A paddling we be go'en

Other than dinner out for New Years, grocery shopping, laundry we have been doing a lot of paddling with Rich, Linda and friends.

After Lido we went to Gasparilla Island on the 28th and put in at the boat launch at Placida. Not bad but very busy. See the pictures here. We did see several dolphins, at least 4 eagles, Osprey and other birds. One of the other neat things was this starfish that Rich saw and I took a picture of with the water proof camera.

Star fish taken with Hero underwater camera

Star fish, we put it back.

After our paddle we went to the park to look at the Lighthouse and do a little shelling.


Our next outing was to meet Josh, Angie's husband, for lunch at the Coffee Carousel in downtown Sarasota. Following lunch we went to St. Armonds and walked around the circle and looked in shops. Then Rich drove us on several errands. We had a fun day with them.

New Years was a prime rib dinner Boon Docks, the in park restaurant. We had planed to go to the pool side bar for the evening music and New Years celebration but since that didn't start until 2100 we went back to the camper and just petered out. Part of the excitement was to watch the 2 dvd's on the new Nikon D60 camera we purchased for Christmas.

We had planed a New Years Day paddle but it was quite windy so we decided to postpone. Suzette and I decided to make it a beach day and went to Turtle Beach. We took the new camera and I took hundreds of pictures while Suzette hunted for shells. Since the picture files are 2.5 meg I only uploaded a few to Picasa Web and put a couple here.

A Great Blue Heron takes flight.

Fun in the Florida Sun and surf.

Our next paddle day was Jan 3 and since it was to be just the 2 of us we decided to return to Turtle Beach and paddle across the bay to see if we could find the entrance to the rivers on the east shore. We had just made it to the ICW when my cell rang. I fumbled it our of the dry bag but there was no message. A check of the missed revealed that Linda had called. I returned her call and she said she and Josh and Angie were coming to Turtle Beach and would be there about noon. Suzette and I decided we would just circle the preserve and that should put us in place to meet them near Midnight Pass. During our paddle we saw several rowing shells, dolphins, and a rookerey. We stoped at the pass for lunch and a look at the Gulf side. We decided to paddle back toward the launch site. Just as we were to round the corner there they were. So back to the beach, Midnight Pass, we went. We spent some time on the beach and then paddled on down the ICW for some distance.
See the pictures here.

We decided the next play day would be Sunday the 4th and that we would meet at Blackburn park. Suzette and I arrived about 45 minutes early so we checked out the area. This launch site is also used for the Sarasota Rowing Club and there were quite a number of folks out. All were returning from their mornings outing. We figured they wanted to be off the water before the zoonies arrived with their power boats. Some stink potters seem to think that the more wake the better a paddler will like it.

Linda arrived as we were getting our kayaks to the water. Rich wasn't feeling well so he didn't make it. We headed down the ICW looking for the creek that would take us to Oscar Scherer State Park. We found South Creek and proceeded on up. We were on a flood so it was easy going and we made it all the way to the little rock dam in the park near where we were camped last year. We met a few other kayakers and conoeres but didn't see much wild life. On the return trip we stoped at the launch area near the park's contact station and had lunch. Then it was back to the ICW and the mangrove islands along the western shore. Not much to rave about but we had a good paddle and spent hours on the water. What could be better than "...simply messing about in boats."




See all the pictures here.

Monday was stained glass class for Suzette so no paddling.

Tuesday was our next play day and we decided to return to Stump Pass SP since we liked the area and there was a chance we could make another paddle into the Gulf. What a day. We saw a lot of dolphins and had to deal with the wind and current but we had a good outing. We found a number of shark teeth. Rich and I paddled about a 1/3 mile out into the Gulf before we turned and rode the current back in.







All the pictures from our Stump Pass outing are here.