
Five minutes after stepping onto the boat at McCarthy’s Marina in Captiva, Florida, I was already geeking out over a salinity gradient — the gradual transition between freshwater and saltwater.
The Lady Chadwick was my home for the day as guides from Captiva Cruises steered us through Pine Island Sound to Cabbage Key, a low-slung barrier island just off the coast of Fort Myers. Our guide, Captain Richard, casually mentioned that the tea-colored water surrounding us gets saltier the farther south you go, all thanks to a lack of freshwater flow from the Everglades.
Technically, yes, I was on vacation. But when you spend years studying climate science and oceanography, you can’t not get excited about what’s happening under the waves.