![]() ![]() We caught several redfish, a small snook, and one 24" redfish that we kept for dinner. There are several small creeks entering the river mouth area, and the tide had just turned to rising. Nic and I did some fishing in a small creek in the Little Shark River mouth. Greg, Patrick, and Trey left early, and Nicolas, Don and I left about 8:00 from Northwest Cape heading to Shark River. Nic and I took a little longer since we had to have our hot morning coffee. Trey seemed to pack up effortlessly in about 10 minutes, which he attributed to his backpacking experience. Northwest Cape was a nice beach site, but the low tide we experienced caused us to drag the boats across a sandbar the next morning. Don chose to hug the shore line, so I hung back with him for the trip. I caught one trout along the way, and we split it as an appetizer. We stopped at Middle Cape for a rest break. The trip to Northwest Cape Sable was uneventful. East Cape provides protection from easterlies or westerlies depending on which side of the Cape. Because of the east winds, we decided to move around the Cape to the lee side and found excellent accommodations. The other four had arrived about an hour before us and had eaten and napped in the meanwhile. We continued to East Cape after a rest stop so that Don could empty more water out of his boat. I again pumped out the boat, and on his second attempt succeeded in reentering his cockpit using a paddle as a bridge across the boats. ![]() He attempted to reenter when the boat was empty, after about 20 minutes pumping, but capsized again. I came alongside his flooded boat, oriented stem to stern, and commenced to pump out his boat, too overburdened to turn over and empty in an expeditious way. I had hung back with Don, while the others were about 1/4 mile ahead. Don, overloaded and inexperienced, got sideways and capsized. As we progressed towards East Cape Sable, seas increased to about 2 feet and choppy. We paddled south to marker 11, then turned west. Tide was near low, and consistent easterly winds had caused water levels to be about 1 feet below normal. Winds were east at 20 to 25 mph, giving us following seas as we paddled out the channel. Trey, Patrick and Greg brought a two-day supply of Foster's Ale, which cut into their storage volume significantly. Some of us looked like Fibber McGee's closet, with various plastic bags and net bags bungied to the decks. Morning, after an hour and a half of sorting through groceries, water bottles, and gear. We left Flamingo boat ramp and paddled out the marked channel at about 9:30 Thursday We traveled the route in six single kayaks, packing food and water for 10 days, although we hoped to supplement our protein supply with fresh fish. Our route was from Flamingo to Everglades City via the Gulf outside route. ![]()
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