I've been paddling out to the sea buoy that marks the entrance to the St. Johns River, the Port of Jacksonville, and Mayport Naval Station for about 12 years, and the trips are never boring. Today, though, was a special day filled with surprises. The photos above will help to describe the sights I enjoyed on today's trip. The Manta rays were running in packs of 20 to 30; some were swimming alone or with one or two others, but mostly they swam in large groups. I've never seen so many on one trip. The sea turtles were coming up for air and sun, and I counted five today, which is a record for one 11 mile trip. They were huge, and were most likely females just waiting for the right time to come ashore and drag themselves up into the sand dunes to bury their eggs. It looks to be a bumper crop of baby turtles this season. The dolphins, often present in large numbers, were mostly swimming far out near the buoy for some reason today.
Once I rounded the buoy, I noticed one of the Navy tug boats totally out of place. They usually travel inside the channel going back and forth between Mayport Naval Station and the sea buoy where they transfer the Navy Pilots on to incoming Navy ships. This tug, though, was out of the channel and headed south. It was not long before it turned east south east and headed straight for a Navy Frigate that I had seen plowing along very slowly in a southerly direction while I was at the buoy. The tug approached the Frigate and it appeared to transfer somebody from the tug to the Frigate, and then headed back to Mayport. About then, I turned and looked back toward the channel and was surprised to see a partially submerged Navy Submarine moving rather quickly through the channel and just beginning to head out of the channel in an east south easterly direction, toward the Frigate. Only the conning tower on the Sub was visible as it passed within 150 yards of me. The rule is all vessels must keep at least 500 yards away from U.S. Navy Ships, but if anybody was in violation here it wasn't me: I was trying to get back to the beach and was not headed in the direction of the Sub - and I was there first. Submarine sightings are a rare treat for kayakers, and that was my seventh sighting - all in or near the Mayport channel. It was not long before I realized I was witnessing the beginning of an ASW (anti-submarine warfare) exercise, but knew I was an unwelcome guest so I kept paddling southwest toward my beach. All in all, it was another eventful trip to the buoy for me, and I hope these photos have given you an idea of how splendid it is to kayak in the ocean.
N.B. The above photos, although accurate representations of the marine life and vessels seen during the above trip, were not taken during the trip.
