We Got Our Wish

Florida Keys (high 83, low 72)

We finally got our wish yesterday.  The winds subsided, the seas laid down, and it was a perfect day for kayaking.  I guess the “March winds” knew it was April 1st.

We decided to launch right from Sunshine Key.

We put the kayaks in under the bridge.  There were quite a few people enjoying the beach and water, so we had to maneuver through them.  No English spoke here.

We started out on the Bay side and paddled around in front of some of the waterfront sites.

There was a pretty little sand bar right off shore.  The water looks so pretty when there is a white sand bottom.  The area in front of Al is not any deeper, but there is some grass on the bottom.

We paddled around towards the Marina and Al decided to run back to the house to get some rope he forgot.   (one nice thing about paddling at home)

I paddled and photographed around the marina while he ran home.

The Marina has really cleared out of boats.  Many snowbirds left yesterday, but the park is by no means empty.   We saw quite a few new arrivals coming in all through out the day.  We figured that now since the low season rates are in effect, lots of people will take advantage of that.  I guess this park is always going to be pretty busy.  I can certainly understand why.  This is a great place to be.

We left the marina, paddled around some mangroves and saw lots of small barracuda and Mangrove Snapper.  Mangroves are the fish nursery area.

We headed towards the bridge dividing the Atlantic from the bay side of the island.

Here we are now under the old bridge and heading towards the new bridge.  They have kept the old bridges for fishing bridges.  I love the style of the old bridges.  Much more interesting architecturally, I think.

Once we came out from under the bridges, we went from the “bay” side to the “Atlantic” side.  We are now officially in the Atlantic ocean.

As we rounded the corner we saw a few small islands with several boats anchored just offshore.

We found our own little sandy beach in the shade.   We parked the boats, got out and walked through the water in search of gold doubloons and sunken treasure!   Unfortunately,the only things we found were some sponges and a few small shells.

Back in the kayaks to continue our trip around our island.

I wish my pictures could show how incredibly beautiful the water was.  It looked so much prettier in person.

Al decided to get out and snorkel and see what he could find.   Lobster season officially ended yesterday.

He had a rope attached to his kayak and he kept the kayak with him.  The water was shallow and I don’t think he ever got in water above his head.

We found an area with some rock on the bottom.  This is where you’ll find the fish and lobster.  They won’t be on the sandy flat areas.

Al no sooner stuck his head down then he popped back up and said he saw two legal sized lobsters!  Of course since lobster season ended the day before, he was out of luck!  Oh well, at least he saw something.

He didn’t see much else except for this cute little lettuce slug that he brought up for a quick picture.

He snorkeled quite a while and I paddled along with him.

It was so beautiful.

strange sea life.

He finally decided he had enough snorkeling….now to see if he could get back into the kayak.  Some of you might remember his last attempt at snorkeling and he had a tough time getting back in the boat.

Well, it wasn’t pretty

 

but finally, success

 

ta da!

We paddled around some more, but we were starting to get tired.  We had been out for hours.

The bottom changed from sand to grass, and it was very shallow.

We finally arrived back at Sunshine Key….

We were pooped. 

We ordered pizza delivery, did our chores and I was in bed by 7:30!   Al stayed up a while to “watch tv” in his recliner.     I think we may have over did it a bit because we had some tired/sore muscles. 

Today will be a “day of rest.”  We’re going geo-caching.