Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away: Shired County Park

The extreme low tides persist in the morning, and Horseshoe Bay is described as a maze of Oyster Bars in the Guidebook. Sure enough, looking out this morning we figured we could undo the gelcoat repairs I made in Steinhatchee in just a few minutes.

The marine weather forecast today is for a 20 knot tailwind. We chose to ride the wind across the bay rather than follow the perimeter.

Seas were 1.5 to 2 foot, with occasional 3 foot waves. They were quite well formed and rolling along at about 6 knots. With both waves and wind from behind we easily cruised at 4.2 knots. Rod rode a couple of waves but mostly we paddled conservatively and close together. Fran was uncomfortable and not ready to call today fun yet. She could handle the conditions fine, but did not have enough reserve capability to handle an escalation such as needing to rescue me. So that is a bit too much.

When we reached Shired Island the winds showed no sign of letting up. The weather forecast for tomorrow is a little better, at 15 knots.  We decided to hole up here and try again in the morning.

We are now about five days behind our initial itinerary.  We have had some weather days and also the permit for Big Bend was for shorter days that we originally planned. We have just days of pad through Mayo Costa, so we will have to see how this plays out.

Hey, the campground has warmish showers! That's about all we can say for it. We retreat from the beach side into the tress, and they are buried in litter. We start to clear off the 6-10 inches of trash but uncover broken glass shards. We try another spot, and under that rubbish pile is little better. We finally pitch the tent on top of the rubbish to avoid the glass.

Ironically, there is a fee at this park. The attendant who collects the fee apparently does no maintenance in the park. All of the other visitors are in RVs, parked on the beach side, so the rubbish is not generally a concern.

Distance: 5 

Wind 20

Water 52