A great day out in the 10,000 Islands National Park - A guest Post

We welcome a guest blogger for our main message today. But first breakfast: 

Breakfast

I woke, as usual, at 5am and Drew got up at 7am, we had breakfast with the slight variation that, today being Friday, I didn’t have the usual ham and cheese, but just cheese in my roll. That being said the cheese was a Pepper Jack, a nice cheddar type cheese with black pepper embedded in it. A nice tangy bite to the cheese.

10,000 Islands National Park - A guest post

Ahoy shipmates, its Captain Jack and the co-pilot taking over from Mr B to take you on a discovery channel style journey through the joys of surfing with dolphins and finding some pretty shells on the beach. Obviously the co-pilot will be talking about finding pretty things on the beach because I, Jack, first sea lord, menace of the Spanish Main etc etc etc am far too macho. Though you do get a picture of me with said sea trinkets above. I got these gifted to me on the at end of the journey. "Tis exciting times so they be."

I finally managed to get rid of (using my usual persuasive techniques) the two land lubbers at around 10:15am. An examination of the charts indicates they travelled around five miles from the dock <<Co-pilot's note: He means the apartment>> to where they met up with Captain Ed, and a small crew of 4 from the fine state of Ohio (first person to comment 'oh me oh my oh' gets keel hauled). For what was meant to a short tour around the Ten Thousand Islands 
National Wildlife Refuge. Captain Ed was very keen to point out the difference between a protected wildlife refuge and a National Park such as Yellowstone. The way the co-pilot describes is like this <<Co-pilot's note: in U.K. Terms the difference between an area of outstanding natural beauty and a national park such as the beacons or Tenby.>>

The vessel then went on a very, very nice tour of some of the islands. I am informed that Captain Ed was not entirely enamoured by the birdy type wildlife that they encountered on the trip, but Mr B was, and he particularly enjoyed the Terns on a pretty sandbank. 
Little did they know that Terns all face they same way and in fact, as the name suggest turn and face the same direction as a group. An interesting nugget of knowledge was gained there. They then came across a pair of Manatee.  Captain Ed was very enthusiastic about the Manatee. Though he is of the opinion that there may now be too many of the said beasties given the state of the seagrass in the area. 

The vessel then happened upon some bottlenose dolphins, and successfully managed to persuaded them to do a bit of surfing with the vessel. The crew enjoyed this immensely. Captain Ed informed the crew that they were doing this in a water based Formula 1 style DRS, using the boat as a means to reduce drag, and therefore effort, as they tried to find some dinner. Which explains why they buggered off at the sight of the first bit of tuna they could find! But the crew did get some lovely e-portraits <<Co-pilot's note: He means pictures!!, which you can find here on flickr.>>

They then stopped at a sandy beach. Captain Ed highlighted that said beach had not been present six month ago and was a effect of coastal erosion and possibly global warming. The crew then got off the vessel. 
Mr B, in his role as purser, has many talents. Appropriate choice of clothing is not one of them. He would say ‘I’m not showing my stumpy little legs off to the world’. Others, including people who have sailed these waters in the past would say ‘your going to be getting on and off a boat, man!, ye gads!’. The outcome of this however is that Mr B was wearing trousers. Leading to some interesting and entertaining sights as he got in and out of the vessel while trying to hitch his trousers up. Still, I think all commented that he was lovely and warm. 

They then spent around 20 or 30 minutes picking up shells. Captain Ed highlighted the perfect circle [first person to highlight that you can’t have a perfect circle will be keelhauled]  that occurs in the same place on shells of the same species. Captain Ed said they was caused by a small sea beastie that using acids in its tongue to burn a hole through the shell and then suck up the contents. Yikes!! – things like that remind me why I found me self a dry-dock! 

They then got back on board the vessel, and came across more dolphins surfing with another vessel. The artistically judgmental among you may say that these pictures were better than the ones taken when surfing with the crew's own vessel.

The vessel then went on to Cape Romano. These are a small collection of domed buildings that were built as a house by an eccentric person in the late eighties. Unfortunately due to strong currents combining at that exact spot the foundations of the housing and indeed the sand-bar they are on have disappeared. As is often the case, the eccentric owner was not in fact a numpty and sensibly moved rather than reinforce the foundation. The more observant of you will, of course, have noted the graffiti on some of the domes. That was not caused by people boating out to the domes but does in fact form an clear example of the effects of coastal erosion. When abandoned the house was still, at times, attached to land, and so people could walk out to the them and perform their artistic endeavours, over time however such land access has become impossible.


They then sailed around some more, before returning to dock after 2.5 –3 hours, bidding farewell to Captain Ed and the crew from Ohio (don’t you dare say it!). And so our journey comes to an end, I, Captain Jack, <<Co-Pilot's note: And don’t forget me>> hope you have enjoyed your trip. Remember, folks, as I always say, ‘if you can’t be nautical, be nice!’

Dinner

Thanks to our guest blogger for his detailed account of an amazing day. Back to me, Haydn, for an account of our lunch, afternoon and dinner.

After the boat trip and all the excitement of the birds and sea-bound mammals we had lunch and coffee - a Multigrain Bagel with cream cheese for me 

and a Chocolate Chunk Muffin for Drew along with a coffee each at Starbucks.

We then returned to the apartment. Drew went for a run in the Condo's Fitness Centre and I edited and upload the large numbers of photos we had taken earlier.

Once Drew was back we washed and dried all the clothes we had used this week. So except for my dressing-gown (I had to wear something) all of our clothes are washed and dried and (apart from the ones we will wear tonight) packed.

We decided on Sunday that we would return to the Snook Inn for our last night. The fact that fish plays a large part of their menu makes it very appropriate for a Friday. We left the apartment at 7pm, not sure how long we might need to wait as we had waited for 35 minutes on Sunday and assumed Friday night might be busier. Well as it happens it wasn't and we got a table straight away. The place was busy, but two people were leaving just as we arrived and their were no other parties less than four waiting at that time. So we sat straight down.

After coming across an Alligator on Wednesday I thought it might be nice to taste alligator meat tonight. So my starter was called Everglade Gator Bites. These were very tasty alligator tenders in a seasoned corn flour, deep-fried, and served with a homemade remoulade sauce. The sauce had a nice sharp bite to it and the alligator tale did taste quite a bit like chicken (as the joke goes), but as a juicier more flavoursome chicken with fish overtones in the taste. 

The question of whether alligator is meat or fish was something I had pondered on in advance of today's dinner. I was glad to see that the Archbishop of New Orleans has cleared this up alligator is a fish for fasting purposes.

Drew decided to stay local too with Spicy Tomato Conch Chowder - this was a delicious chowder, thick with lots of marinated ground conch and diced potatoes in a strong tomato broth. 

Drew's Salad

Haydn's Salad

As usual with our mains came a visit to the Salad Bar, this is remarkable in its range of items. We had a plate each. I guess when Drew's plate was so lightly loaded that he was already thinking about squeezing in some dessert.












For mains I went for Stuffed Grouper Duo which were two 4 ounce fillets of Grouper caught here in the Gulf of Mexico stuffed with a savory crab meat stuffing and baked. One fillet was topped with rich hollandaise sauce, the other a creamy dill sauce. Served with a lovely Baked Potato. The grouper was very nice, as I mentioned when I had it on Tuesday, it is a large flaked fish which gives it lots of flavour. It was stiffed with a lot of crab, and this was delicious. Indeed I could imagine having the crab mix of a sandwich. The hollandaise was lemony and not to heavy with the eggs, someone must have whisked it hard. The dill sauce was my favourite, I like the taste of dill and will the crab it provided a tangy accompaniment improving the crab flavour. Excellent. 

Drew opted for Fresh Cold Water Deep Sea Scallops, he chose to have these deep-fried (they could have been done broilled or blackend) served with french fries. The fries were crisp and salty, the scallops were light and the corn they had been cooked in was light and fresh, nothing like the heavy batter you sometimes encounter in the UK.

As I guessed earlier Drew had kept space for dessert and had the Homemade Key Lime Pie. This was a lovely sharp lime pie with a crisp butter base - a good example of a lime pie. <<Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, can't possibly comment on what looks like a lovely piece of lime on top of my cake because a devious little hand came and stole it while I was chewing a nice bit of pie!! I hope Mr B hasn't been learning pirate ways from Jack!>>

We left the Snook Inn and Drew took a photo of the pickle barrel to keep me happy. I've not seen anything like it anywhere else. 

We were in bed by 10am ready for tomorrow's journey across Florida.