| If you haven’t been on an airboat, put it on your “to do” list. It’s quite different from a traditional boat in several ways and I find that really exhilarating. Of course the propulsion is obviously not the same as a regular boat, requiring ear protection so the engine noise needed to spin the giant aircraft propeller doesn’t deafen you forever.
Another strange sensation involves turning. Unlike a car or conventional boat, an airboat drifts when turning due to its inertia and lack of solid contact with the water or ground. I felt especially bewildered the first few times the airboat took sharp turns and we slid in the opposite direction, and I wondered if the driver simply may have lost control.
Grady Patrick, my former father-in-law who now lives in the Florida Keys, owned an airboat for many years. We’d often trailer it from Miami to access remote regions of the Everglades, Big Cypress and other areas during hunting season. We also gigged frogs at night.
It’s amazingly fun to skim along at night on an airboat with a spotlight, the night breeze caressing your face and no worries about insects as long as you keep moving. Grady would spot a pair of glaring frog eyes and maneuver his airboat so we’d pass right alongside the slithery greenie. I’d hold a three-pronged gig just over the surface and dip it into the water just before the speed of the boat did the work of “hooking” the frog. Those frog legs – fresh from a campfire frying pan – sure tasted great.
I also hopped aboard the airboat of Jimmy Long in Homosassa. He possesses a state license to remove nuisance alligators, and I went along a couple of years ago to witness the excitement. Jimmy went to the lake where a huge gator was reportedly becoming too aggressive, and though we eventually found the creature, it proved to be incredibly stealthy. It took off along the bottom of a bog and into a thicket of myrtle trees, making it impossible to follow it.
Eventually Jimmy did catch the feisty rascal, but I missed that episode. Even so, I enjoyed the ride immensely, seeing smaller (and evidently “friendly”) gators here and there, all sorts of wading birds and even a water snake of some sort about three feet in length.
My interest in airboating these days centers more on the picture-taking opportunities than hunting game or pursuing giant lizards with an attitude problem. Considering all the locations that treat visitors to rides throughout Florida, it’s an added reason why I’m going to continue to enjoy the special access that airboats provide to wildlife and varieties of landscapes – not to mention the simple fun of the rides themselves. |
