Surrounded By Dolphins

What a fantastic dolphin encounter we had on the "Sea of Stuart", which is what we call the section of the Indian River that is south of the Stuart Causeway. We launched the kayaks at the Chastain Beach river access in what was supposed to be a light northeast breeze. However, the wind ended up being about 10 mph from the Northwest which put our destination of Boy Scout Island right on the nose with quite a heavy chop. The water was not clear at all, despite an incoming tide, so we were a little depressed starting out. We persevered though and made it to both that island and the island south of it, that we have named Girl Scout Island. As we approached the southerly island, we spotted a whole bunch of turmoil in the water, which ended up being about a dozen dolphins of all sizes looking for fish in the shallows. As we approached, they didn't seem to mind, and instead kept up their search for their next meal. At times they were so close, they went under our kayaks and we could smell their fish breath when they exhaled. We all continued on our intended routes and as we were paddling back to the Hutchinson Island shore (yay, the wind completely died!), we again came across the same pod of dolphins (I even recognized some of the dorsal fins). They were a bit more inquisitive and stayed closer to us, almost like we were a part of their pod as we all were going in the same direction. 

Dave also scared a sleeping 5 foot shark in the shallows, which then scared him when it made a huge swoosh trying to get out of his way. We saw lots of herons, egrets, ospreys, a kingfisher, turtles, and a ray, which was pretty amazing considering the turbid water. To top it off, we witnessed a brown pelican land on the back of one of the dolphins as it surfaced and the pelican stole its fish! We may have had a rough to start to the morning, but it certainly turned out to be an amazing and memorable day!