Well, the March lion hung around for quite a while, but we were able to grab one low wind day on the last Saturday of the month. Happily it coincided with a pretty high tide for the Bair Island area. The boat ramp was busy, with a lot of folks putting their sailboats and powerboats in to go out on the bay. That is the first sign that this paddle is a little different from most others. We were sharing the waterways with sailboats, Hobie cats, and even ships like the Nassau Pride which was tied up at the cement plant on the other side of the channel from us.
To begin our 6+ mile trip (longest paddle to date), we paddled up the channel with Bair Island on our left. Intrigued by the whiteness of the beaches, we pulled in to one as we neared the entrance to the bay. It was all shell, several feet high above the water and extending down under the water too. They continued all along the shore around the corner of the island and along the side facing the bay. We learned later that the shell beaches are the result of dredging. They dredge the channel and dump it on Bair Island, presumably it includes organic matter that gets washed away pretty quickly leaving the shells to build up.
The winds were a little stiffer on the bay side of the island, but not horrible. Eventually we came to a passage heading back into the island. We consulted our guide book map and the Google map and decided that this was the passage back through the island. Partway in the passage veered away from the power lines; we decided that this was not the passage we were looking for and turned around. It was nice to have had the little break from the wind. Back at the bay we paddled a little more in the wind until we came to the correct passage, which upon seeing, it was obvious that this was the right one, it was much wider than the first. This one continued straight through the center until it hit Corkscrew Slough. Due to the favorable winds and tide, no paddling was required for this leg of the trip…just sit back and watch the birds. We had a free ride to recharge after the strenuous open bay section!
At Corkscrew Slough we headed back towards the ship channel to head back to the ramp. We’ll return sometime when the tides are really high so we have the leeway to take the more twisty passages.
As we were loading up we were approached by a Coast Guard representative who quizzed us about safety gear and confimed that we had PFDs, a whistle, and a way to get water out of the boat. We should’ve gotten extra credit for our paddle floats (Thank you Lo!), but he was off to grill some other boaters. He did recommend getting some sort of waterproof flashlight for if we ever go out at night. Someday we do hope to join one of those moonlight paddles on the bay.
Later Laura spoke to a co-worker who lives on his boat in the area during the week. He says that many of the channels are not navigable unless the tide is high even the one that looked so big and wide. We lucked out with the tide that day.