You couldn't have asked for better kayaking weather in Southern Florida than what we had this Easter weekend! The days were warm but the inland breeze was cooling, which let the ocean die down to an almost flat chop and the water cleared to a beautiful blue-green translucence with excellent visibility to the ocean bottom beneath us. I could not believe our fortune as we hauled our kayaks from Gainesville, FL to West Palm Beach, FL to visit our relatives, leave our 6-month old daughter with grandma & grandpa and get in two solid days of kayaking. It had been almost a year since we had touched salt water because of my wife's pregnancy and our daughters birth and we were ready! After we saw how perfect the Atlantic Ocean was for kayaking on Friday; semi-flat and crystal clear, we knew we had to break our ocean viginity this weekend. Although we had paddled the Atlantic once before in the Florida Keys, it was so shallow it didn't "feel" like the ocean, so in our minds, after 5 years of casual inland kayaking, we had never truly kayaked on the ocean. The problem over the years was finding a good place to put into the ocean as Palm Beach County is very populated and beach access is either public parks (no kayaks or surfers allowed) or often private property, so we had spent all our time on the Intracoastal Waterway that ran just inland of the ocean, connected to the ocean by inlets. This time the lure of the beautiful ocean outweighed the dangers of using the very narrow and busy inlets, some of which had brought about casualties over the years. We agreed to look over the Palm Beach Inlet, a very deep inlet with heavy boat traffic cruising through at fast speeds and with large wakes, to see how rough it was or if it was even do-able. As expected, it looked the smoothest I can ever recall it, and for early morning, boat traffic was heavy heading out but mild heading in, and the smooth conditions put us MILDLY at ease with the prospect of paddling through this Inlet. The Inlet looked choppy at the ocean side but from our vantage it didn't look too bad, plus we knew the ocean was flat if we could just get through. Well equipped with safety gear and knowledge of rescues, although somewhat rusty in practice, I headed my fiberglass Necky Pinta towards the blue-green ocean with my wife in her fiberglass Impex Mystic right behind me. We hugged the inbound rockline of the inlet to avoid as much outbound traffic as possible but the wakes these big ocean boats kicked up were unavoidable. We were mildly tossed to and fro as we paddled hard against incoming current to get out of the inlet as fast as possible. When we finally cleared the end of the rock-protected inlet wall, we turned north and were met with large chop as the ocean current met the inlet current and boat chop together. This was a quick but intense pucker-factor moment as we were picked up and dropped repeatedly and quickly by the chop. We focused on staying upright more so than moving forward but eventually cleared into the Atlantic beachline of Singer Island. We were sorta scared and glad all at the same time, as we were virgins to this, you know. We knew what to do if anything went wrong but we were really glad we didn't have to do it as it would NOT have been fun. When the shock of the intet crossing wore off we noticed the beautiful serenity of the ocean that lay before us. It stretched out semi-flat and calm as far as the eye could see and so clear we could see everything pass underneath us. We decided to attempt our first beach landing and take a rest and a swim before heading out into deeper water. To our surprise, even during calm conditions, a "smooth and graceful" beach landing is difficult. I did Ok but my wife breached and filled her kayak up with water and sea shells. I think she was just glad to be safe on dry ground. After our swim, we loaded up and found it even more difficult to launch into surf than we had thought. I helped her in and pushed her off but for me, after one failed attempt, I was off, gliding across the ocean of glass once again. The ocean looked like it was picking up chop so we decided to not go too far from the Inlet. We paddled the beautiful Atlantic for about another hour and decided to head in before the mad rush of boats began to come back through the inlet. It looked a bit rougher than when we had come out but our desire to get back through it as quicjkly as possible drove us on. We tried to time the entry between the biggest of boats but it didn't matter as they were just going too fast. Whoosh! We were in the current that sucked us into the inlet and we sliced and smashed through the chop that gave us a scare coming out. It was hectic and it assaulted us from all sides but we kept it all together and entered the inlet stream heading inland. We found that the large initial boat wakes coming from behind were not as difficult as the chop and back-chop bouncing off the rocks at the inlet walls. It was a bouncy ride but very fun too (I'm sick, I know). My wife, a bit more nervous than I, followed me too closely and kept bumping her kayak into my rear, forcing me to paddle faster. We paddled hard and at times probably gave those along the walls of the inlet a good look at the whites of our eyes as we got spanked by the wake. We finaly broke through to the wide section of the inlet and the water smoothed out, letting us ease up on the death grip we had on our paddles. We were relieved but also super-charged with adrenaline. It was a rush and I will always recall fondly the day we braved the infamous Palm Beach Inlet, cutting from the Intracoastal Waterway and Peanut Island to the Atlantic Ocean. It will be a time to remember as we may never get a smooth enough day to do it again. I have a much higher appreciation for those who brave these inlets on rougher conditions! As for our equipment, I have much more trust in my large Necky Pinta, as does my wife in her little Impex Mystic. Both kayaks handled flawlessly, especially the Mystic, and felt very soild. The shaky beach launch reaffirmed my trust in Werner fiberglass paddles, as I probably put too much weight on the blade and shaft during entry than I should have, with no complaint from it. My Snap Dragon skirt was superb in keeping the sea out and my kayak dry. If not for my rudder and my wife's skeg, the Inlet would have been a lot more scary as we would have had to control paddle more forcefully than we did. I'm glad we have them. We were very impressed with our equipment, as it was there when we needed it, without fail. Sunday, unlike the Inlet crossing the day before, was with a tour group that explored the St. Lucie Estuaries and Intracoastal Waterway. It was fun but today was much hotter with a moderate southern wind. We paddled as a group against the wind to a public docking area where we walked over a short dune barrier to the Hobe Sound beach and Atlantc Ocean. We had lunch, swam and talked kayaking. On the way back, the dastardly wind had picked up steam and was now quite strong from the south, tossing up chop and whitecaps. We ducked into narrow, wind-protected, mangrove canals and threaded our way back, often crossing over only 6" of water beneath our boats. If it hadn't been high tide we would have had to get out and walk it. When we finally emerged from the mangrove jungle, dodging spiders and jumping mullet along the way, we were accosted by a howling southern wind. Some in our group were novices in plastic Pungos and sit-on-tops so I was concerned with how they would handle in the windblown chop. Nevertheless, since we had no other option, our tour guide took off and we followed. For the first time I actually wished I had put on my paddle leash as the wind tried to rip my paddle from my hands numerous times. The wind howled and we paddled hard, not seeming to make much progress against it. Fortunately it was only an optical illusion and the distant dock became closer and closer. Surprisingly, the little Pungos seemed to handle the chop and wind better than the sit-on-tops, as the novices in the Pungos were keeping up with us experienced paddlers in our sleek fiberglass boats. I think they were paddling hard out of concern rather than enjoying the frenzy like we were, but no matter, we all docked the same time, much to their relief. As we loaded up we joked and laughed about the brutal frontal assault Mother Nature gave us. We would later learn that a nasty storm front was moving in and would soon dump buckets of rain with high winds Sunday evening and on Monday morning. We had just caught the last beautiful weather for probably awhile and it will be a weekend to remember. This weekend taught us several things; 1. Always be prepared; have your gear ready if needed. 2. Keep items like water and pumps on deck, not under your spray skirt. 3. Buy the BEST you can afford, it is worth it! Thanks for taking the time to share in my adventure. Robert G. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. 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Next time you come down, let me know. There are any number of excellent places to put in on the beach and avoid the inlets. In addition, there is some excellent calm water paddling from Burt Reynolds Park up to Trapper Nelson's on the Loxahatchee River. If you have a river kayak, you can paddle down the Loxahatchee from Indiantown road. Another putin is under the Blue Heron Bridge then paddle around the island, past the Palm Beach Inlet, then up to Munyon Island, a recently restored island. Lots of paddling in Palm Beach County and VERY few paddlers! Cya Bob Denton Delray Beach *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
[Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (including headers/footers/sig lines/extraneous text from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material in addition to removing header/trailers when replying to posts.] Thanks for the offer Bob! I have actually lived in northern Palm Beach County for over 30 years but escaped the insane property costs for little ol' Micanopy, just south of Gainesville, over 3 years ago. My favorite paddles are Munyon Island, as you mentioned, and Palm Beach, just off of Southern Blvd. For fresh water, the Loxahatchee is hard to beat, but I think the pristine, spring-fed rivers we have up here beat it out, like the Ichetucknee and Silver River, both amazingly pristine, crystal-clear and beautiful. If I hadn't forgotten my "Paddle-Boy" kayak cart I would have put in off of Jupiter or Juno Beach. I didn't feel like carrying my 70# kayak over sand dunes and down wooden stairs.... Ugghhh! I'll let you know next time I get down there for a paddle. Robert G. > Bob Denton offered: > Next time you come down, let me know. There are any number > of excellent places to put in on the beach and avoid the > inlets. In addition, there is some excellent calm water > paddling from Burt Reynolds Park up to Trapper Nelson's on > the Loxahatchee River. If you have a river kayak, you can > paddle down the Loxahatchee from Indiantown road. > > Another putin is under the Blue Heron Bridge then paddle > around the island, past the Palm Beach Inlet, then up to > Munyon Island, a recently restored island. > > Lots of paddling in Palm Beach County and VERY few paddlers! *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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