Saturday, March 13, 2010

Lisa and I headed to Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs for the Tampa Bay Sea Kayakers (TBSK) monthly paddle and picnic.  The park was about twelve miles from our rented condo in Dunedin.  We arrived at the appointed rendezvous a little before nine o’clock.  Several other TBSKers were already in the parking lot.  The wind was blowing at +/- 15 MPH, which was a concern to the organizers.  At whole club activities like this one, paddles are offered for all levels of paddlers – Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.  (The TBSK club has some excellent material to help club members identify their own skill level-see below)  This is reminiscent of the Adirondack Mountain Club Tuesday night paddles that split into the Lilly Dippers (beginners) and the more advanced paddlers.

Because of the wind conditions, a decision was made to scrub the advanced group paddle to a near by island and paddle north along the coast to the Ancolte River.  The intermediate paddlers would go this far before turning around, while the advanced group would continue on up the river.  The beginners would paddle to a near by lake enclosed by mangroves where the hoped to see some unusual sponges. 

Our paddle began along the southeast shore of the park, east of the causeway.  We paddled into a strong headwind on our way to and under a bridge, part of the Howard Park

Causeway.  We then headed north along the coast into strong quartering winds.  At between two and three miles we entered the Ancolte River, heading east.  We paddled for another two miles or so, reaching a point where the river splits, with one branch going northeast toward the sponge docks (this is a commercial sponging area), and the other heading south toward Kreamer Bayou.  At this point we were running out of time, so we turned around and headed back.  We made one quick stop at the Ancolte River Park on the north bank of the river where the river meets the Gulf.  Then we returned back along the coast and under the bridge the way we had come in much diminished wind.  We had covered about 8.5 to 9.0 miles (our various GPS units didn’t exactly agree) in about 2.5 hours of paddling.

Back at the put-in we found a great picnic lunch waiting for us.  This is a wonderful monthly event that this club holds in different places around the Tampa area. 

TBSK Skill Level Self Assessment Guide

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