up at 7am
Starbucks
On the water at 7:45
Heavy fog on the bayou. It has a garlicky-salty smell - like something cooking that might taste really good (or really bad). The sun is huge and yellow in the east. The fog burns off quickly as I go up the Anclote. I paddle out to channel marker 5a (7km) without seeing anyone although the factories along the water start their thrumming promptly at 8. No joke - it's like some heartbeat that you gradually forget about the longer you're on the water. Not sure what's in production. This town seems to be slowly dying.

Beautiful, amazing paddle. No wind for the first time since I've been here. Still though, completely flat (=boring). I'm actually thrilled when a fishing boat goes by at low speed and creates some wash.

I came back in and hit Starbucks again. It's a two coffee day. I meet up with Jess and we have breakfast at Danny K's. Restaurant food is starting to wear on me and I leave half my breakfast uneaten. We get our gear together and paddle out to Sunset beach (I had to ask a server in Santorini's what the name is since we never go in from the road where the sign is.. They show movies on the beach there at dusk on Saturdays.

Jess had to get back early for a camper bbq but I lay there until 4:30 or so before paddling back in. Fun. The tide was coming in and I caught a ride on the wash of two commercial fishing boats - if I fell off the wash of the first one, I used the second one to catapult me back onto it again. I leapfrogged like that all the way back in and the 4km ride in went by in a second!
Random, a guy on a stand up paddleboard appeared out of one of the canals.  As I passed him, he asked if I'd like to swap. I laughed and said I was surprised to see an SUP out here. He said he lives here and finds it a great way to get around the river. I was having so much fun wash-riding that I waved goodbye and kept going. He seemed like an interesting guy though so I'll stop if I see him out there again.

After showering off the sunscreen, salt and sand, I walked into town and found a place with real coconut ice cream - mmmyyyy favourite. I don't actually like ice cream so I guess you could say it's my only ice cream flavour. Is everyone in this town a character? The ice cream guy asked where I was from and, when I said Toronto, launched into an epic tale of how his great-great-great grandfather was the original owner of the native-contested land in Caledonia. But, did I know it actually started in 17-hundred & something in Pennsylvania...when William Wallace (?!) begat someone, then this women blah blah, this indentured servant.....and so I said I'd love to hear more but was on my way to meet friends, had to go, thanks so much....random history lesson!

It's such a nice evening,  I wandered around town, picked a greek salad up at Santorini's and ate it in the park by the bayou, watching the manatees bob up and down again.

Excited for another early morning paddle tomorrow. Now that I'm halfway through my trip, I'm beginning to realize how much warm-water paddling I'd better squeeze in. We're in for another thunder storm on the weekend, unfortunately, so I may use that as an excuse to go to Tampa for the day.