COBIA was the first cutter from 8th District to deploy to Key West to help fill the gap left by the recent suspension of operations of the eight 123' patrol boat conversions. Operationally, it was less exciting that I had hoped, but before we left, I stuck the kayak in the bilge, slept under my paddles en-route, and subsequently had the chance to do a couple neat paddles while we were deployed.
My first trip was in Key West itself when we were kept in-port due to weather (7-9 ft seas outside the reefline, larger in the Gulf Stream). The kayak guru's at Lazy Dog Outfitter's provided me with information about some of the best mangrove trips in the area, so I lugged the boat about a quarter mile to the old seaplane docks and launched into some strong headwinds. The route I followed ran north along Key West past the sailboat moorings (and there were many!). I then turned south into a small canal that immediately shifted to dense Mangrove. Despite being spitting distance from civilization (in this case, Ruby Tuesday's and Winn Dixie), it feels like you are miles from anywhere. I could see countless fish swimming amongst the mangroves, and a small nurse shark passed underneath the boat just after I entered the canal.
After about ten minutes of easy paddling, the canal made a 90 degree turn and opened up into a residential zone...airport property on the right, houses on the left. I took a right into a small entrance that passes through more mangrove forest and into the salt ponds. I paddled around in there for a while...no more sharks, but more little fish fleeing the kayak, blue herons, and great egrets.
I paddled out of the salt ponds, and in the interests of not backtracking, I continued along the canal until it opened up into the pass that bisects Key West. After passing under the famous Route 1, I continued north into more open water. While I was inside the mangroves, the wind had picked up considerably, but was at my back fortunately. I kayaked around the North side of Sigsbee Naval Park and back through the sailboat moorings to the seaplane dock with significant following winds and seas. Always fun!
My second trip was at Dry Tortugas National Park when we stopped by on our way home for a little R&R (our first trip there was less relaxing...we picked up 21 Cuban migrants who were "feet-dry" and transported them back to Key West). We were anchored about a half-mile north of the park, so I dropped the kayak in the water and paddled off to see the fort. With only a couple hours available, I landed on the north swim beach and walked around to the front of the fort. There is a short 30-40 minutes unguided tour, so I walked around for a while looking at everything. The fort was built as a strategic outpost to protect the Gulf Coast, the theory being that anyone who controlled the Dry Tortugas had secured themselves a base of operations that would allow them to strike anywhere inside the gulf with relative ease. The scale of the fort is simply amazing...and that actually contributed to it's failure. The building is so heavy that it settled onto itself, cracking the freshwater cisterns and creating other problems. Still, it's worth a stop if you are in the area.
After walking around the fort, I hopped back into the kayak to circumnavigate the fort from the water. From the outside, you can easily see how impregnable the fort would have been...three tiers of cannons laid out to provide effective crossfire. It would have taken a substantial fleet some time to bring down such a fort.
Great Egret(?) in the Salt Ponds.
Pushing into the mangroves...
Oh, the temptations!
Bird on watch along the old piers.
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