Oblivious of the Annoyance
The first passage is through a small flotilla of moored motorboats and toy ships - still quiet in the morning light with a few people up and fishing, a few people up a basking in the early sun, and a few people still asleep and dreaming of the two or three mai tais coming with the start of the motor. Three guys on jet ski things follow me into the shallow bay that comes next. They are matching my speed and I assume that they think that I know where the deep channel is. I do. So, I stay in the six to eight inch water and skim over a few barely submerged rocks and soon they turn back oblivious of how annoying they are. And then, I slide over 20 yards into the deep channel where I can get a full draw with the paddle. (I will not see a single person or boat for the next two hours, until I am nearly back to the put-in). There are about two dozen great egrets in the big shallow bay with a few great blue herons and a few mute swans. Two hand-sized crab take ...
