Paddling the Fort Pierce Inlet

Today is our last day of warm sunshine until we move to Clearwater this coming Sunday, so we decided we'd better take advantage of the kayaking around Ft. Pierce and Port St. Lucie, where we are staying this week.

We found a convenient kayak rental place and put our rental kayaks in on the beach at Ft. Pierce Inlet.  We had to paddle across the inlet to get to the mangrove islands.  Here is a satellite view of the area with our path marked in yellow (our total paddle was 5 miles, which we finished in 3 hours, with lunch):

Kathy leads the way once we get over to the mangrove islands:

This is a typical view we had as we maneuvered from channel to channel among the mangroves:

The boat traffic - both motorboats and fishing - was pretty heavy to the east on Shortys Slough.   Beach condo buildings could be seen in the distance.  With this traffic and the easterly winds, we decided staying in the boat channel wasn't our best option.  Instead, we stayed tight to the banks of the mangrove islands.

At the north end of Shortys Slough, at Jim Island, is a large marina.  We found one backwater where we could just fit our kayaks, and spied some pretty crusted-over boats and an old, wobbly, warpy dock:

Out in the main marina at Jim Islands, the Pelicans put on a display of their formation marching talents:

The mangroves hid some shy Ibis --

-- and a Great White Heron, who, due to crepuscular coincidence, looked like an angelic spirit come to lead us to heaven:

We pulled up in a quiet cove in the mangroves to eat our lunch.  Here's David enjoying his turkey and cheese sandwich and bottle of water:

After lunch, paddling out into the open waters, we enjoyed watching the pelicans fishing.  This fellow is just about to dive in to catch his lunch:

Look closely and you'll see these two pelicans in synchronized diving, going for that school of fish that appeared in front of us:

The heron were out fishing as well.  This one ignored the traffic on the causeway as he skimmed above the water looking for his next meal:

Even the mammals got in on the act!  We spotted several dolphins feeding in the bay.  This fellow was very active, swimming and jumping and diving in circles to corral the fish, who in turn could be seen leaping as much as five feet in the air to avoid being dinner:

We spotted a couple of lazy manatees, poking their noses up above the surface of the water, but we weren't in a position to get photos.  We were just happy to share the sun, wind and water with them as we started our paddle back to our beginning point.  Heading back toward the inlet, we saw this evidence of the strong winds that blow in the Ft. Pierce Inlet.  The winds blow in from the left in the photo below, and cause the trees on this island to be shaped almost as mountains are shaped by glaciers in geologic time:

Our final act was to paddle in a mad dash back across the inlet, fighting the southeasterly winds and waves, to make our beach before being picked up by the kayak rental people.  Here Kathy salutes a successful day on the water!

We expect three or four days of rain beginning tomorrow, so we're glad that we got this paddle in while it was still warm and dry.  When we hit Clearwater, it'll be serial family visits for the entire month of March!