This morning Jeff and Sean found themselves being breakfast for the local no-see-ums and mosquito population. These bugs, which can be found worldwide, were a minor nuisance and not unexpected. So after breaking camp and repacking the kayaks, they were on the water and underway around 9:30 this morning heading north from Picnic Island (marker 54).
A highlight of today’s trip was the bald eagle they saw during today’s northerly trip. Otherwise the trip was uneventful except they had to perform some minor repairs to the boats. According to Jeff, the skeg on his kayak was sticking and would not function properly. The skeg on his kayak is rope operated and its mechanism is a combination of rope and bungee cords. So to resolve this issue he exited the kayak, flipped it over, pulled the skeg mechanism apart, washed it, and then reassembled it. He also said Sean’s boat, being a custom two piece design, needed to have the bolts tightened that connected the two sections together. Since this was not critical and since they did not have tools for this repair, they opted to delay repair until the end of today’s paddle.
Today’s destination and accommodations are at the Sun and Moon Inn, located in Matlacha and just south of marker 83. The Sun and Moon Inn has received accolades in the fall edition of Kayak Angler Magazine as being one of the premier dream destinations for kayak anglers. Finally, while they were at the dock unloading the boats they were greeted by a manatee.
If you are interested in tracking their journey you can go to Google Earth and download their software. Once you have the program running Lee County Parks and Recreation offers a free KML plug-in that overlays Google Earth with the all of sign posts on the trip. You can either access the Lee County Parks and Recreation site and look for the KML files or click here to download them directly.
Trip details: Day 3: Picnic Island (54) to Sun and Moon Inn (83). Miles covered 11.2
(Posted September 21st by Chad)
Liquid Rhythm Adventures' Journal 