The forecast was for 5-10 mph wind when we started paddling, but was upgraded to 10-15 while we were out there. What we experienced was a 15 mph headwind most of the day, converting a moderate 12 nautical mile trip into an all day affair.
Much of the day was in the 1-3 foot deep sea grass beds which team with life. We spotted a couple of turtles and grass eels, but unfortunately the wind and largely cloudy day made it tough to see into the water. We had the same experience in the other massive US sea grass bed in Big Bend. Hopefully we'll be more lucky tomorrow.
This crossing of Florida Bay is an extremely long open water crossing, so I am over-zealous in checking conditions, plotting charts, and on-deck navigation. Our course today was largely of the type "nnn degrees for n miles, then mmm degrees for m miles", as we needed to use the channels cutting through some very shallow banks. While we have several mapping GPSs on board, we navigated entirely by traditional chart, compass and watch. Distance was hard to figure as our pace was creamed by the head wind and shallows, but there are many small keys to use as ranges. For example we would know we were approaching the entrance to one channel when we could point our paddle at one key and the other end of the paddle pointed back to a second key, or we knew we were three miles into one segment when a distant island was finally obscured behind a closer one. Of course we also used compass bearings to identifiable marks as well. Great fun, other than the headwind.
Mid-day Roger had an encounter with a shark. He had no idea it was there (murky water) until a big splash exploded next to his boat and the now familiar sharp dorsal and tall tail fins whirled past. Unlike my swimming encounter, this one was pretty big - about seven feet. The shark disappeared without a trace.
When we reached our destination, Little Rabbit Key, we encountered a bit more "fun". As we rounded a bend looking for the campsite we slipped right into where the incoming tide split to the two sides of the island and the powerful current immediately whisked several boats right into the mangroves. One got both the bow and stern jammed so it could neither go forward nor backward. Wedged into the mangroves, there was no way out. A swim would be disastrous, sweeping the kayaker deeper into the mangroves and potentially trapping them underwater. The kayaker was unable to move the boat sideways, especially with the strong current. The only solution was for another boat to re-enter the current and pull the stuck one sideways until it one end or the other was free. Entering the current, I was quickly swept up against the other boat and had to grab it quickly and get moving. Needing both hands to paddle, I grabbed the stern line in my teeth, keeping a very short leash, shorter than my tow line. The skeg was caught on an underwater mangrove root, and it took several attempts to free it so I could loosen the stern. Then, with the stern line still tight, I paddled furiously against the current dragging the stuck boat back out to calmer water just forty feet away. Success!
The drama was not done for this day. As we went to bed the wind burst crazy in a matter of seconds, roaring in the trees like a freight train. We scurried to haul our boats up further and tie them soundly and get back in the tents before the rain hit.
Fran flipped on the NOAA Weather radio and heard the warnings. Apparently even the weather service didn't see this storm coming and had just started broadcasting urgent warnings for ALL craft to seek safe harbor and expect very fast moving thunderstorms with 30 knot winds. Just an hour earlier their forecast was 10-15 knots. The storm was a bit spooky since it came with no warning. Fortunately I am in my tent blogging. If the storm had come earlier or later, it would have caught us in the middle of a five mile open water crossing, with conditions that were beyond our skills. Yikes.
We burned up some of our good karma today.
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