Butterflies and Cruising Memories
"Life is like a butterfly. You can chase it, or you can let it come to you." I can hear my powerboat buddies snickering already. As if it weren't enough that I'm a sailor, now I'm about to write a blog post about a butterfly. I have to admit, I was apprehensive when my daughters said they were going to intentionally keep an insect in our sailboat's head. First of all, I'm probably one of the most bug-averse biologists you've ever come across. Second, I don't like the idea of having something with more than two legs taking up residence in our sailboat. Third, s/v Island Bound is a mere 28-feet, so space is at a premium, even for insect guests. But I didn't fight it and I let life come to me. And so we played host to a monarch caterpillar that Izzy and Hannah captured on the shores of Harbor Island in Lake Huron's North Channel. The girls appropriately named her "Mariposa" and made a cozy microhabitat out of an ice ...