Bahia Honda Day 2 Kayaking

 After meeting Andy on the dock, I went back and we finished hauling all our gear over to the dock.  I manned the single kayak and girls headed out on the tandem paddle board.  Naya sat in the front and Lucy stood up.  We headed over toward the bridge and the current was running that way so it was pretty easy.

Lucy leaving the campground marina.

We made our way around to the bayside and headed to the east. over toward the cabins and bayside tent area.

Didn't take Naya too long to resort to looking at all the critters below.   You can see one of the cabins in the upper right of this photo.  The bridges are behind the camera at this point.

Right after this photo was snapped I paddled about 100 yards further to the left and saw a Loggerhead Turtle swimming.  It was going up and down every minute or so, I think it was foraging on things growing on the bottom but not sure.   I kept getting closer (got within about 50 ft of it), then pretty sure it saw me and took off as I never saw it surface again.   It's shell was about 2ft across.

We rounded the point in the above picture and got on the lee side of the island and the drift was alot slower.  Naya saw a tasty lobster and two sharks.  Both were baby nurse sharks

If you zoom in, you can see one of the sharks hiding inside the rock.   Nurse sharks are the only sharks that really camp out on the bottom.  Also pictured is a Blueheaded  Wrasse (upper right), a Foureye Butterflyfish (center), and a High Hat (lower center).    For one little rock, I was blown away at the number of fishes on it. I saw over 10 species and the rock was maybe 3 ft wide.

A different Nurse Shark a few minutes later. It was about 2.5- 3 feet long.

Another shot of the rock, the baby shark is still back there.  In the foreground is a Queen Angel, the High Hat, and a juvenile  Pork Fish.

Floating around the bayside mangroves.

I tried trolling for sharks on the way back.  Pulling her was easy until I rounded that point and had a headwind. 

Back between the bridges heading to the campground marina.  You can see some of the sites on the left and of course the old railroad bridge to the right.

Here I am, paddling toward lunch time.  We were out all morning.

Before lunch though, I wanted a turn at the SUP as I hadn't tried it since we got it a few weeks ago.  I just went around the little marina area while Lucy took some stuff back and got my flip flops (the dock was scorching hot plastic).

We dragged all the gear back to the campsite, then had lunch followed by a trip to the gift shop.   I got to walk as you recall the one bike was damaged.  We got ice cream!  I also went over to the nature center but it was closed.

This sand sculpture was made with sand from the beach right there.  It had amazing detail and was about my height.  I should have taken snaps of each of the four sides... The fish were life sized.

I went back to the coach and chilled out as it was fairly hot and I had been in the sun for about 3 hours already.   Around 5 or so I walked out as I noticed the sun went away and saw a big squall headed our way.   Lucy helped me secure the pop up tent by tying it off to various things like the GMC, a tree and the BBQ grille.  Also stowed the kayak and SUP so they wouldn't blow around.  I've been in the keys when these squalls roll in.  I wasn't disappointed.

Right before I started the video a big gust blew through and flipped our neighbors tent and lifted ours at least 6 inches up in the air.  Good thing we tied it off.   We spent the next 10-12 minutes each holding a side down.   You can see how much water is coming off the top of it.  It was raining pretty hard!  We also saw pool noodles and things go blowing by.

After it let up, we took a stroll around the campground to survey the damage.   There were a couple of awnings damaged and I did see one pop up frame mangled in the dumpster the next morning.  Beach towels and bathing suits were in puddles or hanging from branches lol.

Naya didn't feel like it, so the two of us pedaled over to the bridge to watch the storm move off to the SE and the impending sunset, which turned out pretty nice.   Thought this was a cool shot.  I probably should have gotten off the bike and got the trailer out of the shot but oh well, I didn't even stop riding.

This is the view looking south, the rain is off to the left (You can see the edge of it on the horizon).  Pics of course don't do it justice, but it was a nice one with a lot of color.  This is shot from under the bridge on the ocean side.  There were a bunch of people up there and there was lightning around, so I stayed down low.

The rest of the evening was relaxing, we headed back and made dinner and played a few games.  More rain was coming so I pulled the fly off of the pop up tent and stowed it.  Sure enough it rained a couple times.   I came out around 10 or a 11 and it was super clear.

We all walked over to the bridge and went up looking at the Milky Way and the stars.  There was a waning meteor shower and Naya saw two.   We watched the lightning far off give us a light show, and then the sky disappear with the next storm rolling in.  We hustled back to the campsite and called it a night....

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