We left Jekyll Island marina early a few mornings ago. The decks were still drenched with dew, the sun was barely out of its pajamas and it was low tide, vital for getting under the 65ft bridge ahead of us.

The bridge was only about 300 yards from the end of the marina and provides the only access road onto the island. Also, it was our only bridge of the day - no other roads cross this giant salt marsh for many miles.

There was a gorgeous smell of wet leaves on the air - hard to describe a smell but a little like the scent of freshly mown grass mixed with dank earth is as close as I can get. The high trees on the banks as we pulled away just blowing gently in the first light winds of the day.

The low tide exposed huge expanses of mud flats and we veered just slightly off course for a moment slithering to a halt in the putty. A few wiggles and we were off but not ideal for sailing in these narrow, shallow, winding waters and our engine chugged slowly to keep us moving.

The day was almost perfect - blue sky, sun, birdsong, fish jumping, endless views but the ...B..U..G..S.. were in kamikaze mode making suicidal drops into the cockpit.

It was 'kill or be killed' - these weren't just your ordinary, everyday, plump-bellied bluebottles, bumping into walls and ceilings on a mission to find rotting food. These guys were humongous, fast moving, blood seeking horseflies with a mission to land on you using their knife like mouthparts to slice into flesh and drink from the resulting bloodpool!

So, the fight was on for most of the day - armed with double flyswats each, cans of bug spray and conversation reduced to 'behind you!' splatt!!, 'there's another one!' splat!! 'look out' splatt!! the number of bodies on the cockpit floor slowly increased.

We weren't alone - the few boats that passed us were seen to be having their own war. One boat called us on the VHF to ask for our score - we estimated something in excess of 130 corpses!

The larvae of the horse fly/deer fly develop in the mud along the wetlands and vary in size from .75" to 1.25".

Finally, we reach Kilkenny Creek, it's late in the day and the cooling air brings some respite from the flies.