I was sailing solo on a passage from Key West to Sanibel Island, Florida.
I had to be towed into Marco Island marina because my engine wasn’t working. I luckily found a mechanic to do the work the next morning and was feeling safe and good about being able to continue tomorrow.
Marco Island is known for a lot of cool stuff. Besides being the largest of the ten thousand islands off the west coast of Florida, quite a few notable people live there. It also has an unusually large population of Bald Eagles. The Newspaper is the Marco Island Eagle, if that tells you anything about how many there are.
Headed for the marina restaurant, I climbed through the hatchway just in time to see a large Osprey with a good sized fish in his mouth being chased by an even bigger Bald Eagle with a hungry look.
This was a real dogfight scene in nature, better than “Top Gun”, unfolding right in front of my eyes, in real time. I was awed.
The Osprey would dive and turn with the Eagle close on his tail. The Eagle chased the Osprey all over the marina for what seemed like almost a minute. This Eagle was determined to get that fish.
I had a digital camera in the V-berth of the boat, but I knew if I went to get it by the time I got back out, the drama might be over, so I stayed to watch.
It was the most glorious display of aerial maneuvering I have ever seen. They dived and swooped all over the marina. But soon I could tell the Eagle was getting closer all the time and the Osprey knew it too. Suddenly, deciding that discretion being the better part of valor, he dropped the fish. I guess he realized if he kept the fish, the Eagle might have more than just the fish for lunch.
The Osprey dropped his catch and flew off. The Eagle caught the fish in mid-air and headed the other way. Next came the funny part. The Osprey then flew over and sat on a triple deck boat storage and bitched for about fifteen minutes. Kind of like a Whaa…….Whaa … Whaa noise, he was really pissed. But he lived to fish another day.
Nature, you just gotta love it.
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I was sailing solo on a passage from Key West to Sanibel Island, Florida.
