Day 46

I wanted to upload a video instead of writing but WordPress isn’t cooperating again. Makes me wonder why I’m still paying them. Anyway, I paddled 14 miles to Dinner Key. I had originally planned on going to Virginia Key but my life jacket was stolen last night. Luckily a new friend, Mario, had a spare. Since the medium size didn’t quite fit I wanted to find a new one but nothing was accessible. The boat traffic around the Port of Miami was horrendous so I just stayed in the west side of the ICW and paddled to Dinner Key. Unfortunately, this route causes me to do a 14 mile open water crossing. I’m not looking forward to that at all!

A couple of gentleman paddle-boarded over here and told me about the American crocodile that roams these keys. Since this key is really narrow, that kinda concerns me. Crocs will definitely pull you out of a tent. I set my tent up in a location that didn’t leave many opportunities for a croc to gain access to me. It’s doubtful I’ll have an encounter, but if you know me, those kind of things tend to happen.

Hopefully I can get another life jacket in Key Largo. But that’s a couple days way and I need to wait until payday so that is going to slow me down even more. Today was a little frustrating but it could be a lot worse so I’m not going to complain. I can make the most of this incident and everything will be alright. It’s just one of those things that happens in life. We learn from it and keep moving forward. Plus, it gives me a chance to explore.