Cruising - Team Rogers: July 2018

Saturday, July 28, 2018

The Butterfly Movement

My neighbor, Pat Murphy, stopped me on the sidewalk recently. She wanted to confess that she had gone through my gardens in search of butterfly larva on my abundant supply of milkweed. She found four tiny striped butterfly babies at the top of my plants and took them home to nurture them through the four steps leading to them becoming monarch butterflies. The teeny tiny voracious herbivores are barely visible to the naked eye when they hatch from their pin point sized eggs, but they grow fast!

Pat & Beth with mature caterpillar
Photo by Roxanne Wightman

Pat purchased a butterfly cage just in time for her healthy full grown caterpillars to begin building their chrysalis. All four larva from my gardens made it through the life cycle and Pat was excited to tell me that she released them.

Tiny larva next to Pat's thumb
Photo by Pat Murphy

Pat's Nursery Area
Photo by Pat Murphy

FIVE caterpillars!
Photo by Pat Murphy

Chrysalis City
Photo by Pat Murphy

SUCCESS!!! Butterflies!
Photo by Pat Murphy

Pat's Butterfly Cage
Photo by Pat Murphy

Pat with her cage, pointing out a larva
preparing for the chrysalis stage

Caterpillar moves into J shape
before forming Chrysalis

Pat's butterfly project quickly became a movement. We began researching the monarch life cycle and were surprised to learn that only about 5% of all butterfly eggs survive to adulthood. The females lay from 1-500 eggs, one egg at a time. If you watch, you can witness them landing on milkweed, tucking their bottom under a leaf and dropping an opaque egg. Once the egg is laid, it matures on the leaf for about 4 days before hatching. The tiny larva eats the nutrition packed shell then begins to devour milkweed leaves for about 10 days. Just before the larva begins to morph into a chrysalis, it climbs to the top of the plant and spins a silk mat. It stabs a stem into this mat and hangs upside down. The translucent green pupa is formed from the head (bottom) up. After 10-14 days, the butterfly begins to emerge, unfolding itself from the chrysalis with wet wings. The entire process takes about one month.

Image by Monarchlab.org

Armed with all this information, we started collecting larva and eggs, excited to help this beautiful insect multiply. We learned to keep the eggs in covered plastic bins lined with damp paper towels. Once they hatched we moved them from this nursery to a preschool of sorts where they literally eat and poop and rest and molt until they get longer and fatter. Eventually they are moved to the mesh cage where they munch all day getting really long and really plump. They poop a lot and the cage must be cleaned daily then washed with a 5% bleach solution between generations. As they grow, the larva or caterpillar sheds its' coat several times. This is called molting. The time between molts is called instar. There are five instar stages.

To identify each instar stage click here: Instar Stages of a Butterfly

Tiny Translucent egg, look closely for the ridges along the side

New hatchling, eating it's nutrition packed egg
photo zoomed from original

Hatching larva leaving egg. White end is egg, black end is head.

Egg and larva on one leaf
Egg is the size of a pin head, larva is not visible to naked eye

Two tiny larva on one leaf
Each larva is about 1/16th of an inch long

Munching catapillar

Caterpillar at top of cage, ready to build chrysalis

Caterpillar moving in "J" shape

Beautiful Chrysalis

We were finding so many eggs that Pat began to recruit foster homes. She asked our neighbor Roxanne Wightman if she would be interested in raising Monarchs. Roxanne was quickly convinced to join us and began her own brood. Roxanne keeps a journal, documenting the developmental phase of each egg she collects. It has been interesting to see how we each run our monarch breeding farms in different ways.

Roxanne's Journal
Photo by Roxanne Wightman

Two mature caterpillars on one leaf
Photo by Roxanne Wightman

Roxanne's Cage
Photo by Roxanne Wightman

Monarch raising aids
Photo by Roxanne Wightman

Pat looked for more foster parents and found that people were interested and excited to be part of the Butterfly Project. At this time there are nine of us working on building the monarch population in our town. Coincidentally, we are seeing a greater number of butterflies this season, including types of swallowtails.

Yellow Tiger Swallowtail on Coneflower

I was acting as the neighborhood egg collector for a few weeks but ordered my own butterfly cage after finding a good sized larva on my plants. I was hoping it would arrive in time for my "baby" to enter the pupa stage inside the cage. Pat is so excited at the interest and hard work of her recruits. She calls the response "The Butterfly Movement"; a bunch of small town ladies helping in a small way! By the time the season is over, we expect to release over 100 monarch butterflies into our gardens. Pat has nicknamed our street "Butterfly Alley"!

Female monarch gathering nectar

A quiet moment

Monarch on Butterfly Weed

Monarch collecting nectar

Monarch laying an egg on Butterfly Weed

Butterfly & Bee Tea Party

To learn more about raising butterflies in your home click here:

Monarchlab.org

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Coming Up With a Plan

It has been one full year since we left our Alberg 35, Mystic, on the hard in St. Augustine, Florida. The last 12 months have not been kind to us, with both of us facing health challenges. We have been working hard at getting back to our cruising adventure. We are eager to resume our journey.

After two road trips south this year, we have decided to wait for hurricane season to pass before heading south again. We visited Mobile, Baton Rouge, and the Gulf Coast this spring and Mobile in July. Each visit we experienced rainy conditions with overwhelmingly oppressive heat. It has become apparent to us that this is not the time to be in the south aboard our boat. It makes sense to wait until fall to resume cruising.

Preparing Mystic for a year on the hard

Mystic at St. Augustine Marine Center

We decided to wait patiently for hurricane season to pass. It's the smart thing to do! There are projects here at home to keep us busy over the summer months. Minnesota has wonderful weather during the summer. Being home has allowed for boat projects including designing a wind scoop and rail covers to protect our teak. We are working on dinghy chaps for the inflatable.

In August we plan to visit Connecticut. We'll be there for at least a month, visiting family and friends as well as attending my 40th high school reunion in September. In October, Dave has to work at a trade show in Santa Monica. He works hard but we enjoy staying at the Inn at Playa del Ray, close to the beach where he can unwind after a long day on his feet. Happy hour is held each evening at 5:00. Wine and appetizers are served. We sit on the deck and look out over the bird sanctuary, relaxing and planning the upcoming cruising season.

Soon after we get back home, we'll head for St. Augustine where we will finally splash Mystic again. We have a reservation at Titusville Marina in November. Our plan includes staging her for a cruise to the Keys and Bahamas over the next winter. We are excited to begin this new adventure!

Titusville Sunset over Mystic in 2017

As always, plans don't always work out because the minute we set them in place, something changes. We got a surprise call from our Looper friends, Susan Beabes and David Taylor. They asked us to join them aboard their Island Packet 40, Veritas, for the last 500 miles of their own Great Loop adventure. We first met Susan and David along the inland waterway at Cumberland Towhead anchorage. We spent months at Turner Marine in Mobile with them. They will cross their wake in Hampton, Virginia. The plan is to go offshore for the first part of the journey from Beaufort, South Carolina to Beaufort, North Carolina. It will be good experience for us. It's been a while since we've sailed on open water.

With Susan & David on Lake Erie

Dave, Beth, Susan & David

S/V Veritas
Photo by Susan Beabes

Monday, July 9, 2018

A Day of Sailing in Bayfield

It's hard to believe we've been away from our Alberg 35, Mystic, for a whole year now. We left her on the hard in St. Augustine July 1, 2017 to come home for hurricane season. During that time away, we visited our friends Scott and Rhonda Joiner aboard their Catamaran, Mucho Gusto. We've been on a boat but we haven't been sailing. We are excited to get out on the water again.

We were invited up to Roy's Marina, just north of Bayfield Wisconsin, for a couple days with friends Linda and Jim Weckman aboard their beautiful Nauticat 38, S/V Pemion. Jim and Linda were our dock neighbors at Knife River Marina. They are cherished friends. It's a good three plus hour drive from to Bayfield. We got an early start and arrived at Roy's around noon. Jim was excited to get out on the water so we stashed our bags and dropped the lines, then headed out into the West Channel. It happens to be Bayfield Race Week so there are many brightly colored sails to watch for. We cruised around Bayfield then made our way to Madeline Island where we docked long enough to have a delicious lunch at The Pub. We sailed back across the North Channel and tucked Pemion into her slip. After a lovely evening at the marina and dinner in town, we settled into the forward berth with the forward hatch open. The sky was alight with stars. Pemion gently rocked us to sleep.

This visit with Jim and Linda was just what we needed. We've been feeling disconnected from oue cruising lifestyle, our life on the water, the sounds and the smells. We can't wait to return to Mystic this fall after hurricane season passes. This past year, life has brought us challenges that have tested us, our inner strength and peace of mind. A day of sailing fixed that for us!