EC Training Trip 3: Round Trip Flamingo (Ckp #3) to North Nest Key and Back
This was the third and last of 3 training trips in consideration of doing the 2017 WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. Three of us are working as a team, Debbie Turner, Rick Parks and myself. Rick was unable to make this trip, but Tom Lachner (Bonita Springs), Alex Oancea (Miami), Randy Smith (Key West), Bob Smith (Pennsylvania), and Wayne Flatt (Tennessee) joined us.
The route of the Everglades Challenge covers about 280 miles. The section we are attempting on this trip is 35 miles, but the most technically DIFFICULT of the whole Challenge. Everybody agreed that rather than make this a 1-way trip from Flamingo to Key Largo, we would do a camping trip from Flamingo to North Nest Key. This was 6 miles short of the finish, but would cover the difficult part of this leg and solve the problem of getting our cars from Flamingo to Key Largo.
Here is the Google Earth image of our planned route.
This trip was a failure. We did not reach our goal—North Nest Key. Great disappointment and great learning experience. Here is how the trip played out.
We woke at 4:30 AM in the Flamingo campground. After breaking camp, we had a quick breakfast, and headed to the Flamingo marina and ramps. At 8 AM, we made our way out of the marina into the channel heading SW, everything was fine. Upon reaching the main channel, we sailed east.
This may be Buddha in disguise or the author trying to avoid another case of skin cancer.
Bacon (Randy Smith) with Palm Island in the background.
The problem any boater has in eastern Florida Bay is the water depth. It is a 1-2’ when the tide is in and 0-6” when the tide is out. When setting the dates for this trip, we simply picked a date that seemed convenient with no consideration of the tides. While we could have (should have) departed on a rising tide, we headed into this difficult region on a falling tide. Add to that, we had a 16-mph headwind from the east, a headwind which greatly slowed progress and blew the remaining water out of the eastern bay—literally.
As we slowly progressed into the stiff headwind, water was draining out from under us. We were forced to stick to a “narrow” channel.
This is the channel and our track as Debbie and I headed up the channel.
A closer look at our tortured track. Note that the channel varies from about 70-90 yards wide. We tacked up the channel. In this image, it is easy to see the channel. On the water, it is muddy and impossible to see more than a few inches deep. Even if you could see the bottom, it would be unrecognizable being the same color as the water. Consequently, it was impossible to see the edge of the channel. As navigator, you look for signs of the channel on the surface waters: flat water here, foam line there, slight waves, ripples. We strayed onto the edge of the channel once, and the wind quickly blew us up on the flat. A “flat” is the very shallow area on either side of the channel. These flats are muck. You cannot walk on them—they seem bottomless, soft mud. On the flat, your drives are useless. You try to get them out so they do not get stuck in the muck and hold you. Your paddle is worthless in the strong wind. When we strayed onto the flat, we had to let the wind blow us to deeper water. Then, of course, we retraced our track up the channel.
Bob Smith (BobAgain) has a gasoline motor on his boat. Here he is towing our Tennessee friend, CaptBones (Wayne Flatt).
Shortly after this picture was taken, Bob ran out of gas and cut CaptBones loose.
CaptBones with Bidgood (Tom Lachner). Notice the exposed flat about chin-high behind them. It stretches the width of the picture and far beyond. We are in the channel, which is getting more shallow by the minute.
Bacon made it further along than the main group, but eventually, he ran out of both water and channel.
At that point, we quit and headed back to Flamingo, tail between our legs. Everyone was tired and a lot smarter. I have no doubt we could have made it through to North Nest Key, but we likely would have had to travel at night on a rising tide.
AlexO Experience wrote:
One person of this group did make it to North Nest Key: my good friend and sea kayaker, Alex Oancea. When I got down to Flamingo and was drawing the camping permit at the Ranger Station, Alex walked in. I had the permit for 1 night at North Nest Key. He got a permit for a second night and announced, that he was leaving for NNK immediately. It was about 4 pm. When I got to the Flamingo Campground, where the group would spend the night, I said that Alex was leaving immediately. Everyone was surprised. Alex has done this leg before. He knew the situation, and he reached NNK a little after midnight in true WaterTribe fashion.
In a note from CaptBones, he described his experience as follows.
“I spent time this month in Florida Bay screaming across grass flats in 15 to 20 mph winds and through mangrove channels. From Flamingo, I have sampled the frustration of sticking the boat on a mud flat and trying to walk it off while being sucked into the primordial muck nearly to my knees. I have learned not to fight the tidal flows and attempt to avoid oyster beds. I have seen the brutality of the east wind and heard its relentless whisper saying: 'I’m going to do bad things to you.' ”
Keith
. It was first time we brought that with us. We had lot of gear and ofcourse not all off where essential. But boy that was great to get to hot sauna after a long day off fishing or hunting. Well worth the extra effort( at least for every Finn 
.) And since we had two TI's with only 1 person onboard it was make possible.
But the water isnt saltwater so its not that big deal. You can actually drink straight from the lake. Most of the time i had my rifle inside boat and shotgun next to me on the side bench waiting for any waterfowl to fly by.
