Kayak Adventure

The Banana River turned into a high adventure kayaking voyage today. We rented the tandem kayak for the day from Calema. It was a great location. We took shifts. Some paddled while others waded, or waited.










Near the bridge (in the above picture) that connects Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral we saw several dolphins all around us coming out of the water. That was also where I saw my first manatees while paddle boarding the other day.

Today I kayaked with my 7 & 8 year old 2 miles up the river to a little park. We got out on the outside of a little cove that provides protection for docked boats. While we waited for the rest of the family to show up and get another another permutation in the boat, we looked around and saw at least 10 manatees in the cove. They were frolicking around. I took the kayak around to try to get some pictures with the water camera. When my wife showed up, I sent her out there with our oldest. It was, come to find out, an alligator area too. One of the manatees bumped me while I was in the kayak, but I wasn't flipped. A nearby security guard told me he has seen canoes get dumped by a startled manatee.













Despite the intense wind, and then the rain, I had a thoroughly delightful time paddling into the waves and elements with Lydia. We had to traverse the 2 miles South to return the canoe. Once we got out of the cove there wasn't much wildlife. Well, we did see a number of fish jumping out of the water and a roseate spoonbill. The distant thunder gave us additional reason to pray and ask God for deliverance. Seriously, the calculus minimum path problem came to mind as I mentally calculated the direction to aim the kayak to reach the due west shore in the shortest time while being buffeted by wind and waves coming primarily from the south (If you have SMART notebook or the viewer, check out Sec10_5.notebook). I don't know if I was a Math Hero, but we did make it to shore and rested while it poured on us and thundered in our vicinity.

By the time we reached Kelly Park, where the Calema rental place is, it had stopped raining. I called the family using the cell phone I had kept in a zip locked bag. When they arrived several of them went out for a few more short rides. Wow, this adventure was such a blessing!