Day 45(about as good as it gets)

Daily stats
Start: 6:15 AM- Dauphin Island AL
Finish: 2:00 PM - Perdido Cut AL
Time: 7:45
Daily dist: 35 miles
Total dist: 1,337 miles
Companions: None
Weather: Absolutely flat calm almost all daywith temps in the upper 60's
Notes: The nicest day of paddling so far on this trip, actually one of the nicest days I’ve ever spent paddling.

All day long I kept retracing my steps over the last week to make sure that it was indeed just eight days ago when I had to thaw my tent poles with my cook stove in order to get them apart, because today was absolutely gorgeous. Sorry for everyone who had to work, it was about as good as it gets out on the water today and I was thinking about you. Everything came together right today, the water was glassy smooth and my paddling cadence seemed to match the roll of the ocean in such a way that the kayak almost seemed to levitate above the water. It was paddling zen.

A calm start to a great day

Of course with a day so sublime I don’t really have that much to report. Early this morning, just after crossing the entrance to Mobile bay, I did see literally thousands of Cormorants flying east in long single file rows. At first the flocks came through in trickles of 50 or so birds. Then it was like someone opened a faucet wide open and the birds came in continuous rows at least a half mile long. At the end of the day I also had a little adventure finding a spot to camp. The beach I had spotted on Google Maps turned out to be situated directly under the nose of two multi story beach condos.  So after a 32 mile day I was without a place to call home for the night. Thankfully just inside Perdido pass I discovered a small island in the middle of the bay. It's dry land but not by much yet a very nice spot to camp.  Tonight the island is playing host to the usual number of Great Blue Herons and one kayaker.