Paddle for Wells

I had to race the gnats this morning to get off the island. By the time I ate breakfast, packed everything and started to shove off I was flailing like a wild man trying to keep them off of me. I’m sure if someone saw me from a distance they would think I was in trouble or crazy. Anyway, the weather was calm again today, so I chose to skirt the outside of the keys that surround Crystal River, Homosassa and the wildlife refuge. There is an inside paddling trail that has the opportunity for seeing manatees, and I would have taken it but decided not to for fear that the tides would wreak havoc on my pace in those narrow channels. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see some manatees on this tour, but today was not the day

I made good time, although the water is quite shallow off the coast in this area, like much of the rest of the Big Bend has been. I was in two to four feet of water most of the day but I had an incoming current that pushed me along this morning. Just before noon I saw lots of fish breaking and upon inspection it was either long nose or spotted gar. Or some saltwater gar that I know nothing about. There were hundreds of them and I spent a half hour trying to hook one. I succeeded only once but he came off before I landed him. I gave up shortly and ate an orange for lunch before continuing on. By far the coolest part of my day was around one this afternoon. I may not have gotten to see manatees today, but I came up on a pod of dolphins swimming at a standstill in two or three foot of water. I paddled right up to them and got some pictures; I got within arm’s reach of one but when I went to sit down to get a better picture I spooked them and they took off, spraying me with several gallons of water. It was awesome! Definitely the closest I’ve ever been to wild dolphins.

The rest of the afternoon was not quite as exciting, just more paddling. Around three the wind starting blowing lightly out of the northwest and for about an hour I got to use the sail for a little extra “umph”. I landed around four-thirty at the park on Pine Island. They have an outdoor shower, so I washed my hair and soaped up a bit to get rid of the extra stink after a couple of days in warm weather. It’s been in the low eighties for the last couple of days. The park was crowded, so after cleaning up I cooked some supper and waited for everyone to leave. Most everyone’s gone now and the sun’s going down, so I should be able to hang my hammock soon. Hopefully there’s no trouble with me staying here tonight. We shall see…