Showing posts with label Cedar Key. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cedar Key. Show all posts

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Cedar Key Small Boat Show Saturday and Sunday May 3 and May 4


The 29th Cedar Key small boat meet will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 3rd 5th, 2013, the first full weekend in May. It is completely informal. Tides and weather are still the only organization. There are no planned events, signups, or fees. 

Cedar Key is on the Gulf a hundred miles north of Tampa, a dozen miles south of the mouth of the Suwannee River. It's an isolated cape of offshore islands separated from the mainland by miles of oyster flats and salt marsh. The great logs of the cedar forests went to pencil makers before & after the Civil War. During the War it was an active Confederate port & railhead. Now its sea and shallows attract fishermen and naturalists, artists and writers. There are no traffic lights, fast food, or golf courses.


 

All shallow draft boats are welcome: canoes & kayaks, catboats & catamarans; trimarans, rowboats & sailing dinghies; scows, sharpies & sampans; punts, pirogues, prams---& pirates' yawlboats. 

Over the last 26 years, weather has usually been mostly sunny, mid to upper 80s in the day, water temperature upper 70s. If it blows, even at lower tides, it's splendid for rowers & paddlers. For sailing canoes Cedar Key is sublime. 

Wildlife observers note the food chain at Cedar Key is complete in the water & ashore. The nutrients flowing out with the clean Suwannee mix with oxygenated water riffling through the cape's islands & channels. Birds, bugs, fish, shellfish, turtles, alligators, marine mammals---all thrive. 

For information call the Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce, 352 543 5600; Dave Lucas, 941 704 6736, skipjack@tampabay.rr.com, or me, 586 215 7060,huhorton@gmail.com.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Sailing with Sharks and Snakes

We had quite the adventure Saturday July 10, and took our small kayak out to Cedar Key. They have an island with a lighthouse that is about 3 miles out and they only open it up twice a year, so we thought it might be fun to see it. The weather was overcast when we headed out and it took quite a while to get there. We decided to abort the lighthouse since it was getting late,we were getting tired, so we got off on the east side to relieve ourselves. As we pulled up into this really shallow water, Lisa swears she saw a shark fin and I'm thinking that couldn't be since the water was about 6 inches deep. The tide was almost all the way out so the water is really shallow. We headed back and kept getting stuck in this grass and the water being really shallow, and we kept seeing all these shark fins - little sharks about 1 or 2 feet long. They started circling, so Lisa hit one with the paddle. 

Anyway, we got the h3ll out of there since small sharks make both of us a bit nervous. I had to tow the boat for about 100 yards since the water was only about a foot deep. We loaded up and went home. Lisa did some research and apparently, we went through this area where baby sharks hang out until they get big enough not to get eaten by the bigger ones. Then, the island, Seahorse Key, has a huge population of cottonmouth snakes and there we were with our parts exposed relieving ourselves. Guess we will not be doing that again.