Wednesday, April 04, 2012

A New Sea Eagle in Our Future?

Florida Keys (high 84, low 74)

The plan yesterday was to launch the kayaks right here from Sunshine Key and head towards the Atlantic side.  We sure like the location of this campground as it gives is lots of kayaking options, depending on the wind and seas.

By the time we got the boats in the water is was nearly 3 pm, and the winds had kicked up a bit, and were coming from the east.  It was a little choppy on the Atlantic side so we decided to stay in the Bay or Gulf side.   No problem, plan “B” is also good.

We followed the bridge to the next island.

kayaking around sunshine key

It was low tide, so we could see all the critters on the bottom.

kayaking around sunshine key

I saw a pretty starfish.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get a pretty picture of it.  It was a bit smaller than a dinner plate.

You can see in the picture above where the channel is on the right is deeper and to the left is sea grass and only a few inches deep.

I did find a huge Horse Conch.  It still had the critter inside.  It went back into the water when I took the pictures.

kayaking around sunshine key, horse conch

We paddled over towards a sand bar and island that was full of birds.  I spotted this big white bird.  I was hoping it was a White Heron.  They are rare, but are found here in the Florida Keys.  After I got a better picture of it, I discovered it was the common Great Egret.   The difference is mainly the color of their legs.  Heron’s have yellow legs, Egrets have black legs.

kayaking around sunshine key, great egret

We found a little ledge that looked like there might be some interesting things down below, so Al jumped in and did a bit of snorkeling.    Almost immediately he started spotting lobster.  He counted  about 10 or 12.  I had our Garmin 60 csx Gps, and marked a few spots….for future reference.

He saw a few tropical fish too.  He snorkeled around for a while, towing his Sea Eagle behind him. 

kayaking around sunshine key

We saw some others doing the same thing.

kayaking around sunshine key

and more paddlers.

kayaking around sunshine key

Here is a nice Prevost parked on one of the waterfront sites.  Unfortunately, (and you can’t see it from the picture) there is a group of people camping right next door.  One of their tents is so close to the Prevost bedroom slide that they could probably open their window and touch the tent.  They have quite a conglomeration of stuff in the campsite….trailers, cars and junk.   There are rules here about what is allowed on each site, but unfortunately no one enforces the rules. 

kayaking around sunshine key, prevost

The lack of enforcement, is one thing I don’t like about Sunshine Key Rv Park.  It gets especially bad on the week-ends when all the summer residents return to their week-end sites.   I guess it’s cheaper is several families share a site, so there will be multiple golf carts, many people and vehicles parked at some of the sites.    They tend to take over the beaches and you can hear their music throughout the park.   You start to think you are in another country, but come Monday morning, everything is back to normal….until Friday!

You don’t see this during the winter months.  I understand it gets worse later in the summer, and that is why we won’t be back until the fall. 

We have almost always had a boat.  We bought our first boat before we were even married.  Most of the time we lived in Tampa we had a boat.  We sold our big boat before we moved to Georgia, but Al started “whining” and we got another small fishing boat.  We sold that boat before we sold the house, and guess what?   Yep, he’s whining again.  Smile

Being here in the Keys is making it worse, seeing all the nice boats and places we can’t go in the kayaks.

Yesterday, I saw this boat while kayaking, and I knew the wheels would start turning when Al saw it.

kayaking around sunshine key

It is a Sea Eagle with a motor!  You can see it’s a bit larger than the kayaks.

kayaking around sunshine key

What Al doesn’t remember is that I don’t go offshore in a small boat.  He also doesn’t seem to remember that our storage bays are all stuffed full and we have no more room in our truck.

Our next boat?    I don’t think so.   Dream on Al!

Poor Al, everyone has a boat except him.  Smile

9 comments:

  1. Karen - I can't believe you won't find room for Al to have his boat. LOL Some sacrifices have to be made. Of course, you could always drive the car and tow the boat. Been there, done that, hated it.

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  2. That is a huge huge Horse Conch. Beautiful.
    I too do not like when a park says one thing and does another. We find the biggest offenders are the residents. They seems to take advantage of their position. We just look the other way and enjoy the area. Not much we can do about it. Enjoy your day. ~wheresweaver

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  3. oh come on now..what's one more boat?

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  4. So funny about the boat. Sounds like the kids....everybody else has it/is doing it Mom!! LOL

    Love your header picture! Just beautiful!

    Know just what you mean about the Week-end warriors. I wonder why they come out to the natural world and blare their radios and trash the place. But........they do and there isn't much to be done if whatever park doesn't police. That's what I like about the state parks and county parks, they are on it "usually".

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  5. If I could get my bonnie bride to pare down some of her shoes, we'd have room for two boats! ;c)

    Shoes are a girl thing, boats are a guy thing. Sometimes I wonder which costs the most!

    Loving your Keys adventure. We're thinking of spending time there next winter. On the Navy base CG. They tend to enforce rules a little better there for some reason.

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  6. That boat with the motor is pretty cool. Al may have to keep working on you and clean out those storage bays. :)

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  7. Could you budget to rent a boat from time to time? Take the cost of the boat and allot it to rentals...

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  8. Love that header photo - beautiful. I'm wondering why Al doesn't have an underwater camera to use when he does his snorkeling. Ya got peeps out here who want to see what's under all that beautiful water lol!!

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  9. Karen, while your hubby is trying to figure out how to get another boat, mine is trying to figure out how we can bring our jeep and two motorcycles behind the motorhome. The inflatable kayaks were my idea. Always fun to have the toys. Hope your husband feels better soon. Judy from Rvlifeonwheels

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