Welcome to Manatee Country April 8th

I woke up today at 730 in the morning in my mondo camping spot. I had arranged earlier to meet up with Steve Cox today. Steve is the owner of a bunch of kayak rental places and I was going to met up with him and some of his paddlers to get a better sense of the Indian River Lagoon where I will be paddling the next few days. One the way to met Steve, I was paddling along and, on a sand bar, there were a bunch of birds. Maybe 50 total. Pelicans. Cormorants. Common Terns. They were all just sitting groups by type. I was trying to admire them without getting to close but the wind kept pushing me towards the sandbar. Unfortunately, I got blown too close and triggered their flight. After they took off I looked back at the sand bar and saw a single Cormorant on the sand bar and thought: "what a brave little bird". Turns out I had just caught him mid poop. He finished up and afterwards followed his friends. About 15 minutes before I met with Steve and his group I had another animal encounter. I saw my first manatee. He was just swimming along so I paddled along next to him for a while. But then, when I met up with Steve and his group they were surrounded by manatee. Like a half dozen of them. This made me feel a bit less excited about my encounter. I paddled with Steve and his group for a while and then pushed on to the River Side Cafe where I stopped for lunch. I met three nice Marylanders who "sponsored" lunch! Thank you, Kent. I am really going to have to rethink my food strategy though. I don't think I am bringing in enough calories and all of this paddling against the wind is exhausting. I am finding I need one really big meal, either I have to stop for lunch or cook a lot when I finally camp for dinner. After lunch I paddled on until I almost dusk when I found a good place to camp, just past Paul's Island and directly west of Pelican Island National Refuge. The refuge was the first bit of land ever set aside by the Federal Government as a protected animal Refuge. I think that is pretty cool.

I will send my location in the morning and upload some pictures in a bit.

Let's hope for a shift in the wind, the last few days have been tough.

Seth