After two days of solid,heavy, unrelenting rain it had finally stopped. I flung open every orifice that the boat possesses. Being battened down in the kind of heat we have here is truly horrendous. The ambient temperature rises, and just keeps rising: 95,98,100,102. Then I stop looking 'cos I can't see anymore with the sweat pouring off my brow straight in to my eyes. Boy does it sting too. Which makes my eyes water and so the never ending cycle of flowing liquid continues...
The reason for my panic becomes clear as the now dry air fills with black flying insects. Millions of them. They start to land in the cockpit and I watch mesmorised as their wings fall off. Oh yuck, that is just disgusting.
Sort of looks like the confetti that the Corpse Bride would enjoy. I'm not, enjoying it that is. All those black marks over the creamy fibreglass. It's disheartening is what it is. Try as I may it is virtually impossible to keep the boat looking bright and sparkly. If it's not dismembered flying insect parts it's the all encroaching green slime of the rainy season. Depressing or what?
For a couple of hours the Alfred Hitchcock style drama plays out around our refuge. Can of bug spray in hand I prowl below decks inspecting the insect netting and giving a violent puff of lethal chemical at any intrepid creature that threatens to invade my space.
It's war, and I have my weapons of mass distruction on hand. Raid spray, mosquito coils even fumigation bombs, and let me tell you I am not afraid to use them.No Siree!
This morning I start the cleanup, wings gone but no sign of the invaders, where are they?
Oh blimey there they are. Under the ropes that lie coiled on the coach roof. Wingless but undefeated. Biding their time as they spy out the lay of the land. Well not anymore, boiling water and more chemicals and success.
Local informers tell me that they are flying termites, very rare that they swarm. This is the second time in as many months. What is Mother Nature telling me?
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