!

Wilbur loves blue crabs too and here he is with his Crabby Cake.

I now have to wonder what kind of creatures we'll encounter this winter when we sail on down to Florida. I believe I've heard about these things called alligators.

Finally, some sailing

We are currently in quaint and pretty Oxford, Maryland. We left Back Creek on Wednesday but when we ran into choppy waters we decided to anchor for the night in Weems Creek. The winds the next morning were perfect for a sail to Oxford and that's exactly what we did. Using the jib only we sailed 35 miles or so and averaged four to 5 knots the whole way.

Beautiful!

We've been to the market where in addition to buying supplies, I managed to get a good bottle of wine, a couple of ice cream cones, and a used paper back book which cost a dollar and you just put the money in a can by the display.
I've also put the laundromat to good use and it's a bargain at $2.00 total for a wash and dry.

I got all worked up when I saw that the library was having a book sale and even packed an extra bag in my purse. I'll pay a little more attention to sale signs the next time because it wasn't until I arrived bright and early this morning that I noticed that it doesn't take place until September!!






This kayak went sliding by last night complete with a sheltie. Notice the dog has a summer haircut going on!









Wilbur had a chance to wade into some water and cool off.
He has difficulty with the heat and while on board I have to use the stern hose on him.

If you look closely enough you can see the heron perched this dock.

This is the first year that I've seen more than one at a time and they make a really strange screaming noise when they call out. Actually it sounds a lot like Wilbur. Wilbur can't bark because he was injured by another pit bull when he was just a few weeks old, and instead he sounds like an insane monkey. This morning when after getting up for his early morning 'constitutional' Wilbur was trying to go back to sleep. A heron let out a raucous cry and Wilbur looked up in total disgust as if to say, "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?"

"Now you know how I feel!" I told him.