After last week’s Blackwater River paddle by the “Crazy 8 Paddlers” into the remnants of Hurricane Ian, this week’s group (“The Ocean’s 11”) had ideal conditions for a three hour paddle on Owls Creek. Immediately after launching, we were greeted by a majestic bald eagle soaring over the group which set the tone for a great morning on the water. Last year’s excursion had gone upstream so a decision was made to go downstream towards Rudee Inlet. We got an up close view of the offshore fishing fleet, tour boats and cabin cruisers. The wind was calm and the sea conditions were flat so we went out into Rudee Inlet and checked the box for kayaking in the Atlantic Ocean, which many in the group had never done. Bill & Sandy were especially adventurous and went all the way to the end of the jetty where they were greeted by a pod of jumping bottlenose dolphins. We then looped through a cove into the Croatan Beach neighborhood and viewed some of the highest priced homes in Hampton Roads. We knew this because Jill pulled up a real estate APP and called out the estimated home prices for each mansion as we glided past them. We also paddled past a dredge boat that was dredging the channel and got a nice look at that operation. We then transitioned from the busy waterfront to the calm, quiet saltwater marshes on the western side of Owls Creek. Aided by a nice high tide we explored the farthest reaches of a number of tributary creeks bordered by forests that had been preserved on city and US Navy property. The group finished up with a quick loop to the southern end of Owls Creek passing the Virginia Aquarium and their ropes course which included zip lines over the creek. We finished up with a picnic lunch on the dock at the boat ramp with all of us remarking that this paddle had an incredible variety of sights and paddling condition from open ocean to a shallow tidal creek.
Steve
View Bob's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oqh8v1bnmUmGTuLQA
View Bill's photos: Thanks to Steve Lantz for leading this beautiful paddle. Big beautiful homes, pleasant marshes, all sorts of boats tied up and almost no boat traffic. It was a great day on the water in perfect weather. We saw a bald eagle along with great blues, egrets, cormorants, pelicans seagulls and even a few dolphins.
Bill