[Journal entry for March 12-19, 2007] Florida Keys Kayaking Trip.

Sunday, March 11, 2007. Four of us, Kim, Lee, Steve and me (Bill) drove down to the Florida Keys in my family's Dodge Caravan, carrying three kayaks on the roof rack, including my plastic Wilderness Systems Sealution 2xs sea kayak, Hraun. Jerry Blackstone, a kayak enthusiast who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, lent us a fourth boat.

Monday, March 12, 2007. The drive from my house in Rockland County, NY to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida took about 20 hours. We sleep for a few hours at Jerry Blackstone's co-op, and then drive the last two hours down to the King's Kamp Campground in Key Largo, Florida [N25:03.359, W80:24.205 WGS84 milepost 104]. The weather in the Keys is very fine: sunny and warm, with a brisk 10 knot wind from the east. We are met there by our kayaking friend Andy, who will join us for the next three days. Our campsite was just a few feet from the shore of Blackwater Sound, a small enclosed area adjoining Florida Bay, so we can launch our kayaks with ease. After setting up our two tents, we launch our boats and head for the Atlantic side of the Keys, passing through a narrow cross-over channel cut through the coral bedrock of the island. The 6-foot high vertical walls of the channel exposed many interesting fossil corals. The current in the channel is against us, so our first paddling was necessarily brisk. The channel connects to Largo Sound, an enclosed bay on the Atlantic side, in about a half mile. We paddle across the sound, fighting a headwind, and then explored some mangrove channels on its north end. We spot many intersting species of birds, including pelicans, cormorants, egrets and Great White Heron (actually a white variety of Great Blue Heron). My chart indicated a passable connection to the Atlantic in this area, but we can not find it. We eventually give up, call it a day and head back to camp. We spot a black iguana, a lizard about a foot and a half long, along the channel. It climbs out of the water and scales the vertical wall of the channel, using its sharp claws. The round trip was 4.5 miles. Steve and I went on to paddle a further leg in Blackwater Sound, towards a catamaran that is moored to the east of our camp, bringing our total mileage to about 6.0 in about 2 hours. The sun is getting low on the horizon as we return. Steve and Kim cook up a dinner of beef and noodles. We also boil potatoes for use tomorrow morning. After dinner, at Lee's suggestion, we deploy running lights on our boats and paddled for a while in Blackwater Sound. The sky is partly cloudy, but the stars are very bright in the clear sections of the sky. I can see Orion very distinctly. We pass by several shoreside restaurants, which smell wonderful, and then loop around the same catamaran that Steve and I had visited earlier in the day. About 1.5 miles in 45 minutes.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007. At dawn, the day is rather grey and discouraging, but the weather rapidly improves. Lee makes us all a breakfast of eggs, bacon and hash browns. I make us all salami wraps for lunch. Three white ibis visit our camp, looking for handouts. I offer them potatoes, but they ae not intersted. We kayak again out through the channel to Largo Sound. Pelicans and herons seem to like hanging out at is mouth, I suppose because it's easy to find fish there. We head south across the Sound, and take a well-marked channel that winds through the mangroves to the Atlantic. While paddling this channel, Steve discoveres that he has forgotten his PFD (marveling that none of the rest of us noticed that he was not wearing one). So he and I sprint back to camp to retrieve it, while Andy, Kim and Lee contiued to paddle at a leisurely pace through the channel. I spot another black iguana on the way back, sitting on a tree limb overhanging the cross-over channel. The roundtrip was about 3.5 miles. We used our marine radios to call and locate the others, who are waiting at the Atlantic side of the channel. The Atlantic was pretty windy and choppy. Andy, Kim and Lee decided to hang out near shore, but Steve and I decided to try a paddle out to Mosquito Bank, a shallow area about 2 miles offshore. We paddled there, navigating mainly by GPS, for we could not initially discern any of the Bank's markers. The Atlantic waters are a very beautiful turqouis green when lit up be the sun. We had a very enjoyable time paddling through them, bouncing on the waves, which were 2-3 feet high. Eventually we spot a marker and head for it, arriving at the eastern edge of the Bank. The water, which had been deep during most of paddle, now shallows to just 2-3 feet. We circumnavigate the bank. Towards the end, we pass a large frame tower with a navigation marker on the Bank's eastern edge. During this time we keep in contact with Lee using the marine radio. Our typical prefix was "Kayaker Bill to Kayaker Lee, Over". We meet Andy, Kim and Lee on a small near-shore island, that is marked on my map as having been built by dredge waste. The island's surface is extremely rough, and consists of many angular, fist-sized pieces of coral. I found a piece of plastic fencing that had drifted in on the tide as a pad. Here we ate our lunch of salami wraps and iced tea. We poked about the island. Lee finds a twenty-foot long, two inch diameter section of driftwood bamboo. Lee deploys his sail on the way back. He really flys in the strong breeze! Back in Largo Sound, we paddle by two old-style wooden boats, equipt with both sails and long oars. They are each crewed by a dozen college students. They are just taking down their sail and preparing to row. I stop to photograph two iguanas in the cross-over channel. The total trip was 20.2 miles in about 6 hours. Kim and Steve cooked a spinach and rice dinner. Andy plays us a CD of music, An Ancient Muse by Loreena McKennitt.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007. The morning is rather grey again. Lee cooks us a breakfast if oatmeal with crasins and almonds. I made us a lunch of tuna salad sandwiches. We drive westward to our next camp, Jolly Rogers Campgound, on the Gulf side of Grassy Key (N24:46.277 W80:56.582 WGS84 milepost 59], and set up our tents on Tiki Island (actually a small penninsula). Once again, our tent site is adjacent to a launch. We deployed our boats and head east, towards Channel Key, a small mangrove island located about 1 mile north of a the Highway 1 bridge. Some of the group go ashore to eat lunch, but I eat mine while floating in the shallows in my kayak, watching the many birds - herons, cormorants, turkey vultures, and white ibis - that inhabited the mangroves. Later, I circumnavigate the island. Hundreds of cormorants are standing on a spit of sand at its northern tip. Steve circumnavigates the island, too, and finds a rather smelly dried sponge that must have been torn from the sea bed by some storm. And, Kim and Lee decide to head back, with Lee using his sail. Steve and I headed out to the Atlantic side, passing under the Highway 1 bridge into Tom's Harbor. We then head offshore, by Duck Key. I find this section to be rather challenging, for the waves are largist, maybe 3-4 feet, and are breaking in places. Mostly I avoid the breakers, but I do have one roller break under me. I have to brace with my paddle, but except for causing a ninety-degree right turn, the wave is no problem. I am less up-tight for subsequent waves. The highest waves are near the southernmost point of Duck Key, near the mouth of a boating channel. One we turn this point we are heading with the waves, and can surf them (though Hraun, at 15 feet, is too short to surf waves effectively). We paddle past Tom's Harbor Key, and into a channel that led north of Duck Key. Our chart shows that Duck Key is cut by many narrow boating channels. We decid to visit one, and entered the nearest. We follow it compleyely around the Key, past expensive villas, to its exit in Tom's Harbor. Near the exit both Steve and I scratched up the bows of our boats, while letting our boats drift into coral while futzing with gear. Too bad! We paddled through the Highway 1 bridge again, back to the Gulf side, and return to camp. A couple of men, Mike and Hank, are fishing at the Jolly Rogers dock. Hank gets a fish on his line, just as I arrive, and I spt in my kayak watching him. He says he hopes it is a baracuda. The fish swims under the dock, tangling the line, but Mike jumps into the water, wearing mask and snorkel, and untangles it. He also announces that the fish is in fact a ray, about 3 feet across. Hank is disappointed. After much effort, they are able to reel it near the dock to view it, and then decide to release it. It is too heavy to lift from the water, so I cut the line near the hook with my rigging knife. I also rescue a spectator's sandal that has falled into the water. Afterward, I sprint a bit to bring the mileage up to an even 15 miles, in just over 5 hours. Back on shore, we all watched pelicans and herons compete for scraps of fish that anglers are throwing away as they clean their catch. Kim and Steve cook us all dinner of stew. I sleep on the ground, watching the stars. I am awakened in the night by a light rain shower, and have to move my bedding under the picnic canopy and cover myself with a tarp. Even with this protection, my sleeping bag gets a little damp.

Thursday, March 15, 2007. Lee cooks us a breakfast of whole wheat pancakes with wallnuts and maple syrup, with sausage and coffee, too. We pack up our gear and head over to Bahia Honda State Park [N24:29.522 W81:16.600 WGS84 milepost 37]. Steve and I get confused about which side of the seven-mile bridge it's on, and wind up crossing it three times, rather than just once. For the record, its just beyond the west end of the bridge. We set up our tents in a small site meant for RV's. This was the last site available when I made reservations in January. State Park sites are cheaper than those in private campgrounds, and are in high demand! The boat ramp is a bit further away at thus site, and we need to drive our boats a short distance to it. Andy takes leave of us here, and we say our farewells. We set off eastward, into the Gulf side of the key. The water is shallow, and many loggerhead sponges are growing on the bottom. I spot a 4-foot shark annd several 2-foot wide rays. We stop and snorkel in the shallows, tieing our boats up to the mangroves. It's a trick getting out of and back into our boats! The bottom is very muddy, so we need to slide into the water almost horizontally to avoid being mired. I see many small fish, solitary corals, sponges of several varieties, and a few mysterious burrows. Kim helps me back abaord Hraun when I'm done. My hat has gone missing. Fortunately, Lee spots it on the bottom of the bay, covered with mud. A bit of swishing in the sea cures that. Kim paddles back across the Gulf side to camp, while Lee, Steve and I circumnavigate the Key. Surf is breaking on a small Key just beyond the higway bridge. We surf the waves there a bit, and then continue on westward, bobbing up and down over 4-foot rollers. Rain clouds to our west are some concern. Fortunately, they seem to be headed in a direction that will miss us. A very tiny Key, consisting of just three or four mangrove bushes, marks the westernmost end of the main Key. We pass between it and the main Key, and into the Bahia Honda Channel. There are two bridges here, separated by about a half-mile, the Old Highway Bridge and the new one. The Old Bridge has been built over a railway bridge. The distinctive trapezoids of a railway bridge are still visible among its girders. It's in disrepair, though. Some girders are dangling downward, and two section of the bridge are missing altogether. While the others go ashore, I spend about one and a half hours sprinting around the rectangular (1.33 by 0.43 mile) patch of water between the two bridges. I paddle it in all directions, taking 16 minutes to the the 1.33 mile length. The water ius pretty choppy in the middle, with a rather chaotic wave pattern. Finally, I pull into the ramp, having paddled 15.0 miles in about 5.5 hours. Kim helps me pack up and put my boat on the car. Kim and Steve fook us all a dinner of rice and curried vegetables. We use some of my soup cups as well. At dusk, Lee and I walk down to an overlook on the Atlantic side. The sky is nice and clear. Venus is on the western horizon. Orion is overhead. The Big Dipper is to the north. A satellite moves across the sky. The Mily Way is very bright. Way to the south, on the horizon, a very localized electrical storm is flashing lightning. It must be far away, for I can hear no thunder. We spot a big spider building a web among the branches of a tree, as we walk back. I sleep under the stars, watching the very bright stars. Unfortunately, about 4AM I am awakened by flashes of lightning. I put up a tarp, and crouch beneath it. The tarp is not completely waterproof, though, being only fabric, so I get a bit damp as a tremedous downpour begins. Lightening flashes almost continuously, and the thunder is very loud. I use one of my two Z-Rest mats to fend off drips. Its not the greatest night for sleeping!

Friday, March 16, 2007. In the morning, during a lull in the rain, Lee cooks us all a breakfast of french toast and sausage. I slather mine with strawberry spread, and wash them down with black coffee. I'm hungry this morning, and gobble down five of six of the french toast slices. During the early morning hours I walk to the overlook several times to examime the horizon. More rain clouds are in the distance, but some brighter spots are also evident. Later in the morning, we all walk to the Old Highway Bridge, the eastern segment of which has been rebuilt into a viewing platform. Largish birds, with curved wings and forked tails, the size of vultures and pelicans but of neither type, are flying overhead. Possibly they are Greater Shearwater? We stand on the platform in the wind, watching the sea. It's definitely clearing. Eventually, Steve and I decide that we can risk a long paddle to our next campground, 17 miles to the west, there having been no thunder for at least an hour. We spot some more large spiders and their spiral webs on the walk back. Before Kim and Lee drive to the next campground, they help us launch our boats from the ramp. The wind and sea state are lower than yesterday, and we have no trouble paddling across the Bahia Honda Channel and along the Atlantic offshore the Spanish Harbor Keys, Spanish Harbor and Little Pine Island. The western point of this island group, Big Monson Island, has a resort with a dock that's poulated with several large yachts. We eat lunch on a submerged sandbar, in 4 inches of water, just offshore. We then head due west towards Key Lois. This island is very low, and almost invisible from our vantage. Once past it, we turn north and head for the Highway 1 bridge in the distance. As we are paddling this section, we meet an elderly man and woman and their dog paddling a yellow canoe (the only canoe we saw on the whole trip). We chat with them a bit, and they tell us that one of the nearby keys once was a home to wild (or actually released) monkeys. We contine onward towards the Sugarloaf KOA campground, just south of the western side of the higway bridge [N24:39.511 W81:31.020 WGS84 milepost 20]. Steve has spotted several blue jellyfish, each with a distinctive "blue plastic" sail. He brings one onto the kayak to photograph it, and accidentally touches it during the process. Bad move! It stings his finger, but fortunately the reaction is not systemic. We are later told that they are Portugese Man-of-War. Finally, we are close enough to Sugarloaf Key to raise Lee on the marine radio (after many "Kayaker Bill to Kayaker Lee, Over"'s). They have set up tents and laid things out to dry. After a radio conference, we find the KOA's boat ramp and Lee helps us recover the kayaks and gear. About 17.2 miles in 5 hours. The day has improved steadily as we paddled, and it is now quite sunny with temperature in the 80's Fahrenheit. We eat a dinner of egg noodles and curried beans. Our neighbor in the next campsite, Rob, is from Palisades, NY, where I have lived, of all places. We have several mutual friends.

Saturday, March 17, 2007. As usual, the morning is rather grey. We decide to relax today and do no paddling. Jerry Blackstone, together with Monica of Florida Bay Outfitters, drop by and treat us to breakfast at Sugarloaf Lodge, a local restaurant. We then drive into the town of Key West, and visit my sister Lisa and her husband, Todd. Later in the day, we walk around Key West, having a seafood dinner at the Raw Bar and watching Dominique's Cat Circus performance at sunset on the pier at Mallory Square.

Sunday, March 18, 2007. We leave Key West at 6AM, and arrive back in Rockland County 24.5 hours later, on the morning of March 19. The temperature is below freezing and about a foot of rock-hard snow sits on the ground.

The cost of the trip was $928, or $232 per person when split four ways. This amount includes gas, tolls, and camping, but excludes food and incidental expenses. I spent an additional $100 on the lunches and gas cannisters for the stove, but brought a substantial amount of the food home, unused. Camping fees averaged about $20 per person per day, since we mostly stayed in the more-expensive private campgrounds (the state parks being full). Most of the private campgrounds are set up with inflexible rules (usually one tent per camp site, two people per tent). Andy, who joined our camping as a occasional fifth member of our party, was particularly infuriated by these rates.