The Dog Days of Summer

 In ancient times, well before old Marco was new and even before the Calusa Native Americans met Ponce Deleon and Marco became the Island of Saint Mark, the celestial mechanics that drive the universe began to lift the Dog Star Sirius into the nightly heavens of summer. The brightest star of all begins creeping over the horizon just after June and as the temperature of summer rises, the ghostly beacon of the wolfish star begins to beckon and sway the course of all but the most steadfast creatures. The southwest Florida islands have always had a special bond with summer and the season of swelter, but when the relentless heat and humidity combine with the light from the Dog Star, no escape is possible from The Dog Days of Summer.  

During ancient times in Greece, the rising of the Dog Star was a signal to retreat and beware of almost everything. Bathing, swimming, and drinking water were dangerous if not foolish behaviors, and it was common for the heat of late summer to bring out the worst of woman, man, or beast.  

Murder and other crimes of passion can be common under the primitive urges of the Dog Star’s unearthly glow, but there are also tales of the misplaced and misunderstood when the summer heat boils even the most temperate into the realm of crazy. 

During an unusually hot summer, when Labor Day was all but over, the Marco Beach Boys and Girls were indeed sweltering under a relentless August sun. The daily rain was like something out of a jungle movie, and when the clouds began to part and the sun came out after everything was soaking, the ground, the plants, and the air began to steam. The water in the Gulf was hovering around 90 degrees and the wind, when it came, was only during a summer squall or a thunderstorm of biblical proportions. 

This was the climate when almost every boater in the area began to report the sighting of either a large shark, a whale of some sort, or a very large leatherback sea turtle that would normally be swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Because the day was beyond hot and without a breeze, two of the Marco Beach Boys decided to take out the inflatable chase boat, which was normally for chasing down wayward or flipped-over sailboats. The idea was to escape the boredom of a slow and hot afternoon with the adventurous concept of exploring the water off Marco Beach for whatever type of “Sea Monster” might have invaded our local waters. 

When the expedition began, the gulf was above tepid and flat as a pond. The little speedboat was fast in the calm water, but it was crowded with the two beach boys filling most of the deck space. Traveling at full speed and moving quickly offshore, the small craft was making beach boy air-conditioning in the form of a motorized breeze. After the inflatable rounded the hook of Cape Marco, the hazy expanse of the southern mangroves and the distant beaches began to shimmer in the heat.  

In late summer, the water off the southern islands can be as clear as a swimming pool or as dark as a cup of tea. The color and clarity can change with the day depending on heavy rainfall or strong currents, but on the fateful Dog Day of summer when the Marco Beach Boys were searching for a “Sea Monster” or perhaps just a boondoggle, the coastal Gulf water was a dark as a cup of Columbian coffee. 

Beside the mangroves and the driftwood beaches, the water was hot, flat, and it smelled like a steaming jungle. Without warning, ripples began spreading outward from something that was rising to the surface. For a few fleeting seconds, the beach boys began to believe the subject of the water displacement was a large group of dolphins coming up together. This idea fell away quickly when the dark water began turning into white rivulets and running off a large object that was still rising to the surface. The beach boys at once forgot about the oppressive hot weather, the scent of the jungle coming off the mangroves, and almost about the bravery required to venture out and search for a mystery at sea. 

The little boat must have continued to speed toward whatever was surfacing until the beach boy at the helm finally remembered to cut the throttle and shift the engine into reverse. Whatever was rising was clearly animal in nature. Imperfections were suddenly noticeable on the black skin that was still streaming water, but it was also clear that the “Sea Monster” was large enough to capsize the intrusive boat where the two beach boys were now white-knuckled and worried. 

According to ancient legends, The Dog Days of Summer are so hot that dogs go crazy. Humans become irritable to the point of murder and mayhem, and on the Dog Day when the weather was so hot anyone might go crazya large manta ray was surfacing in the mangrove tea that was the Gulf south of Marco. 

After a few moments of fear, dread, and doubt, the two Marco Beach Boys began to realize what they were seeing. The large manta ray was not a “Sea Monster” but a wandering and perhaps misplaced creature in our local waters. Throughout the following week, the details of the manta were easy to see when the big but harmless member of the string ray family made routine appearances for local boats in the region.  

The coastal waters of Ten Thousand Islands will always be full of mystery but perhaps even more so when misplaced adventurers of every type cannot escape The Dog Days of Summer.