USA Today

TARPON SPRING, Fla. – With the sun warming our skin, the wind blowing through our hair and the sea spraying onto our faces, it could not have been a better day out on the water on a recent Friday morning in Florida. We spotted dolphins feeding and frolicking, birds playing in the updrafts and settling onto their sanctuary roosts and other boaters seeking a sense of normalcy in an otherwise abnormal world.

After months of staying in during the pandemic,  a day on the water could have been just what the doctor ordered. The bestselling book "Blue Mind," by marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols, cites scientific evidence that being in close proximity to the water can result in being happier.

What if you don’t have a boat or a friend with a boat? In addition to boat rentals at marinas, there are several Airbnb-type boat rental companies that match renters with owners in the USA and even internationally. For our day out on the water, my friends and I rented with Boatsetter, which had plenty of boats near us from which to choose.

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