Ah, of course we do something exciting on the boat and I forget to mention it here for a few weeks!

Right before Christmas our dear Sophie visited us from the faraway land of Nebraska. So we embarked on a journey towards the spoil islands! A trip to the islands is a pretty good way to spend time with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. As we sailed out (later than we wanted) the wind was nice, but not too powerful, and we got to our destination quickly. We even went a little further than usual since we would be out for 3 days instead of the usual 2.
That night, we got drunk and made a gingerbread house and just generally relaxed. In the morning we took the puppies out to the island to do their business, then raised anchor and went further down the river. We picked one island at random and decided to visit it because hey, adventure! After making the rounds about the island we decided to try and start a campfire (without fuel, or a lighter) to roast weenies over…and failed. It’s hard to make a fire from scratch in such a humid environment. Oh well.
That night is where the magic truly happened. After firing up the generator to watch movies (we watched the Scooby Doo and KISS crossover. Which was actually weirdly good?) I went outside to throw out some food remains…and it glowed. The splashes GLOWED. I drunkly rushed in and waggled my hands about. Shawn, who was more sober than me, had his eyes light up and went outside. He stepped on the edge and kicked his foot around – beautiful blue glowing followed.
Bioluminescence!
Typically biolum only happens in the Indian river lagoon when the water reaches scorching temperatures (95*F), but tonight the water was a balmy 60 degrees. So what do we do? Go swimming, of course!
Sophie refused to join, but Shawn, Rig, and I had a lot of fun swimming in the river. I kept screaming “magic is reeeeal”! Because seriously, the glowing was like freakin’ magic! When we got Rig in the water it was gorgeous, everywhere he kicked just set the water aglow.
We got cold after a bit and dried off, but the fun wasn’t ending there. We all got in the dinghy and motored out to near the nature preserve. The motor kicked up those little algae, leaving a trail of glow behind us. Perhaps the most striking view of the evening though, was the sky. The half of the sky reaching the Atlantic was inky darkness, filled with glittering stars. The half to land was an empty haze of light. We humans are robbing ourselves of that birthright to see the art that is the night sky, in favor of…what? Not spending a few bucks on shades for streetlights?
As we motored out and glowing fish darted away from our path, we got to a point where our own little boat only appeared in the distance as a guiding star (anchor light). We spent a good amount of time just futzing with the water for the glow. Eventually we went back, following that guiding star home.
Then we finished the Scooby-Doo KISS movie, and fell asleep to Short Circuit (that movie is so 80s). Turned off the generator and went to bed properly, and what followed was a pretty ordinary day going back to port. It was pretty exhausting to spend the day piloting a boat and then drive 3.5hrs across the state for Christmas. But we lived.