aka portugese man of war, because they travel in a pack, like a fleet. Anyway, gorgeous day today, school has started again, surf is a fun 3-4 foot range, it's 30 degrees the water is 22 or so, and oh so clear

andnot too many on the beach, but after being out the water, well after about 4 waves I caught ( good fun waves btw ) I could see a few blue bottles drifting in, and then after paddling out again, one got me bad, frick it stung so bad ( still is while I type this ) first I tried to cope with it, told myself, come on the waves are too good, lets try to stay out here, but the pain got too much. So I went into , straight up to the lifeguards for some vinegar, they obviously knew this was going to happen because they had the vinegar and stingose ready. Now this one got me on the leg, back of the knee , stomach and arm, but the part on the back of the knee was the killer, as the poison travelled up my legs via the sensitive part of the back of my knee straight into the gland in my groin, and oh my, it felt like some one had kicked me between the legs. I could not move and tears were starting to well up in my eyes, but I survived  ( thanks to a ice cold beer and a painkiller ) But I kept thinking of the little 4 to 6 year olds that were playing on the shore line who got stunb as well, they were screaming their lungs out in pain, poor little buggers. So yeah, a big pack of blue bottles floated in , there was about 25 guys surfing and then there were 2 , everybody got stung bad and came in. Later on in the afternoon, about 3 hours later, I went back to have a look, and they had all pretty much blown in onto the sand , and people were surfing again

The only photo I got out in the water as I was trying to peel the sting of my leg