Kayaking in the Keys

In 2015 our friend Lori celebrated fifty trips around the sun. And her idea of how to celebrate was to ride a bicycle the length of the Florida keys.

To each their own.

And to celebrate the successful completion of the ride, we went kayaking. A relaxing sunset cruise.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

Me ...

... Patty ...

... and the rest of the crew (Lori is in there somewhere).

One of the main attractions of the tour was this stuff. Or rather, the tiny creatures that lived in this stuff. When disturbed, either by a predator or a kayak paddle, these critters emit a flash of light. And while we did see it, it was a bit too subtle to get any pictures. Still cool though.

It is not entirely clear why they flash. To startle the predator? To warn others? To attract predators of their predators? Nobody knows for sure.

We saw other sea life as well.

Along with fish swimming about.

Our guide with a lobster she plucked from the briny deep. Or in this case, the briny shallow.

And of course birds. Like these pelicans.

It was billed as a "Sunset Cruise" but it was cloudy.

Well, there was a cloud. And of course it was the only cloud on the horizon and the sun set behind it.

Which did make for nice horizon to horizon crepuscular rays.

I need a wider lens. (I have a wider lens, just not a water proof one.)

I tried making a panorama out of these, but the movement of the kayak was too much between shots and the images didn't line up. Bummer.

And then we headed back. It was dark when we got to the dock. Which combined with a bobbing kayak, was highly non-optimal for photography. And pretty much everything after the shot above was blurry. Oh well, we all continued to have fun, even if I've no evidence to prove it.