Interesting day. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about today’s route. I had a few miles out of the bay then about 11 across open Gulf then up a river to camp. When I turned the point to head into the Gulf I was staring into open water. Part of the reason for the long crossing is shallow water. I found it pretty quickly as the tide was dropping. Considering I only need about 12 inches of water for my boat to float I was stuck on the bottom. I got out and started walking. I hooked my lead lines on to my life jacket and was literally walking out into the ocean. I got a good laugh thinking I was walking to the end of the earth and might fall off ( I know the earth is flat for the record). I finally made it to deeper water. I hopped in and took off. It was only a few feet before I was paddling over the shelf and the water turned from light green with being able to see the ocean floor to staring down at a dark blue abyss. I couldn’t see where I was going, I just knew I needed to paddle north east. The water was as flat as glass when I started. The weather report was good but it’s a bit of a rush when with each paddle stroke knowing you are another paddle stroke away from solid ground. Humans were not created to be on water. I just put my head down, cranked my music and took off. I planned on paddling for about 30 minutes then checking the gps to see if I was on track. When I checked, I was doing pretty good. About 2 hours in I saw some white spots in the distance. I figured they were condos or town homes on shore. The closer I got I noticed they were closer than I thought and they were birds. They were just chilling on a sand bar. I looked down and noticed that I could see sand below me. I reached my paddle down to see how deep it was. It wasn’t that deep at all. I decided to get out and stretch my legs. I made sure to clip my boat on to myself. Probably not the best place to have your boat float off. I looked around and couldn’t see any land. It was a pretty amazing feeling. A little intense but more amazing. I decided to take a little break because why wouldn’t you? I sat on the front of my boat with my feet on the sandy floor just soaking it in. I realized how lucky I was to have such perfect weather. I ate a can of lasagna while sitting there simply because I could. I also did some dancing just because it seemed like a perfect place to and I figured no one was watching. I could have just chilled out there all day but figured I should get closer to shore just to be safe. I caught my bearings and headed northeast. It wasn’t long before I could see a little shore in the distance but I had no idea if that was where I was supposed to be heading but I kept going towards it. Every time I would look away from the far off shore I would lose it and spend a few seconds trying to locate it again. Finally I was able to get a land mark. It looked like a giant water tank so I just headed for it. I didn’t know if it was the right spot but I figured if I hit that water tank I would be alright. I could paddle up the shore to where I needed to be when I got closer. I just kept pointing the tip of my kayak at the tank and would go. The closer I got I could see it wasn’t a water tank. It was a light house doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. Serve as a land mark. The seas started picking up and I just wanted to get to shore by this point. I know the lighthouse was a little further east than the river I needed to go up so I corrected. This is where the day took a turn. I won’t say for the worst but just got longer. For the next 2 weeks I will basicly leave camp, paddle a few miles out to the ocean. Paddle some miles, then head back up a river to dry land and camp. Repeat. I had been good about using my gps all day to make sure I was on course so I decided to steer away from it and trust myself. I ended up paddling 4 extra miles around the bay getting lost in random sea grass fields before I found the campsite right before dark. Thank goodness it wasn’t a good sunset or I would have been really upset. The campsite is amazing. It’s a rock island with what I think are cedar trees. At least that’s what it smells like when I got a fire going. I climbed to the top of the tallest rock hill to look out over the water and sea grass fields. Pure peace. I enjoyed my night by the fire feeling accomplished for the big paddle today but not getting cocky knowing these next 2 weeks I will be pretty remote.