Our Everglades and Florida Keys Kayak Paddling Environment

Everglades, Florida Keys, Bahamas and the Gulf Islands of Florida's west coast- Sanibel, Captiva, Cayo Costa - Kayaking Tours and Charters

Our Kayak Paddling Environments

- Gulf Islands - Cayo Costa - Captiva - Sanibel - southwest Florida
- Everglades - Ten Thousand Islands - Coastal Everglades
- Florida Keys - "Back Country"
- Bahamas - Berry Islands - South Andros - Exumas

Kayak Voyagers - Sea Kayak Vacations
The concepts behind our kayak tours and charter offerings are simple. Our favorite way to experience our coastal marine environments has evolved from many years of experience in some very specific ways. We now offer the benefits of our experience to you in catamaran designs specifically built for the purpose to access remote kayaking areas.

KAYAK VOYAGERS

Great Blue Heron in breeding plumage - in our Florida paddling environment!

- Weather Patterns of the Florida Keys and Everglades
- Current Weather Conditions
- Temperature
- Back to Home

Gulf Islands - the barrier islands of Cayo Costa, Captiva, North Captiva, and Sanibel - our southwest Florida environment
After four great seasons of mothership tours in the Florida Keys, Everglades, and Bahamas, we had been looking for a new and additional paddling area. We've been exploring, keeping in mind, the many elements that we have learned make a tour week fulfilling and sometimes exciting! We have found that environment, and we are very excited to offer this in our schedule - 3 years now.

The chain of barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico, Sanibel, Captiva, North Captiva, and Cayo Costa, stretch 26 miles along the southwest Florida coast, defining and protecting Pine Island Sound.

The northern half of the chain is accessible only by boat, (and some areas only by kayak), and it is all wildlife refuge and state park. The area's most unique and relevant characteristic for paddlers is the naturally structured contrast and variety of the natural habitat and of the paddling conditions between the "outside" open Gulf of Mexico side of the islands, and "inside" protected Pine Island Sound. The difference between the "outside" and the "inside" is most striking!

The coast along the western, "outer" shore consists of beautiful beaches (famous for shelling), shifting sandbars, and sabal palm lined subtropical shoreline. The "inside" also has some beach, but is primarily mangrove shoreline with lots of islands, some with ancient Indian shell mounds, and a maze of creeks and coves to explore .

Along the chain are a number of tidal cuts (passages) giving access to either side. It's the movement of water around the barrier islands and through these passes, that has over time created and does maintain these islands in their richness of variety. (In fact, Hurricane Charley, in 2004, created a new pass through the middle of North Captiva!) We will paddle the passes to get to a lee, (or out into the waves), with beaches to land on, places to teach and practice skills, or to circumnavigate for the pure paddling pleasure.

As seasonal "cold" fronts pass through, and winds veer clockwise around the compass, there will be both protected, flat water paddling "inside", and sometimes waves "outside" in the open gulf. In the prevailing northeast to easterlies however, the gulf beaches are in the lee (and becalmed). So, we have the fronts with the winds veering to the statistical average of every five days. And, we have the tidal flow in the "passes" on a twelve hour cycle. All makes for some great varieties of paddles for everyone!

The wildlife varies again, with the contrast in habitat. In our protected shallow flats and mangrove shoreline of Pine Island Sound, we have most of the water bird species that inhabit the coastal Everglades and mangrove islands of the Florida Keys: 7 types of herons, 4 types of egrets, cormorants, osprey, frigate birds, vultures, roseate spoonbills, bald eagles, kites, owls, hawks, stilts, brown pelicans, and white ibis. Some species seen here (and not in the Keys) are the Wood Stork, Great White Pelican, and the American Bittern.

On the western, open Gulf of Mexico beaches, we additionally have seagulls, terns, sandpipers, dowitchers, willets, and skimmers, some birds nesting right on the beach! Migrating birds pass through with the seasons, some birds winter here (rails, plovers, killdeer, ruddy turnstone), and many song birds and smaller species can be observed year round: kingfishers, shrikes, woodpeckers, doves, warblers, finches, and more!

Dolphins are almost a daily occurrence! Sea turtles, sharks, sting rays, ,jellyfish, horseshoe crabs, and wild boars are some of the other wildlife we may see. Manatee also live in these waters, but in the colder weeks of winter, they usually head farther up rivers to the blue springs where the water temperatures are constant and warmer than the Gulf of Mexico.

Our new barrier Gulf Island area includes
- J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge (NWR).
To see an aerial view "click here"
- use the "back" button to get back to this page.

For a satellite image view of the Gulf Islands "click here"
- use the "back" button to get back to this page.

Stargazing: Stargazing, planet observing and meteor watching are amazing on cloudless moonless nights. When you are away from populated areas, in both the outer Gulf Islands and the Everglades Ten Thousand Islands, there is a lot less light pollution. Some guests have thought the milky way was some cloud cover and couldn't believe it was an area thick with stars, till they looked at it through the binoculars! We enjoy amateur astronomy.

BACK TO TOP

Everglades - Ten Thousand Islands - Coastal Everglades
The western side of the bottom tip of Florida, where the portion of the huge South Florida Watershed, that flows southwestward, has slowly drained through the swamp environments of the Fakahatchee Strand, the Big Cypress, and part of the "River of Grass", into the Gulf of Mexico for thousands of years. It's an estuaries, bays, and islands environment. The water is primarily salt water to brackish and rich in marine life with excellent feeding for dolphin and manatee. The coordinated effort of a pod of dolphin feeding by "herding" a large school of fish, taking turns at slicing through the school, with splashing and sometimes jumping, and the gulls overhead diving for the scraps, is a spectacle not to be forgotten!
There are Indian shell mounds on some of the islands, some extensive, indicating centuries of continuous site usage.
We'll see many bird species - herons, egrets, ibis, pelicans, osprey, many smaller species and the rarely seen frigate bird, swallow tail kite, roseate spoonbill and bald eagle.

Sometimes our anchorage can have an almost primordial feel, with beautiful sunsets and then in the darkness the sound of dolphin breathing around us.

Alligators and Crocodiles

One of the few places in the world where both are found in the same habitat. The elusive crocodile with his excellent eye sight is the more difficult one to observe. Alligators (as pictured here) can be seen sunning themselves on mud banks in the cooler months.

Florida Keys - "Back Country"
Our cruising and paddling areas on the north side of the Florida Keys consist of the islands in Florida Bay, behind the middle and upper keys, including Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park and Indian Key Historic State Park.

Further to the west are approximately eighty square miles in lower Keys backcountry islands, tidal creeks, and flats, including the Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge.

On the south side of the Florida Keys are fifty miles of ocean coastline speckled with patch coral sites and four spectacular live coral reef formations, part of the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary.

Weather Patterns in the Florida Keys and Everglades

South Florida and the Keys are not in the "trade winds", where steady breezes blow from the same direction almost constantly. Our weather is dominated, during our six-month (November through April) cooler season, by frontal systems that travel across the North American continent diagonally, typically passing over us last, on their way out to the Bahamas and Cuba. With the passage of each cold front, our wind direction veers clockwise coming from all directions around the compass. Our "settled in" direction is northeast to east with a shift to the south as the front approaches. Northwest signifies the front arrival along with a wind increase and a temperature drop. During our period that we refer to as "having a cold front", the wind will continue shifting clockwise from northwest, to north, to northeast, blowing for these days the hardest that it blows in the Keys or Glades. The cycle then repeats itself. The statistical average is the passage of a cold front every 5 days. My experience is that they are slightly less frequent, more like every six or seven days. The most significant fact to be aware of is this: that there is usually light wind or calm, and also warmer to actually quite warm weather during each cycle.

When the wind is northwest to north, kayakers could experience some very choppy conditions if exposed, paddling. When the wind subsides and temperatures rise, beaches and shorelines without an open water breeze blowing in upon them, can be buggy to nightmarish.

We have found, with our catamarans, that when it is windy and colder, we can go way up into the Everglades estuaries, 15 to 18 miles, and spend nights without pests. From there launching kayaks and accessing the creeks' headwaters, nearing the transition zone between the mangrove fringe and the "river of grass". If we've had a normal or wet summer, it will be thick with alligators. (Mid-December through mid-February are the times when you are most likely to have the benefit of a cold front for a bug free trip deep into the Everglades.)

When it's appropriate, in coordinating with cold fronts, the catamaran or Mirage will anchor outside, along the coast, keeping a breeze across the decks, it'll be warmer and we'll be in short sleeves, under the stars. Going in a little bit, to launch in the morning, and going back out in the late afternoon to anchor offshore or in the mouth of the creeks is also typical. Up in the Thousand Island area of the Everglades and in the Keys backcountry, there are islands everywhere to anchor behind for wind and wave protection.]

Temperature - Common temperature range:
Day and night, in our cooler season (winter), Nov.-April: 65 - 85 degrees
In our warmer season (summer), May-Oct.: 78 - 95 degrees.
In late December or early January temperatures may dip into the 50s and once in a great while into the 40s, but usually only for a day or so.
In July and August it rarely gets below 85 degrees and out on the water is the best place to be, for paddling of course and also for comfort while sleeping!

Current Weather Conditions - for your info see links below

Gulf Islands - Current Weather Conditions - Cayo Costa, Captiva, Sanibel, FL
(After visiting this link, please use your Back Button to return to this page and this site.)

Florida Keys - Current Weather Conditions - Marathon, FL, Key Vaca
(After visiting this link, please use your Back Button to return to this page and this site.)

Everglades - Current Weather Conditions - Ten Thousand Islands, Goodland, FL
(After visiting this link, please use your Back Button to return to this page and this site.)

Bahamas - Current Weather Conditions - Nassau, Bahamas
(After visiting this link, please use your Back Button to return to this page and this site.)

Harmless Brown Mangrove Snake enjoying the Florida sun!

Great Egret on one leg!

Bamboo Key - Watercolor created by Vicki Rosenberg
while on one of our Sea Kayak Vacations

"Click here for our one page "MINI POSTER" FOR 2008 KAYAK VOYAGERS MIRAGE TRIPS
- Please print out - post locally - share with other paddlers! (Use back button to get back to this page)

Home
About Mirage and our Sea Kayak Tours - Custom Charters
This page - Our Kayak Paddling Environments
Bahamas Sea Kayak Tours
Photo Gallery
Sea Kayak Equipment
Sea Kayak Sales
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Voyager 1 - Operate Yourself Mothership - FOR SALE
Links Shared by Kayak Voyagers
Contact Us - Kayak Voyagers

KAYAK VOYAGERS