The sun was shining bright when we took to the river on Saturday for a short kayak excursion from the Sands, a small strip of beach near our house in Port Royal. Though we ran into a brief yet exciting wind and rain storm, as evidenced from the ominous looking clouds here, the day was mostly beautiful.
I thought it was almost amusing that the Zebra on the beach, surrounded my sand and water, looked like it was in the middle of Africa somewhere, so I snapped this shot of Josh paddling toward the beach.
We paddled from the Sands, down past the Ports Authority and to the 11th Street Shrimp Docks, which are still woking docks. If you can see them, there are two pelicans atop the masts of the Wild Hogg (directly behind me). What better place for a pelican to fish from than the mast of a shrimp boat?
Once again, you might be able to see those pelicans atop the masts. What a great place to paddle. The shrimp boats look SO MUCH BIGGER from the water than from the docks. Perspective really is everything.
I just liked this shot, with the kayaker (Josh) paddling toward the boats, which with the masts and riggings always appeal to my photographer's eye, and the clouds building in the background somewhere over Battery Creek.
All in all, our kayak adventure was again a unique and fun experience. Things got really interesting when we headed back in. The storm came in so fast. We had one kayak up on the Zebra, and were carrying my kayak in when a burst of wind whipped sand into our faces and blew the 65lb kayak OFF the roof rack. We decided to wait it out in the car and then load the gear. The storm lasted only a couple of minutes.
We eventually managed to get the now very sandy kayaks back on the Zebra and strapped down, but we were soaked and covered in sand. We decided to rinse off in the water and walk around and explore while we dried off... and I am so glad we did!
As we are exploring, we come across this baby sea turtle hatchling, who is in the middle of the beach, totally disoriented as to which way the ocean is. At first, we were not even sure if he was alive. He looked dried out, and honestly, dead. When we bent down over him to check out his markings, he flinched a little bit. Honestly, I was not sure what to do. Here is this beautiful hatchling, baking on the beach. After a little googling, we went into action.
So google says if the hatchlings don't find the water on their own, you can bring them to the water's edge and see if they will make a run for it. This little guy was barely moving. According to our diligent Crackberry-infused research, we could try putting him all the way in the water. It was amazing. He came right to life as the water washed over him. His instincts took over, and he swam around a little bit, and then he turned right out to sea, and took off. They say only 1 in 1000 will grow to adulthood, so I hope this little guys makes it. Isn't nature cool??
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