Treasure hunting

Islamorada is a village composed of four islands.  On the south side is the Atlantic Ocean, on the north, Florida Bay on the Gulf of Mexico.  Island Christian School, where we are camped, is on "Bayside".  A group of us walked behind the playing field to the mangroves. These are tropical trees growing on coastlines all over the world, their roots visible above the waterline, actually nourished from salt water and organic material deposited on the coral base of the islands. 
The trees parted to reveal a miniature dock.  We were going kayaking in bright yellow kayaks.  On the side of the kayak, in small letters, I spied the words "Made in Canada".

No, that's not a toque on my head. I  had tied my sun hat on with a bandana so it wouldn't blow away.  My front seat was comfortable, but later I commented to Terry, "The kayak didn't seem to want to go in the direction I was headed."
"It's the person in the front that does the main steering", he replied.
"So why was I in the front....? "

The water in this little channel was only about a foot deep. Regretfully I left the camera behind.  I had wanted to capture the mysterious journey to the bay, but didn't want salt in it.  We silently glided along , a thick canopy of intertwined branches above, and exposed mangrove roots all around.  I felt like an explorer.  A few minutes later we were in the bay.  I noticed Ed and Becky hugging the shore, peering into the  mangrove thicket.  Their progress was slow, as they appeared to be looking for something. 
"There's one!"  and they wedged their kayak in among the roots and struggled to free something.  Oh, so we were on a mission! They were after Styrofoam floats escaped from crab traps. Retrieving them involved untangling the ropes to which they were attached, from the mangrove roots. 
"It's an Easter egg hunt!" I exclaimed,  as I began to see flashes of colour.  No one had remembered to bring along a knife, so we left Ed and Becky behind in their work to untangle ropes. 
We circled a little island.  Sometimes the water was turquoise blue where it got a little deeper. Passing boats splashed us with the waves they created.  It was nothing like the cold waters off Vancouver Island where we'd kayaked before. 
On the way back I got caught up in the excitement of the hunt.  At one point I actually climbed out of the kayak to balance carefully on the mangrove roots.  Terry is used to my tenacity when it comes to treasure hunting.  I wanted to get what looked like a milk crate hung up in the carpet of roots, but there was no room left on board.  It would have to wait till next time.  What a sight we all were--Steve and Mona trailed a string of three floats behind them, like a line of bobbing ducklings.

Terry and Becky showing off our finds

Apparently after the summer storms, many of these floats break away from their traps and are washed up.  They are not quite as exciting as the round glass orbs, mysteriously floating all the way from Japan, that  my brother and I would occasionally find when we were young.

Burnett's treasures

Various colours and numbers identify the traps.  Each of our RVs now displays unique decorations.  It looks more like Christmas now, than Easter! The other trophy, which later appeared on my legs, was a rash from the coral clinging to the old rope. It was at least a month before it completely disappeared!

A previous collection