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This summer, my wife and I traveled to Florida’s panhandle and spent some time in Port St Joe and the Apalachicola bay. Of course, we had a lot of good seafood and I learned what a “no-see ’em” is. If you don’t know … it’s the reason that you don’t want to live anywhere near The Coastal South. They should also be called the “no talk-about ’em” because I’ve never heard anyone mention them. It’s like they know that if people knew about these invisible and ubiquitous pest, people wouldn’t visit. Immediately when the sun started to go down, no matter where I’ve been, I start to feel the bites.

To avoid this, I got up early in the morning and went exploring for boats. I was not disappointed. Each of these miniature dinosaurs have so many stories to tell. All of the hardware, and outriggers, pulleys and rope, as well as beds and small kitchens to live off of. Its hard to tell from all of the boats siting still if this is a dying industry, or just a seasonal downtime. There was a quiet stillness throughout the bay, but maybe because I was there on the weekend. Despite the quietness, the wear on the insides and outsides of the boats, the patina to the rigging, worn off paint on the deck, countless ropes and pulleys, all spoke volumes of activity in a not-so-distant past.