Apalachee River to Causeway XX
Saturday, October 2, 2004 brint.adams@us.army.mil
I decided to hit the water very early this morning, so arrived and put-in at 5:35 AM, under a still almost full moon. The temperature was a great 71 degrees, no wind, but a fast falling tide. This was evident as paddled past the restaurants, arriving at Apalachee in 6:29. I turned and knew I was paddling uphill as it took me 9:18 to cover the same distance past the parking lot with a split of 15:47.
I continued toward the Causeway, hitting turbulence at the drainage culverts where the current changes directions from west to east. With the following current the rest of the way to the turnaround, I picked up significant speed and made the turn in 33:48. As I stopped for a drink, I noticed the fog starting to quickly roll in.
I started back and as soon as crossed under the Interstate bridge out into the lower end of Chacaloochee Bay, the fog immediately became very dense. I headed in toward the Causeway, to stay fairly close to the shore which sacrificed speed as the water is pretty shallow in a low tide.
After I passed the culverts and had a following current again, I tried to head back out away from shore, but had to come back in to the shallows to keep the shore in sight the rest of the way back. This hurt my overall time as I finished in 51:24, still before sunrise.
I decided to hit the water very early this morning, so arrived and put-in at 5:35 AM, under a still almost full moon. The temperature was a great 71 degrees, no wind, but a fast falling tide. This was evident as paddled past the restaurants, arriving at Apalachee in 6:29. I turned and knew I was paddling uphill as it took me 9:18 to cover the same distance past the parking lot with a split of 15:47.
I continued toward the Causeway, hitting turbulence at the drainage culverts where the current changes directions from west to east. With the following current the rest of the way to the turnaround, I picked up significant speed and made the turn in 33:48. As I stopped for a drink, I noticed the fog starting to quickly roll in.
I started back and as soon as crossed under the Interstate bridge out into the lower end of Chacaloochee Bay, the fog immediately became very dense. I headed in toward the Causeway, to stay fairly close to the shore which sacrificed speed as the water is pretty shallow in a low tide.
After I passed the culverts and had a following current again, I tried to head back out away from shore, but had to come back in to the shallows to keep the shore in sight the rest of the way back. This hurt my overall time as I finished in 51:24, still before sunrise.
posted by brint @ 10:46 AM
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