My first kayaking adventures
120https://www.patreon.com/ulillillia --- My first kayaking adventures
While I was going swimming at Indian Rocks Beach, I was often seeing boats going by, motor boats. I saw paddle boards going out on rare occasion as well. While visiting Hawaii, I got to experience the open ocean, but it wasn't in a very pleasant way due to the tour guides being unfriendly and giving me a bad time while also being pushy, rude, and even misleading. I generally don't even count that experience as an experience. Wanting to get out into open ocean to experience what I should've experienced but in a pleasant way, I thought of an assortment of ideas. A jet ski was the big one. A paddle board was another idea I had. Over time, red tide was going to destroy the last of grade B beaches, leaving nothing effective for me to go to other than Alexander Springs or way to the south like Fort Myers. Swimming is limited to around a half a mile out for practicality. It's just too much and impractical otherwise for more (although I know I can do more, a good bit more, especially with swim fins).
In the last few days I had left of going to Indian Rocks Beach, I thought of getting a kayak so I had a way to get out farther. I got one, since it was the cheapest option I could see beyond that of swimming. I didn't really have any kayaking experience (or even boating experience for that matter) so I couldn't just dart out into the open ocean. I had to test stuff out - dry bags, mounting the oars, the dive flag, how to get back on the kayak after taking a dip (not just in shallow water where I can touch bottom, but also in deep water where I can't touch bottom (unless I go fully under)), how to secure stuff to the boat, and various other things. Once I felt ready enough, I went out.
The first scene shows how unusually bubbly the ocean surface was during the first day I was caught in a torrential downpour. The view underwater was quite interesting to look at though! The next round of scenes shows my initial setups for the first time I ever went out into open ocean. And I went out an estimated 3 1/2 miles from shore that day. Because I didn't have a way to secure the dive flag, I had to improvise and using my dry bags was the only thing I could think of. However, it didn't remain reasonably upright for long. Over time, the rocking from the waves caused it to tip ever more over. I often had to swim over to the flag (and swimming through a lot of grass floating at the surface at that, something that didn't bother me as I've been swimming in swamps beforehand (in Kentucky)) to fix it.
The last scenes involve my most recent outing. I went only 2 miles out, but the water was so clear that I never thought the ocean in Florida could get to that extreme - a whopping 30 feet for the visibility, and the water was showing up as more of a cyan color instead of the usual browns, tans, greens, and yellows I've seen before due to that clarity. The actual color doesn't show up properly because the Go Pro has automatic white balance and it also overexposes which causes further inaccuracies and there's no way to set it to always use daylight white balance and to underexpose by 1 or 2 stops. This full automatic causes the scene to not show up correctly. The correct color shows up at the end of the "river of grass" scenes where you can see the grass as being green and the water as a cyan. The constant drifting at about 1 mph is due to the current. It's not the wind, as is hinted at by the drift anchors being almost completely vertical. I've encountered a few fish and I've even stirred up dirt at the bottom to capture some really nifty effects!
While there are still several things yet to work out and enhancements I'd like to make, such as adding a sail that I can bring down when going swimming or the wind is too strong, I ultimately would like to get a regular motor boat of some sort, one designed for being out in open ocean and offer better protection than a kayak for when it's storming out (as per a regular thunderstorm such as the usual standard-issue daily afternoon ones). An even bigger enhancement would be an air hose and pump system that would allow for me to remain underwater for extended time. If this is to happen, however, I'll need a higher paying job or position, or even work 2 jobs.