Bermudaboy wrote:
Good info & pics, any gps coords for Tyler creek? Always thought mangrooves were just the short girthy ones, what about the tall slender ones, they didn't look like cyprus, and seemed spaced pretty packed together.... In places where you don't see mud or sand, even at low tide does any know what the typical depth is right at the edge? Not really sure why I want to know, but for some reason I'd like be calmed by answers that said it is really shallow.
Mention of Crocs, urgh, the thought makes me seriously question my sanity and whether to do another challenge (or maybe change craft)... Although North of the discussion, Seadog Rocket and I lost wind one night after looking for camping site on Turkey Key and then onto New Turkey, ended up sleeping in our bivies, on a little spit of sand, parrallel between a wall/cliff and the high water level, literally the water lapped up just a foot away from our bivies at high tide early in the morning. That was only place we could find..... (Yakmandu, showed up as well!) Th next night we did make it the Northwest Cape after passing by all this treeline-no-shore. Legal or illegal, want to get as many potential spots, as I can to have options, specially if for some reason I just gotta come in...even for a short rest... Even though my next is still quite a while away... still can't stop thinking and plannin.
Classic Water Triber statement, BB!...... "ended up sleeping in our bivies, on a little spit of sand, parallel between a wall/cliff and the high water level, literally the water lapped up just a foot away from our bivies at high tide early in the morning."<o:p></o:p>
Great thread here! Typically, after we exit the 10,000 Islands at Rabbit Key we set our course for Cape Sable as the crow flies. However, during the past two EC's we've also found ourselves in becalming conditions at night offshore of Shark River. We too were cautiously curious about making a maiden landing in this area at night. The first year we found ourselves in this predicament we paddled towards shore considering landing options. We first encountered the good ole Everglades mosquitos buzz in our ears about a half mile off shore (we were well prepared in our "EC Uniforms" - dry suits, hats, buffs and gloves etc.) The area where we approached shore looked questionable. So, we simply chose to stay offshore just out of range of the mosquitos. Then we cooked a meal with our MSR pocket rocket and snoozed a bit on our catamaran trampoline. Finally, after a few hours of waiting out the doldrums (1 to 4AM) we heard the (beloved) mast rotation squawk from the wind moving our rigging and we continued on our sail to CP3. <o:p></o:p>
Looking forward to negotiating this year’s offshore/inshore conditions and challenges...<o:p></o:p>