Finally, another boat trip

We haven't had the boat out for over a week, which is a shame. What with the storms blowing through almost daily, Randy's part-time job, and me getting ready to sell jewelry at Renniger's, there just hasn't been a good chunk of time to do it. But Monday we got the chance and took it.

Getting out of our little canal onto Lake Griffin is always a cautious trip because it's narrow and full of fallen tree limbs. Around one bend we met another small boat coming in. Since there wasn't room to maneuver two boats, we both stopped our boats and Randy hand-pulled the guy around us. 

On our last trip out we found the mouth of the canal that joins Lake Griffin with Lake Harris, but the water was so low that we couldn't get through the weeds. Now, after the hurricane and all, the water level is a little higher so we tried again. The water depth here is just really shallow, all around the canal entrance. But there did seem to be a little more water and Randy swung the boat wide around the entrance to come in a little more on the north side, so we made it in, past the bird sentry perched proudly on the signpost.

This canal is a lot longer than the one between Lake Harris and Lake Eustis. There was nobody on the canal today, so we had all this beauty to ourselves.

We saw one small alligator (back where we turned onto Lake Griffin) lots of ducks and some lovely big waterbirds, but nobody felt like having their picture taken today. They all scooted out of focus as soon as they saw me.

The only thing willing to sit long enough for me to take a picture was this guy, hitching a ride on our boat. He's the biggest, blackest fly ever.

It's actually "Tabanus atratus", which sounds like something Harry Potter would say. It translates to "big black horsefly, and don't let it bite you!" I didn't know that when I got closer, to get the scale of the thing. Fortunately, he wasn't interested in me. 

We only went about a mile down the canal, before turning back so we could spend time drifting around Lake Griffin, enjoying our packed lunch with the relaxing rocking of the boat. Then back down our little canal, and home.