Wednesday 20th Feb: Airboat Ride

The first question many people would ask is, “what’s an airboat?” A photo of the smallest type, parked on land, best illustrates the basic design.

It’s a flat bottom boat driven from behind by an aircraft propeller encased in a frame for safety, like a fan. It has no keel, rudder or engine screw protruding in the water to get tangled in weeds or debris, so it can negotiate open water, swamp or waterlogged ground without breaking its stride.

Technical Notes

The tourist boats offered by all the airboat ride outfits seem to come in two sizes: 6 or 17 seats, both powered by the same beefy Continental 520 aircraft engine producing some 300 hp and capable of 45 plus mph. Racing airboats can reach 135 mph. Engine noise is high enough for the operators to provide us with ear defenders. Nobody used them.

Steering is based on aircraft principles with two rudders placed directly behind the propeller, swivelling the engine thrust to one side or other in order to make a turn. This can be a rapid skid turn, as our airboat pilot demonstrated.

 

 

We went with Boggy Creek Airboat Rides based at Lake Toho. This is one of their 17-seaters leaving the docking area for the swamps.

 We opt for a 6-seater excursion which is claimed to get  into more inaccessible parts of the swamp with close-up views of the wildlife. Whilst waiting for our departure slot, we get the baby alligator treatment. The object is, of course, to have your photo taken holding the alligator, which is quite docile and appealing.

We learn that the alligator’s 64 teeth replace themselves throughout its life and that it has little strength in the muscles used to open its jaws. The piece of tape holding the baby’s mouth shut is quite sufficient. However, once its jaws are open, the alligator can then exert a huge bite pressure. So keep that tape on!

Now we are in the swamp. In the airboat you sit almost on the surface of the swamp as the boat is so shallow, so it gives an impression of great speed when travelling flat out, much in excess of its true 45 mph. It’s too bumpy to take photos. This is us stopped to look at an alligator.

This is the alligator, an 8-footer according to the pilot/guide. He is very knowledgeable and points out osprey, bald eagle, wood stork, and ibis, just to mention a few. There are around 3,000 alligators on the lake and 1.5 million in Florida.

The swamp and lake water levels are now managed by dams and sluices within a range of 3 feet a year where previously it was some 10 feet. The vast lakes and swamps of central and southern Florida all eventually drain down into the biggest swamp of all, the Everglades, at the southern end of the State.

The guide’s eagle eyes spy a three banded watersnake partly out of the water on a lily pad. We half expect these dangerous creatures to suddenly launch themselves at us, but practically all wildlife will leave you alone as long as they don’t see you as a threat or dinner.

Speaking of dinner, a well-camouflaged limpkin has found a huge fresh water snail which he then vigorously repeatedly stabbbed with his long beak. A limpkin is a long-legged water bird with a metre wingspan, so we can guess the snail’s size at a huge 4 to 5 inches in diameter! Later, a Google search reveals that it is a Florida apple snail, the wold’s largest fresh water snail. Anyone for escargot and fries? Everything comes with fries in America.

The airboats might seem a tourist gimmick, but we got an inside look at a Florida swamp ecosystem in a most accessible way, and it made a very enjoyable and different day out.