Caught In The Crossfire

Sunday January 8th

Another day at Isle Grande, OH was I ever wrong yesterday, Saturdays are not even close to being the busiest day here, yesterday was simply a gentle introduction to the invasion of bodies that was to flood across the bay this morning.  The little ferry boats started at 6:30 am, cramming in people and children like sardines into a tin, and transporting them from the mainland across to the little beach which was filling up at an alarming rate, by 11am it was standing room only, as we sat on board sipping our coffee and watching all the activity we couldn’t help but wonder whether the little island would sink under the weight of it all. 

This is the quiet end of the beach!

The ferry boats crawled past Daisy, fully loaded from bow to stern with day tripping sweaty bodies, carrying their coolers full of beer, and fun floatie things, then on the return trip the little boats would fly past as close as possible to us with empty boats going at full speed in a race to beat each other back to the mainland to pick up the next load.  Daisy is in the middle of the bay and caught unceremoniously right in the middle their crossfire.  For 15 hours the boats whizzed past in both directions, non-stop.

We had planned to go ashore today to take more photographs, since I had a fully charged camera battery, but honestly I just didn’t think I could cope with the swarms of flesh flaunting, beer swigging, island invaders (I say invaders rather than visitors, because it appeared to be more of an invasion).

It actually really upsets me how they openly drop their trash everywhere, showing total disrespect and disregard for the island and the people who live there.  I’m sure that tomorrow morning the island will be filthy with piles of trash everywhere for the locals to clear up.  Meanwhile on board, Daisy is clean, comfortable and safely away from the masses.  I’ve even become used to the rocking and rolling it doesn’t affect me at all today, I can read without nausea, and the dreadful giddiness and dizzy spells of the past few days have passed.

The bay has been so noisy today, between the non-stop ferry boats and the cool kamikaze dudes on their see-doos, who display no manners, or thought for anyone else on the water, I just saw one of them almost tip a couple of people in their canoe over, they flew past so fast the poor people struggled desperately to keep their canoe upright. 

One of the locals told us last night while we were waiting for the Macaws to arrive, that they flock every night at 5:30 to the almond trees, just as we had seen them for the past 2 nights, but they don’t come on a weekend because of all the noisy people.  Bob say’s birds are stupid, but it sounds to me as though these Macaws are pretty smart.  We’ll look for them again on Monday; I’m really hoping to get some photographs.

Pretty vacation home on the beach

We’re the only boat in the bay, and all the bay traffic seems to go out of its way to pass Daisy so close, seeing just how much they can rock the boat.  At least tomorrow the bay will be quiet again, the great unwashed will have returned to the mainland, and we can go ashore and hike in peace, photograph more wildlife, and watch for the return of the Macaws at dusk.

I’ve become quite a miserable old biddy of late, frowning and complaining about all the goings on,  as I sit here on my yacht passing judgment on all around me…