Eine Kleine Nachspaddle: Indian Beach

We began the day again with a 15 mph headwind. We wanted to make time because we have a package to pick up today and last time that took forever. Two hours and four miles later we are in Clearwater, and an hour later we are back on the water and the wind has dropped to 10 mph, which is negligible. We even restocked the peanut butter. Good stuff.

Except Fran's boat leaks.
Not enough to sink or affect boat handling, but the stern hatch gets enough water to make all of the bags wet. If a dry bag fails then we have a wet tent or wet sleeping pads. 

The fundamental problem is that the plastic tubing the skeg cable travels through is about a half inch short and won't stay in the compression fitting at the skeg box. It has been a chronic problem since we bought the boats (used) and I have made makeshift repairs twice and Alder Creek Canoe and Kayak has once but I am done with makeshift repairs. 

One of the premier kayak shops in Florida is in Clearwater so Fran called them while I was doing the errands. Russell of Sweetwater Kayaks will give us a hand tomorrow. He has a great idea - use shrink wrap tubing to close the gap, sealing to both the fitting and the tubing. I like it!

Russell is hammered with a million things to do today and tomorrow.  He has his shop and two rental locations to run, and he has to get ready for an expedition on the Suwannee. And his has visiting relatives and tomorrow is his wedding anniversary. But he says give him an hour to figure out what he can do.

Sweetwater Kayaks is a great outfitter.  The only one we have seen in Florida focused on sea kayaks, they have a full education program for skills development. One of the best instructors we have had, Nigel Foster, is closely associated with the shop, and in February they run their 17th annual BCU week.

Russell figures out a plan. He'll meet us at one of his rental locations tomorrow morning and we'll do the heat shrink.

We end up with most of the miles left to do at 4pm so we agree to paddle into the dark to the next campsite.  It turns out to be one if the best paddles we have done. We experience the sunset and the evening bird activity while we are on the water. Instead of our typical rush at the end of the day to beat the fading light we enjoy the early evening. We have all of the safety lights we need and can set up camp in the dark just fine.

In this area the motor boat traffic is intense. It has not been an issue since the shallow water keeps the motor boats in the narrow Intercoastal Waterway. Basically the motor boats stay in a congested channel and the other 90% of the water is available. The motor boats do produce chop with up to three foot wakes but they are quite manageable.

The motor boat traffic stops at 5:00 to 5:30 and we have a very peaceful paddle for about another hour. We really enjoy being on the water at this time of day and will likely do more of it.