[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.