Paddle with Dolphins

Laurel's original plan was to go over to Bear Island to go birdwatching in the morning, then spend the afternoon paddling Mosquito Creek. Lindsey, the owner of Edisto Watersports was going to bring our boats over, and we would help her set up a shuttle. This  is a one way trip, unless you have time to wait for the tide to turn.  Then Laurel remembered she had to play contract bridge and needed to be back earlier than the time the trip would end.

So Lindsey led us on another excursion right from her dock.

We headed down Bay Creek into St. Helena Sound and kept going until we crossed a line in the water where Edisto River met the sound.  We continued upstream a little way and then turned into St. Pierre's Creek.  Almost immediately we saw dolphins and then one of them exhibited strand feeding and chased a fish up on the bank. The dolphins - a mother and child pair, plus another single one, swam in front of us or beside us for several minutes. Lindsey paddled close to the shore and found several skates.

We passed the entrance to  Fishing Creek,  along which Laurel and I were staying while she house sat. Then we turned again into into a little creek that took us to the Middleton subdivision.  We got there an hour faster than we expected, so continued up the creek, turning in every tighter turns as the creek narrowed and got shallower. We finally decided to turn around just before the creek got narrower than our kayaks were long. Along the way, we admired houses along the bank and enjoyed the herons, egrets, and terns we found along the way. Then we came back to our takeout within a neighborhood, and loaded up our boats on Lindsey's trailer. Another wonderful outing.

I forgot my camera so these are all Laurel's pictures.

Heading out - think Laurel used the fisheye effect here

It always looks like a big empty when we are in the bay

Our leader, Lindsey and me in Laurel's second kayak

Heading out of the Edisto River into St. Pierre's Creek

Dolphins1

The camera can seldom catch dolphins all the way out of the water. 

We mostly paddled in the marsh but did pass some scrub

In the last little creek - we could not find out its name

Going down the twisty parts of the last little creek

Tight little twisty creeks are my favorite

I got back last evening from a wonderful trip to Norfolk where I stayed with an old blogging friend and new in-person friend and his family.  We visited his Botanical Garden to see the Asian Lanterns.  More on that soon.