[Journal entry for November 26, 2005] Key West, Florida. Dallas and I again paddled a tandem recreational kayak out of Stock Island. We again circled Stock and Cow islands, but in the opposite direction from yesterdays paddle. While crossing the shallow bay north of Stock, we spotted a small shark, perhaps three feet long, its dorsal fin protruding from the water. The water there was only about a foot deep. The shark sped off as we approached. This northern area that leads towards Boca Chica channel and the Route 1 Bridge, was quite rough. We were paddling straight into the waves. so many crashed over the rather low bow of the boat. The kayak proved very hard to steer, and Dallas and I had to resort to occasional bouts of paddling on one side to offset a pronounced leftward bias. But we persevered and passed beneath the bridge without incident. The water there was calm, but the southern current was still strong, so we zipped down the Boca Chica Channel, passing birds wading beside the mangroves. We had to paddle quite far out into the sea, to get past the shallow bar at the west edge of the channel. But now we were running with the waves, and rapidly crossed over towards Stock island channel. We took the little side channel, on the extreme western end of Cow Key, but only after getting stuck for a while on the bar at its mouth. The little channel is quite picturesque, with overhanging mangroves that make sort of a green cave. We saw many any small fish, some larger striped ones, and a few needlefish. Oysters grew on the roots on the mangroves. Other roots hosted some sort of orange polyp. The GPS logged us as having gone 7.69 miles in two hours and twenty-five minutes.