Six days Looping Cape Sable FL

[yellowcanoe]

We started at Flamingo, up the Buttonwood Canal NW on the Joe River to South Joe Chickee first night, Oyster Bay chickee the second night. That was a chickee that was very poorly shielded from the elements. Would not want to be there in a wind.
the tide was always against us so it was hard paddling even in light wind.. Then when we got out to the Gulf not only was the wind against us the tide was too. It was a hard 15 miles from Oyster Bay to NW Cape.. Next morning we just did five miles to Middle Cape..again wind and tide was against us..Last night at East Cape.. which has extensive mud flats at low tide. We camped next to a river from Lake Ingraham with a remarkable scattering of dead sponges at the high high tide line.At low tide we were able to walk and line the boats out to some water depth that was paddleable. the last day against the wind and tide again back to Flamingo I was sure my arms were going to fall off.
Even with a tidal range of only three to four feet there is a lot of water moving in and out.. And the outlets of rivers with an outgoing tide and opposing wind make fearsome holes and sharp high breaking waves.
http://www.nps.gov/ever/upload/Wilde...anner_2009.pdf gives you an idea of the route we took. Not too long for six days.. maybe 60 miles in all. But the skies are so fantastic its well worth it.

The pictures are quite out of order. We had two nights on chickees before three beach nights. The noseeums and skeeters were far worse than I have ever seen in Ontario but not as bad as Newfoundland blackflies or Arctic skeeters.

 

[Odyssey]

Awesome! Thanks for this. Yes, I'd do it just for the skies. And sand. And warm water.

 

[MacCamper]

Thanks for sharing. What about fresh water. Resupply? I have caught the Needle, also known as Long Tom, before. Crazy jumpers and pretty good fighters. They are also known to be a human hazard due to their very sharp bills and erratic swimming patterns. Cool trip and excellent pictures.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Water.. there in the pics somewhere are two 6 gallon jugs. We carry one gallon of fresh water a day per person, which has proved to be plenty. Another difference from boreal or Algonquin camping is that we carry lots of canned stuff for moisture. I do dehydrate meat and veggies as we do not take a cooler.

 

[coldfeet]

Great pictures, I see you have the Monarch on this trip, looks like a fun time, thanks for sharing.

 

[Guest]

Very nice photos.

I noticed the rudder-less Monarch and first thought WTF, and then remembered.

I gotta ask, did the Monarch rudder tangle with a fence on the water or while backing into a parking space?

My longer boats overhang the back of the truck enough I always try for either a pull-through in parking lots or I back it in, so the stern isn’t hanging out in the travel lane, and I’ve come awfully close a few times.

 

[yellowcanoe]

It had a rudder that worked. The backing into a fence happened later. And I was not driving. I was backseat driving and guess who wouldn't listen? "I know what I'm doing " Now he is waiting for warmer weather above freezing to fix it

 

[Guest]

It had a rudder that worked. The backing into a fence happened later. And I was not driving. I was backseat driving and guess who wouldn't listen? "I know what I'm doing " Now he is waiting for warmer weather above freezing to fix it

I mistook a photo of the open canoe for the Monarch.

I've come awfully close to backing that rudder into things a time or two. Enough that I've considered racking the Monarch stern forward, but I'm not sure how the rudder would fare at 70 MPH in that orientation.

Warmer weather, maybe a utility/ladder thwart in addition to rudder repair? And some Ridgerest padding on the seat too

 

[yellowcanoe]

No need for padding though my husband would agree with you on a Ridge Rest for the seat. The bungee worked Perfectly for the ladder ropes and for carabinering my water bottle, GPS and thwart bag. The York Box wont slide under a thwart that is solid. it fits up front well.

When we get our Travel Trailer we will be using a different mount system. We have 42 inches between trailer wall and back of car and that is not quite enough for the decrease in gap when turning.. I don't want to self destruct the boat going around a corner. We have a third rack to mount over the front door of the truck. So that slides the whole assemblage much further forward.

One household rule. The boats DO NOT go in the garage unless first, washed, and second ,fixed. So the Ridgeline has two boats still sitting on it awaiting above freezing weather. We can't have an ice skating rink on the pad in front of the garage with old geezers living in the house.

We came home to minus 2 F. We are making progress to 25 F.

 

[Guest]

How is the house?

Burst pipes have at times worried me enough when we were away on winter trips to turn of the main water valve, especially when we didn’t have anyone coming to check the place, feed the animals, etc.

We never had any burst pipes, but the little feed line to the frig icemaker would always freeze up. Time to defrost.

BTW, about geezers biffing it on the ice. I bit it hard twice last winter and DougD sent me a pair of those Yaktrax. Effective and really easy to put on/take off.

 

[yellowcanoe]

We'd be a bit OT if we got into the subject of walking on ice aids.. Yaktrax are a POS. This winter is the first that we have not had to had some sort of thing on our feet with spikes every day. Our go tos are Katoolas. Hillsounds for hiking in the Whites.

That is not to say that you might be fine with the Yaks.. they can stand light use. When you use them for four months straight.. not so good. We have had snow since December straight through and this is a very mild year. Two inches with four foot piles some places ( where the snowplow pushes stuff. ) Not the usual three feet and 10 feet.

If we only remembered the details like turning off the water.....it was a minus 47 F night that did us in. The furnace communication system did not work that night.. Can I start a thread on power vents?

We still have no heat in part of the house. Its 3 zones. 2 are OK and they put antifreeze in. Now the heating guys are reluctant to water up the third line to find leaks. We do know pressure is not holding. We are not hence sure how many holes we have to cut in sheetrock.. The sleuthing team will be back Monday..

We have some cupped hardwood floors that we need to find our floor guy for. They are not new but they mildly cupped. Hopefully a sander will remedy that. Of course during the sanding/urethaning process another canoe trip will be called for as he would rather we not try to live in the house as he tries to keep dust down.

I can't wait till the next canoe trip in April. Arizona here I come and I wonder how canoeing on Lake Powell is?

 

[Iskweo]

Dock camping....that is brilliant. Looks like a super good trip. Sighhh I can hardly wait for retirement.

Christy

 

[Guest]

We'd be a bit OT if we got into the subject of walking on ice aids.. Yaktrax are a POS. This winter is the first that we have not had to had some sort of thing on our feet with spikes every day. Our go tos are Katoolas. Hillsounds for hiking in the Whites.

That is not to say that you might be fine with the Yaks.. they can stand light use. When you use them for four months straight.. not so good.

I’m good with Off Topic wanders.

I have some serious metal spike things (also from Doug D) that attach with some strap complexity to my boots, but in the back of my mind I could foreee a tumble where I would spike my own ankle. Plus they are a PITA to put on and take off.

I just need something to get me from the bottom of the driveway to my truck at the top, and I can slip off the Yaktrax when I’m ready to drive away.

.....it was a minus 47 F night that did us in. The furnace communication system did not work that night.. Can I start a thread on power vents?

I saw that Maine had set or matched some record cold temps this winter. Minus 50F? It might be worth it if it killed the blackflies and mosquitoes, but dang, power vents and communication systems? I’m liking temperate climes more all the time.

 

[yellowcanoe]

One foot in the snow and the other on some less packed ice. That looks like our driveway. But we get sand from the town sand dump. We have learned not to pack the snow down=ice skating rink.. Where you see two tire tracks the middle of your pic looks fine.