The forecast is for morning fog and moderate wind (10 mph).
The route follows the shore of Wacasassa Bay. But the bay is shallow and we want to make up miles, so we talk about plowing straight across seven miles. Fran twitches at the idea of not being able to see land for two hours, but it appears that water never gets more than a few feet deep. We have lots of ways to navigate including two deck compasses, two handheld compasses, a mapping GPS, and electronic NOAA charts with GPS on both the cell phone and tablet. We decide to go for it.
The route follows the shore of Wacasassa Bay. But the bay is shallow and we want to make up miles, so we talk about plowing straight across seven miles. Fran twitches at the idea of not being able to see land for two hours, but it appears that water never gets more than a few feet deep. We have lots of ways to navigate including two deck compasses, two handheld compasses, a mapping GPS, and electronic NOAA charts with GPS on both the cell phone and tablet. We decide to go for it.
We are flying on instruments.
I rather enjoy it. We both studied navigation and took classes before we left, and we are using it all.
I rather enjoy it. We both studied navigation and took classes before we left, and we are using it all.
Often we navigate by dead reckoning, keeping an eye on the watch and our pace and reconciling that to the chart. We have also done a fair amount of marking charts with course bearings and distance, and then picking up clues about drift to set a heading. Occasionally we flip on the GPS, but usually just at the very end of the day to zero in exactly on a campsite location.
Today we practice purely navigating by compass and watch. If we miss the point we are aiming for we are fine, since we will still hit the coastline. Regardless we flip on the GPS at halfway and again at 80%, and we eventually see the point come out of the fog about 1000 feet in front of us. By then we are in less than a foot of water.
On the crossing we see a small ray in the shallow water, but the clear water is really to dim to peer into. We comment that this would be an amazing stretch in different weather, like gliding over an aquarium for hours on end. We realize that we have said that many times over the past two weeks - this really would have been beautiful if...
Probably the better time to paddle here is March (or October). We had originally planned to start in Key West in December and reach the Big Bend in March. But unfortunately the Big Bend permits are only issued traveling North to South, so we are here at the wrong time.
After the point we set the next course. The morning fog has not lifted. This time we are aiming for a tiny island. There are a number of day beacons marking a river channel we will cross so that will help us to correct any drift. But we instead just flip on the GPS more frequently and bang out some miles. The heading is due South. We are headed for warmer land!
We caught up one more day.
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