BUGS!

Bugs have invaded Evelyn--I found this one
resting on our canvas cover.

Last year my reflections about life on a boat on land focused mostly on sounds.  There were the sounds of spring peepers, trees, gravel, and cars instead of the waves, engines, and lapping water we’d become used to.

This year, as we approached our haul out, we were ready for, and expecting, that change in our lives.  We were also prepared for the change in temperature aboard the boat, the way Evelyn would behave on land, the climb up the ladder, the distance from showering facilities, the lack of water for our tanks, the inability to use heat—we were ready for all of it, because we had experienced it before, so now we knew to expect it.

What we had forgotten, forced to the back of our minds, or somehow missed last year were the bugs.  This year, when asked about life “on the hard” I find myself thinking about the bugs.

Being on the water, especially during the winter, I don’t often have to think about bugs.  Sure, during the summer there are mosquitoes, but less so in the middle of the harbor, in the presence of a breeze, or outside of dawn and dusk.  They never seem as bad as they are on land near a marsh, swamp, pond, or puddle.  There are no ants or other land-based bugs.  Every now and then, but very rarely, a spider will appear on the lifelines, but they must blow overboard because they are never there long.  Once or twice last year our garden was infected with tiny bugs—each time that happened that plant was considered a goner, and the bugs left with it.  So generally speaking, I have pretty much forgotten how to co-exist with bugs.

Our first day on land was a big shock.  A cloud of mosquitoes swarmed us, gnats bit at us, and black flies followed us wherever we went.  We were horribly bitten as we tried to re-erect the canvas cover to protect ourselves from the oncoming rain.  Our spot for the duration of the haul out is alongside a swampy area, so we have become re-acquainted with biting bugs.

We’ve also become re-acquainted with crawling bugs, as we have sometimes sat on the ground alongside the boat to eat our lunch, and have been visited by hungry scavengers.  Some have even climbed the ladder and investigated our deck.

And lastly, we’ve become re-acquainted with spiders.  Spiders seem to be everywhere!  Under the cover, inside the cabin on the ladder down to the ground, in the galley—I’d forgotten how many spiders were in this world and I’d forgotten how to live alongside them.

Living in a small space on the water, and being constantly exposed to the environment, one would think that we would be more accustomed to having nature invite itself inside our home.  But apparently we are not.  Our environment excludes most of the critters and crawlers that the usual home is exposed to.  So though we often feel as though we are living very close to nature—and we are—we are also very distant from it.  If tomorrow I moved to a small cabin in the woods, a plot on a farm, or a house on an island, I think it would take me a little while to re-adjust to life nearby dirt.

Next year, when it is again time to haul out and we are preparing ourselves for the move, not only will we fill our water tanks, pull out our blankets, and look forward to spring peepers, but we’ll purchase some bug repellent and prepare ourselves for the invasion.

Our home for five weeks had a marshy area alongside it that
was a favorite hangout to a variety of creeping, crawling, buzzing, and biting bugs.