Signs of Spring

Ah, Spring--and once again, I'm seeing the world from the cockpit of my kayak. It's not that we're not able to paddle in winter at all--after all, this IS Florida, the land of perpetually liquid water, in contrast to the hard water (read "ice") that plagues northern paddlers in winter. But liquid though it is, the water does get colder in winter, and the bay is less, well, friendly. Certainly I'm not completely averse to pulling out the boat and bundling up warmly for a little paddle on a bright, sunny January day, but all conditions have to be absolutely perfect for that to happen--no clouds in sight, low water at the put-in so I can avoid getting wet feet, all the stars aligned just right, etc. etc. etc.

But in spring, I barely need a breath of warm weather and a hint of sun to reach for my paddle. And this morning, the whole fan-damily got out on the bay--the Chief (also known as Mr. Y), Cocoa, and me. The wind had started coming up early, so we had some little swells, but nothing too rough. The thing we had to avoid most were some mulletheads (fishermen throwing nets for mullet)--Cocoa loves fish, so we have to keep him from harrassing the fishermen and begging them for handouts. There were two groups of mulletheads this morning, but we successfully avoided both--Coke was pretty busy just keeping up with us, though sometimes he took the lead to try to get a jump on some gulls.

We didn't paddle for long--weekend chores beckoned, unfortunately. But it was a great morning, and when we got home, the water was really getting rough--not my favorite kind of stuff to paddle in. In fact, I had to beach my boat in front of the neighbor's house because it was too rough to put in at our seawall. Yikes!

While I was rinsing off the boats and paddles, Coke apparently thought, "Now wouldn't it be lovely to go and rest my incredibly wet self under that tree, in that nice, fresh pile of dirt?" What a clever boy....
Oh well, he could use a bath anyway. :D