Beyond LA--Kayaking fun in Nassau Sound between Talbot and Amelia Islands, Florida

Here's another trip we did while vacationing in Amelia Island, Florida in early June, 2016. Earlier in the week, we kayaked up Simpson Creek to Nassau Sound, and we really enjoyed the sound (see previous entry: http://www.southeasternlouisianapaddling.com/2016/06/beyond-la-simpson-creek-to-nassau-sound.html). So we did this trip to enjoy the beauty of the sound: the northern shore of Talbot Island is wild and beautiful; Bird Island is simple and peaceful; we wanted to explore the southern tip of Amelia Island and its nearly deserted beach; and we wanted to enjoy the calm-but-open waters of the sound itself. It was a lot of fun-probably the best of the three trips we took on this vacation.

I won't repeat everything I said in that previous article about the tides, but I will stress the points again: Conditions were very calm on the day of our trip, and you don't "see" the tide moving through the sound. But it was. On this day, low tide was between 1pm and 2pm, and we couldn't wait that late to take advantage of tide change. We simply dealt with the outgoing tide for the whole trip. Most of the time, we were paddling at nearly half of our usual paddling speed, but this was very much a sightseeing trip, not a destination-oriented trip. Also, we did experience 3 or 4 spots where the interaction between the outgoing tide and the changes in topography made things a little interesting. I'll mention those as I describe the trip. An interesting phenomenon we witnessed was the large outgoing tide interacting with the sand bars out at the mouth of the sound: Off in the distance, for most of our paddle, there was a standing wave spanning the entire mouth of the sound. It was far enough away, and low enough, that it was really the white tops that made it clear what it was. It almost looked like one of the flood walls they've built in around the coastal areas of New Orleans. 

I'm sure these sand bars/shoals contribute heavily to why the sound itself is so calm so much of the time.

Here's the trip and launch info:

We launched from a public boat launch ($2 per person) on the northwestern tip of Big Talbot Island, on Sawpit Creek. This launch is accessible at high and low tide. You drive to the ramp, unload, then drive back to a parking area and make a pretty short walk back to the launch. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.5100691,-81.4595514,869m/data=!3m1!1e3

Amelia Island is to the north and east, across the bridge.

We launched at about the mid point of the tide cycle, into Sawpit Creek, and the current was pretty strong. We assumed (correctly) that the current would be less intense in the sound, and even more so on our return in a couple of hours, and that it was a pretty short trip to the sound. So even though we knew the tide would still be going out,  we weren't too concerned about having too much of a struggle on our return. 

Here's the route we paddled:

Four islands, four very different beaches. 

From the launch, we followed the sandy beach on our right, under the fishing pier and the bridge spanning Amelia Island and Big Talbot Island, and out to the sound. Once you enter the sound, the beach of Talbot Island becomes much more than just a sandy beach. By the way, "Talbot Island" is divided into "Big Talbot Island" and "Little Talbot Island" by Simpson Creek. I'll sometimes be lazy and just call it "Talbot Island". The northeastern shore of Talbot Island is beautiful, and quite different from many of the other shores or beaches you'll see around here: There are nice sandy beaches for walking, but you can can see that this is a wild, wooded island being worn away by the sea. It's very rocky and littered with the trees that have "fallen off the cliff" and are now lying on the beach or in the water. The only access to these beaches is by water or foot, so it's pretty deserted and feels very isolated and wild. 

You can see from the pictures above that the water was very calm and easy, and we didn't really notice the tide current that much. But, when we decided to head over to Bird Island, we did start to see the dynamics of the tide flowing over the changing terrain below the surface. On the northwestern tip of Bird Island,  there was a stark, visible change from smooth to "boiling" water until we reached the eastern edge of the island. It was still calm and safe, but for about 70 feet or so, the water was bouncing up and down, and then instantly, we were back on super smooth water again. 

You can see the instantly smooth water in the top right of this picture. 

We paddled past Bird Island and headed over to Amelia Island. This is a short crossing of maybe 3/4 of a mile, and very calm on this day. We encountered no other traffic at all(it was a weekday morning). 

During this crossing, we hardly felt any sideways push from the tide going out--once or twice I felt a slight weathercock (no rudder or skeg) and once or twice I felt a slight drift to my right, but hardly anything of notice. Until....right before we landed, when we passed through a very small, but pretty strong, tide race. Really, to call this small area of turbulence a "tide race" may make some folks laugh, but for this very short-perhaps 20-30 yard span, we were suddenly being pushed very hard to our right, and our boats were trying to turn 90 degrees left, and go backwards.  Pictures don't nearly do it justice, but our landing on Amelia Island was a little trickier than I expected. In the route picture below, you can actually see our course suddenly shift as we approached the island, and getting out of the kayaks was kind of fun. I let go of my kayak for an instant and had to go catch it. Probably, a more trained eye would have predicted this rush of water by looking at the charts: Amelia Island's southern end does create a headland, pointing right into the tidal current. When we re-launched, we dragged our kayaks a few feet up the beach to make our launch easier. In the image below, some of what appears to be water was low-tide sand that we took a stroll on. This beach was beautiful, and on a late Thursday morning, practically deserted. Where we turned around on our walk, I could look north up the beach and see the condos and hotels.

Once we wrestled the kayaks ashore, we took a short walk along the beach--some of which shows as water in this image.

That is not a wave coming in (above); that's a fast right to left flow.

Once we left the beach of Amelia Island, we headed back towards the bridge, and the opening of Sawpit Creek. As we moved from the more open water of the sound, toward the convergence of the Amelia River, the Nassau River, and the gap between the islands, the energy in the water picked up a little bit and we were paddling pretty slowly.

We passed under the bridge and pier, into the mouth of the rivers, and decided to follow the bridges back across. Even though traffic was pretty light, we felt the bridge would help us with any traffic as we fought the current crossing our beams as we crossed back over.   Understandably, this is where we finally felt the strong effects of the tide current. The water got a little turbulent, and we had to put some effort into staying parallel to the bridges. My partner, with very little experience in these conditions, got pretty nervous, and I had to focus on staying near her and not getting taken back out, under the bridges. You had to keep moving forward, or you'd move sideways instantly. This is also where I made a typical "Chet mistake", and we made a wrong turn. In my effort to fight the flow across our beam, and to shorten the crossing for her, I pointed our boats at an angle into the flow of the tide, away from the sound. This worked at keeping us straight (we were moving slightly sideways this way, but it kept us parallel to the pier), but, it also took us around the wrong side of the unnamed island at the mouth of Sawpit Creek. I didn't study the maps well enough to realize or remember that the fishing pier is not exactly parallel to the bridge. I knew we just had to follow the bridge across to Talbot Island, but the fishing pier breaks off and stops at the unnamed island (if this island has a name, I haven't seen it yet). I followed the pier. 

Oops! 

That's not the right beach! 

You can see the short detour in the image above. At least two positives to this mistake: it worked to get my partner into water she was comfortable with more quickly,  and (knowing my incredible sense of direction) I brought my GPS. We thought we were back along the shore of Talbot Island, but the beach was all oyster beds and marsh, instead of the white beaches we expected. Thinking it was just a change due to the receding tide(that was MY thinking and poor memory), we continued for a few minutes, expecting to see the launch. When we didn't, I turned on my GPS which set me straight and we enjoyed a good laugh. My partner is used to my sense of direction by now. She also guessed, before my GPS told me, where we were, based on the one or two times she looked at any maps.  We decided to not continue around the island, as that would mean more paddling against the flow of the tide, so we turned around, corrected course, and found the sandy beach of Talbot Island that we expected to see:

As if to help me be sure this was the right place, those two guys were sitting in exactly the same place as when we started. 

A lesson I learn every few months is that no matter how simple a route may seem, study the maps and charts and bring your GPS. Better yet, print portions of the charts and bring a map holder. 

From here, as expected, the launch was right around a left-hand curve, and the current was much, much calmer, so we were out of the water within minutes.

This really was a great trip. As I've said before, ALWAYS check conditions and make sure you, your partner(s) and boats are right for those conditions. But I have to say, Nassau Sound is really beautiful and offers a great variety of water conditions and beach conditions. I wish I lived closer.

Beyond LA--Kayaking Simpson Creek to Nassau Sound and Back-Florida

This is a trip I did while vacationing on Amelia Island, FL. Talbot Island is just south of Amelia Island, and this route is a part of the Timucuan Preserve, which offers a ton of paddling options. This route is also a part of the Big Talbot Island State Park.

Every time I study the maps of the southeastern Atlantic coast, I feel the urge to move (that's the kayaker in me talking). There are so many options, with such a variety of conditions. Most of the route I'm describing here is perfect for almost any paddler, in almost any boat, assuming they can paddle at least 7 miles and handle some current. But, this trip takes you to Nassau Sound, and venturing out into the sound is not something just anyone should do in just any boat. Read on...

First and foremost, one word needs to stay in the forefront of all of your planning for trips on the Atlantic Coast: TIDES. On the Louisiana Coast, tides are roughly every 12 hours, and the tidal range is usually a foot or two. Along the Atlantic Coast, however, tides change every 6 hours or so (two highs, two lows, each day), and the range is several feet. In Louisiana, it is pretty easy to plan an entire trip with the tide either going out or coming in the whole time--you have about 12 hours to play with, and sometimes you have a pretty measurable slack tide also. And, with the relatively small tidal range, paddling against the flow of the tide often just means working harder for part of the trip. Along the southeastern Atlantic Coast, it's a much narrower window, with two highs and two lows each day, so you can expect the tide to change while you're out. Not always, and on a lot of one-way trips, you can work with one-way tides quite nicely if you time it right. But if you're doing multi-hour round trips or loops, or tricky crossings, you need to work with the timing of the tides. While I was there, one of the low tides occurred in the middle of the day every day. And, with a 5' range, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could be in for a fight. That's a lot of water moving, and it's being funneled into channels and sounds, so it speeds up. And (very important), it's very possible to launch at high tide and return at low tide to  hundreds of yards of mud between yourself and your take out spot. 

But, this is not meant to be a lesson on tides--just a warning. Do your homework.

On to the route:

I chose this route because my paddling partner had not paddled in a while and didn't want to have her boat handling skills tested too much. Simpson Creek itself is a typical tidal creek in that it will always feel like a creek (no waves), but the current changes speed and direction with the tidal flow. And where it meets the Nassau Sound, you do have options to go play in waves. You exit the creek into a beautiful sandy lagoon. From here, you can decide, based on conditions and your comfort levels, whether you want to venture out into the sound: out to Bird Island or simply follow the beaches of Talbot Island. This trip was just around 9 miles.

We chose to use the launch provided by Kayak Amelia, on Heckscher Road, in the Little Talbot Island State Park. The fee was $1 per person, with safe parking and someone willing to offer info and a map. They also have a restroom and bottled water for sale. 

By the way, Kayak Amelia offers various guided tours, kayak rentals, has a gift shop in the state park and in Fernandina Beach, and has a very helpful, friendly, knowledgeable staff. And a decent variety of rental boats---next trip, I may leave my boats in Louisiana and just rent from them. Here's their website:
http://www.kayakamelia.com/index.htm

And here's our launch/take out:

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.4618082,-81.4288765,547m/data=!3m1!1e3

"Riding the tide":

On the day of our trip, low tide was at 11:13 in the morning. The tide moves out of Simpson Creek from the launch, towards Nassau Sound to the north, or towards Fort George River to the south. Then, at high tide, the creek fills back up. So we planned to follow the tide out, play in the sound for a bit, and then follow the tide back in.  We launched a little later than I wanted--around 10:40, and the water was already very low. Kayak Amelia has two launch spots here, and the gravel "high tide" launch was in a small bay of mud. So we had to carry our kayaks across the large yard, down the ramp and to their floating dock.

The launch at low tide (note the mud below the grass, and the oyster bed just above the center of the picture.

However, three hours later, at high tide, we paddled right up to the gravel launch to take out:

This is the same spot at high tide-3 hours later. Note the lack of mud or oyster bed.

Because we launched so close to low tide, the banks of Simpson Creek were muddy or sandy, often covered with oyster beds, and then there was typical marsh grass 3 or 4 feet above that. The current was barely noticeable at this late stage (the speed of the flow tends to peak in the middle of the tide period, and be slower at the beginning and end), and if we felt any benefit from it, it was minor. We passed several sand bars and sandy islands, and saw quite a few shore birds. 

Note the oyster beds on the right. Lots and lots of oyster beds are visible at low tide.

This is a very curvy creek (especially at low tide), and my partner chose to use her rudder. The current was subtle, but it and the wind affected our steering. At times, we skimmed through water that was a foot or less deep. Some time after the first mile and a half, you'll start to see the land on your left rise up, and you'll pass Half Moon Bluff.  Note the muddy layer between the water and the dry sand at low tide:

Shortly after you pass the bluffs and the left bank flattens back out, you'll start to hear the surf and you'll come to the northern end of Simpson Creek, where it meets Nassau Sound. The creek widens out and white sandy beaches appear. You come out into a nice, sheltered lagoon on the right, and the opening to the sound on the left. This is a very nice spot to stop and play in the water and on the white sand.


We arrived just after low tide and stopped on the sand bar that is the northern edge of the lagoon. Just as we arrived, someone in a fishing kayak was reeling in a small shark (which he released), and we saw another very small shark swimming in the shallow water. Kayak Amelia told us that it's not uncommon to see sharks and dolphins here at low tide, as the smaller fish follow the tide out of the creek into the sound. Later, at Bird Island, we caught a quick glimpse of a dolphin. 

This is the sand bar across from the mouth of Simpson Creek

There are a lot of sand bars and shoals at the opening of the sound, so in normal-to-calm conditions, the bigger waves break before the opening to Simpson Creek. But I've only been out here twice in one week--I know very little about what's typical out here. The water was very calm on this day, with just a gentle up and down of the water,  so we paddled over to Bird Island a few hundred yards away. Bird Island is very flat, with just shore grass for vegetation, so from the lagoon, as you look across to Bird Island, it appears to blend with the white beaches of Amelia Island, and with the bridge in the background, so your eyes can trick you.

Bird Island at low tide. 

This picture is a little deceiving: it's not as short as this looks, but the crossing from Bird Island to Talbot was a pretty easy quarter mile or so.

After a bit, we paddled back over to the beaches of Big Talbot Island, and could definitely see the tide coming in. Bird Island's sandy beach got smaller, and the long sand bar attached to it shrunk. In fact, Bird Island grows and shrinks so much with the tides that maps seem to have a hard time placing the label in the right place--sometimes the "Bird Island" label seems to be on water. 

As we made the short crossing over to the bluffs of Talbot Island, the rocking swells became just a little bouncier. The extra energy in the water was fun. 

Because the tide was coming in and it was midday, boat traffic increased a little, and we did encounter a group of jet skis as we crossed over to Talbot, but really, traffic was very light.  We pulled up on a rocky beach and relaxed and ate lunch. 

Over the course of the 30-40 minutes that we relaxed, the tide moved in enough to start moving our boats and I had to pull them farther up the sand twice:

When we launched to head back, the gentle rock and swell of the water grew a little, and by the time we got back to Simpson Creek, I was taking a few little splashes into my cockpit. Very minor, but as I mentioned at the beginning: check conditions and know what you're getting yourself and partners into. For us, it was fun to go from roll to bounce, and to get a little wet. I did seal the camera up after the first splash, so no pictures again until we got back to the lagoon and the opening of Simpson Creek.

By the way, when we returned to Simpson Creek, I took the very first available right hand turn, and (luckily) realized this was a mistake. There is a very small, pretty short, creek that you need to go past, and go into the larger opening of Simpson Creek. In my route image above, you can barely see where I started to make this mistake. It's possible this small creek only exists at high tide. Here's the close-up:

Once in the real Simpson Creek, things looked quite a bit different with high tide. The narrow creek with muddy banks became a wide creek through a marshy grassland:

At high tide, the bluffs look very different.

Where on the trip out, we hardly felt any assistance from the outgoing tide, on the trip back in, we definitely did, thanks to our timing. Our speed was easily a mile or more per hour faster heading back to Kayak Amelia. And the sand and mud between the water and the grass was gone, and we were now on a much wider creek with grassy banks. Only the highest oyster beds remained visible. By the way, after you pass that first right hand "wrong turn" that I almost took and find yourself in the wider creek, keep Half Moon Bluff on your right (even though the bluffs look much smaller now), or you could end up making an extra little loop (see map). No harm, other than a little extra distance and maybe a little confusion for someone with my sense of direction. Surprisingly, I did not take the wrong turn there (and my partner would've known better anyhow).
So, this is a great trip for paddlers of any skill level, and it gives you the chance to experience the surf and beaches of the sound, and the beauty of the northern shore of Talbot Island. We enjoyed Nassau Sound so much that we planned our next kayak trip just around that (another entry will describe that).