Super Bowl Sunday, Keys Style

 

Sunshine Key Rv Resort and Marina, Ohio Key, Florida  (high 81, low 73)

 

Our weather continues to be perfect.  There isn’t  much variation from day to day. It’s in the low  80’s during the daytime, and low 70’s at night.    I’m always surprised how consistent the weather is here.  Some people might get bored with the consistency, but not us.   

So, how do you spend Super Bowl Sunday in the Keys?

Well, we started out with some coffee and computer time, then a walk around the island.  Once the sun comes up, it starts getting pretty warm inside, so we have to turn on the AC pretty early.   I love the cool mornings, but they just don’t last long enough.  I’m not complaining though.

It looked like a pretty good day for a kayak trip, but just to be sure we walked over and looked.  We are close to the water, but can’t see if from our site. It’s so nice to be close enough to check out the conditions first.  We can also tell whether to launch on the Atlantic or Bay side.

Sometimes you get that perfect day, where the winds and currents are light and the water is crystal clear.  Unfortunately, those days are rare, and yesterday was not one of those days.

We decided the beach launch site was a little choppy, so we opted to launch from the marina, which is blocked from the wind a little.  The water in the marina was very clear, but since the tide was high, we couldn’t see all the tropical fish in the mangroves.

We headed out of the channel and again found some pretty strong currents.  I don’t know what’s up with all the strong currents.  It’s not supposed to be like that without a full moon.

We paddled over to the old dilapidated dock.  It’s not safe to walk on,  but no one told the cormorants.

 

When we kayak in the Keys, we like to putz around and look at the fish and birds.  More floating, than paddling.  Unfortunately, the current kept trying to take us out to sea, so we couldn’t relax much.

The water wasn’t real clear either, so  we looked for a place to sit back and relax.

It looks like Al found one.

His thinking was that he would take a short nap, and I would watch to make sure he didn’t drift too far.   Wrong.  If he’s taking a nap, I want one too!

We decided to head towards the Atlantic side, going underneath the bridge.

We got underneath the bridge and headed towards the Atlantic side, but soon realized it was pretty choppy there too.

We puttered around this area for a while and found some pretty blue water.

Naptime again?

We stayed out a few hours, then decided to go home and have a late lunch.  I made another BLT on Cuban bread.  Yummy.

After lunch, we went into town for some wings (real ones, not vegan substitutes) for Super Bowl.  He had planned on fresh Key West shrimp, but they guy that normally sells them at the flea market wasn’t there.  Darn.

 

When we got home, Al connected the new boat lights, and after a bit of tinkering, we have trailer lights again.  Yay.

While he did that I read a little more of my Steve Jobs book.   What an interesting guy he was.  He wasn’t always the nicest person, but he was definitely interesting.

By this time it was time for the big game, so we went inside.  Al watched the game, and I went to “my room” and watched a movie.   I’m one of the few people in America that isn’t interested in watching the Super Bowl.   I watched Bruno Mars this morning, and the best commercials I’ve already watched on Facebook.

So, that’s how you spend Super Bowl Sunday in the Keys.

Tomorrow is the day we take our boat for it’s new motor.  We are very anxious to get it back so that we can get it out on the water.  The kayaks are nice, but the boat is better.

“This is Life Alert Calling about Your Mother”

 

Sunshine Key Rv Resort & Marina, Ohio Key, Florida  (high 80, low 71)

 

Last night about 9 pm, I got a call Life Alert  saying they had received a help request from my Mothers unit.  If you recall, a few months ago, we got her one of those Life Alert machines.  (I’ve fallen and I can’t get up).  She wears a gadget around her neck and if she should fall or become ill, she pushes the button to summon help.   It’s a really nice system and one that we highly recommend for older people, or anyone who lives alone.

Their usual protocol if they get a signal is to first call the home and see if they get a response.  They couldn’t reach my Mom by phone because she didn’t hang her cordless phone up correctly the last time she used it.  

Anyway, the call concerned us.  I called her cell phone, which we have for her, for just this kind of thing.  Of course, she had it turned off.  It’s a new one and she didn’t know how to use it.     :)

Life Alert was sending a police officer over to check her out, so all I could do was to wait. My brother was working and couldn’t get there right away.   After a few minutes I decided to call her home number again, and this time it rang, instead of the fast busy signal I had been getting.  It turns out that earlier she had noticed a flashing reset button on the machine and pushed it, not really knowing what to do with it.  A man came on, she told him what happened and he told her he would reset it and everything was okay. 

It appears the error was on their part when they didn’t reset the machine, and that started the ball rolling.  Mom felt really bad since she had frightened so many people.  We were just glad to know the service was working like it is supposed to, and that she was okay.  I ended up speaking to three different people at Life Alert and they couldn’t have been nicer.

 

The rest of our day couldn’t top the exciting end that we had, but we did end up having a nice Keys style day.

We got up early  yesterday, and went to the flea market they hold every Saturday and Sunday.  It’s a smaller flea market, which is just the kind I like. 

Our reason for going to the flea market yesterday, was to go to their wonderful produce stands.   We bought some wonderful Brussels,, green beans, beautiful red tomatoes, red peppers, pineapple, Florida avocado, asparagus, corn, and eggplant.   When we left the Everglades the other day, we noticed a lot of farms.  We’re thinking most of this produce is fresh from those farms.  

 

After we left the flea market, we took a drive around Big Pine key and found this very nice property that was shaded with a lot of trees and plants.  The noise from the birds was what attracted us to the property in the first place.  Evidently they are animal lovers, because this is the sign that was on their gate.

It sounds like our motorhome.

 

We came home and made a wonderful BLT (with vegan bacon) and using fresh baked Cuban bread.  Boy, was it good!

Last night we made a stir fry using all the produce.  We may run out of produce before next week.

After lunch and a short nap, we decided to take a short kayak paddle.    We launched at the campground by the beach area which is under the fishing bridge we walk in the mornings.

The tide was going out, so we had to carry the kayaks a little further than usual.

 

We got into the kayaks and started what we expected to be a nice leisurely paddle.  Wrong.  The current was ripping and you could barely paddle against it. We stayed on the bay side, but probably should have let the current carry us over to the Atlantic side. 

In trying to avoid the strong current, we ended up too close to shore and got stuck. 

Poor Al had the duty of towing us out of the soft mucky sand.

We felt bad that we were grounded, because we were in sea grass area which and you are not supposed to damage them.  Oops.

After we rounded the bend and got into the mangroves, it was deeper and the currents weren’t so bad.

 

It’s a pretty paddle through the mangroves and there was the very elusive Kingfisher flitting around teasing me that I couldn’t take his picture. 

For years, I’ve been trying to take a picture of a kingfisher, and yesterday I finally got a decent picture.  Not great, but at least I have one.

 

 

 

 

We paddled through the mangroves for a while then decided to head towards the marina and take the boats out there instead of the beach area.

 

I don’t remember seeing the marina quite this full. 

 

 

There are some mangroves along the back side of the marina along a deep ledge.  The fish like to congregate there.

We saw barracuda.

We saw Angel fish Parrot fish and lots of the very tasty mangrove snappers.

 

We stayed in this area for quite a while before heading towards the ramp.

I found a boat I would like.

The next picture shows the campsites along the water in the marina.  They are pretty popular sites.

The two trailers on the right of the picture are rental trailers, owned by the campground. They are new trailers, but are VERY expensive. 

The pelicans were coming home to roost for the evening, finding  nice clean boats to their liking.

 

We plan on doing another paddle today.  The wind is light, the seas are flat calm and the temperature will be 80 degrees.  It looks like a perfect day to be out on the water.

Kayaking With Manatees

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida  (high 82, low 62)

 

We have been wanting to do some kayaking, and yesterday was the day.  We wanted to paddle on one of the crystal clear rivers in the area, and we chose to go to Crystal River, Florida.

We were hoping now too many tourists would be there this close to Christmas.  Florida draws tourists from all over the world and it seems everybody wants to swim with the manatees.

Crystal River, is about 60 miles north of us and an easy drive up the Suncoast Expressway.  It was a bit chilly in the morning and we were wondering if it would be too cool to be on the water.  We wore shorts, but brought jackets, just in case.

We have a favorite place to launch the kayaks, which gets you very close to the beautiful  Three Sisters Springs, with minimal paddling.  It’s not that we don’t like to paddle, but we just don’t care much for Crystal River.   In our opinion, it’s not the prettiest or most exciting river in Florida, except for the springs.

 

 

There are a lot of places to launch boats in the area.  Manatee swims are very, very popular, so if you want to swim with them, or just take a boat ride to see them, there are numerous places to do so.  You can rent snorkel or scuba gear, kayaks or boats.

Our favorite place to launch is  “A Crystal River Kayak Company.”    It’s right off of the highway at 1332 SE Hwy 19, in Crystal River, Florida.

To look at the place, you would never know there is river access right behind their shop.

They charge $5.00 per kayak to launch, which is a fair price.

We went inside to pay and saw this pretty red inflatable kayak.

We have Sea Eagle Fastrack 385 kayaks, which we love, but we were attracted to this pretty red color.  It would show up nicely in my photos, don’t you think?

We checked it out, because people are always asking us about our Sea Eagle inflatable kayaks.  They are nice, but pricey. I believe they are well over $900 now.   They have redesigned our 385 model and just looking at pictures online, the new ones seem a little too low in the water to me. 

You can get less expensive Sea Eagles for about $300.00, but to us, they are not sturdy enough for serious kayaking. We paddled one, but were not happy with the way they handled. A lot of people love them, but they wouldn’t work for our needs.

Our 385 Fast Track kayaks have a rigid keel,  with a skeg for control and steering, and a hard floor which you can actually stand up in if you want to paddleboard.   If you are interested in the Sea Eagle 385 FT kayaks, click here for my review when we first got our boats a couple years ago. 

If you are interested, we bought our kayaks from Inflatable Boats 4 Less, and have been real happy with the service we received from them. 

 

If you are looking for an inflatable that is a little less expensive, this Cayman II might be something to consider.

It looked to be made very well and was very similar to our Sea Eagles.  If we were in the market for a kayak this would certainly have been up for serious consideration.

It has a rigid bottom like ours, as well as a skeg. 

I asked the lady at the shop about them.  She said she just got it and would be able to sell them at $549.  I explained that we get a lot of questions about our boats and that I write a blog and would post information on the blog, if she wanted me to.

She said she could order the boat and have them shipped anywhere in the country.

We didn’t take the boat for a paddle, so I can’t confirm how it handles, but I would imagine it would be very similar to ours, as it was a very similar style.   The shop website is here.  You can rent kayaks from them also.

 

The down side to an inflatable kayak is that they need to be de-flated after use, which means drying them out and folding them back up after you deflate them.  Since ours has a separate floor (unlike some models) it makes getting them dried off a little more trouble.  The inflation process is pretty quick and much quicker than  the deflation process.

 

Okay, enough about kayaks, and on to the beautiful river.

We launched behind the shop.  You can park very close, so you don’t have to carry the boats very far.

It is set up for ease of getting in and out of the boats.

Since the river flows into the gulf, it is affected by the ocean tides.  (hope I got the effect/affect correct)  Yesterday, it was extreme low tide because of the full moon and I thought we would have to carry our boats in several different areas.  Fortunately, we managed to float over all the low areas, which looked to be 3-4 inches deep.

Once you launch, you have to go down a shallow canal, then underneath a culvert to more canals.

The next picture is deceiving, because of the reflection.  You are actually seeing the complete reflection of the bridge.  We actually paddled right through the center of what looks to be the oval shape of the culvert.

 

Out the other side to another canal.

You can actually see fall foliage, Florida style, as we approach the main part of the river.

Once you get into the main river, it isn’t far until you can see the manatee hangout area near the entrance to the Three Sisters Springs.

Motor boats can’t enter the spring area, so they anchor right outside, anchor and drop off their snorkelers.

There are a lot of manatee in this area during the winter months.  In the summer, manatee stay out in the gulf and Atlantic, but when the ocean waters start getting cold they migrate to the “warm” waters of the springs.   Florida springs are a year round temperature of about 72 degrees.   Some people (like Sherry) might think that’s warm, but let me tell you, it’s pretty chilly to us!    We think 72 degree water calls for a full wetsuit!

There are quite a few boats outside the springs, but they are all very, very cautious and you don’t see any speeding.   Planes fly overhead to keep an eye on both the boaters and the snorkelers.   Harass a manatee and get a ticket.

On the Gulf Coast, they are much less strict than they are on the east coast of Florida.  When we kayaked at Blue Springs (east coast), we got yelled at from a ranger because we stopped to take a picture, and there weren’t even any manatee nearby.   You can’t even stop and “smell the roses.”   I also got yelled at when a manatee swam over to my boat.  I couldn’t back up because there was nowhere to go.   I am all for protecting manatee, but they carry it too far.   Manatee seem to like to interact with people and will frequently come up to your boat, stick their nose out of the water and look at you.  When I’ve been in the water with them, I’ve frequently had them come right up to me like they wanted a belly rub.

You can see from the next picture, that they have a roped off area where people and boats are not allowed.  The manatee can go there to get away from people and take a nap.

The brown shapes you see are manatee.  It was pretty warm out by this time, so many of them were in the river.

 

We decided to head into the springs.  You can see how they prevent boats from entering.  We could barely squeeze in our kayaks.

Once you get past the barricade, you enter a narrow tunnel like area.

The water is very shallow and very clear.  It’s beautiful.

 

Then it opens up to a large “room” like area which is where one of the springs is located.

 

We take our time and enjoy the beauty.

After a while, we head over  to the other two spring areas.  Each is a little different, but each is beautiful.

 

We do more sitting than paddling.

You can see Al really gets comfy.

Most of the manatee seem to hang out outside of the spring area, but you can find an occasional straggler inside.

Yesterday this baby was there.  I worried because I didn’t see his mother anywhere.

This guy from the wild life service, was taking photos.  I assume he will be looking out for this little guy, if he is an orphan.  Manatee are highly endangered and very much loved and cared for in this area. 

We hung out in the spring area for a couple hours, then paddled back out into the river and hung around there for a while longer.

This kid had his own private manatee who seemed to enjoy interacting with him.  

 

He was careful not to touch the manatee, but it was difficult  because the youngster kept swimming right up to him.

The weather was very nice and warm, but when we noticed it starting to get a little cooler, we decided to head back.

It was a lovely day.

the end