Apalachee River to Causeway 2006 I
Sunday, January 1, 2006 brint.adams@us.army.mil
Well, after sleeping in to the middle of the morning and with low tide at noon, I decided to wait until late afternoon to go out for a paddle. Unfortunately, thunderstorms moved in and dumped a couple of inches of rain on the area around 4:00 PM (which we needed badly). I waited as long as I could before dark, and then went out to the Causeway to see what the conditions were. When I arrived at Riverdocs, the rain had stopped, but fog started to roll in while daylight started to fade.
I decided to go for it anyway, and started out at 4:40 PM. The temperature was a still warm 65 degrees, with a southeasterly breeze coming in. The water level was medium and rising as I turned down Pass Picada. My speed down to Apalachee was only 5.3 mph, but 7.3 mph on the return for a split of 15:10. I continued down to the Causeway culverts which were pushing alot of water through, leaving confusing swirls to paddle through. The fog started to get pretty dense, so I tried to stay along the shore, where I could see car lights and hear engine noise.
But, as I paddled over into Chacaloochee, I moved slightly away until I decided it was time to turn around, rather than continue on to the bridges. I stopped for a drink and thought I turned around, but the wind turned me around and I really started heading north and further away from my return course. I flipped my Forerunner to GPS mode and saw I was off course, so I turned around and headed into the wind and towards the road noise. Finally the shoreline popped into view and I followed it the rest of the way back. The paddle, with all of the twists and turns out in the middle of the bay, turned out to total 4.66 mi. and took 47:03.
Well, after sleeping in to the middle of the morning and with low tide at noon, I decided to wait until late afternoon to go out for a paddle. Unfortunately, thunderstorms moved in and dumped a couple of inches of rain on the area around 4:00 PM (which we needed badly). I waited as long as I could before dark, and then went out to the Causeway to see what the conditions were. When I arrived at Riverdocs, the rain had stopped, but fog started to roll in while daylight started to fade.
I decided to go for it anyway, and started out at 4:40 PM. The temperature was a still warm 65 degrees, with a southeasterly breeze coming in. The water level was medium and rising as I turned down Pass Picada. My speed down to Apalachee was only 5.3 mph, but 7.3 mph on the return for a split of 15:10. I continued down to the Causeway culverts which were pushing alot of water through, leaving confusing swirls to paddle through. The fog started to get pretty dense, so I tried to stay along the shore, where I could see car lights and hear engine noise.
But, as I paddled over into Chacaloochee, I moved slightly away until I decided it was time to turn around, rather than continue on to the bridges. I stopped for a drink and thought I turned around, but the wind turned me around and I really started heading north and further away from my return course. I flipped my Forerunner to GPS mode and saw I was off course, so I turned around and headed into the wind and towards the road noise. Finally the shoreline popped into view and I followed it the rest of the way back. The paddle, with all of the twists and turns out in the middle of the bay, turned out to total 4.66 mi. and took 47:03.
posted by brint @ 8:38 PM
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