Pirate Treasure Location: Fort Island, Florida Day 15 by Karen Brown

I can understand why he wanted to do it. The manatees have to swim the whole seven miles to get to the warm water springs at Banana Island and Three Sisters. His idea was to follow their migration route to try to understand what it would be like to go the whole length of the river. But I still kept hoping we wouldn't do it.

Well, guess what we did today! We kayaked the whole length of the Crystal River. And it was fun!

8:30 AM - We put our Cobra Tourer Kayaks in the Gulf of Mexico on a beach near the mouth of the Crystal River. It was a nice easy paddle into the river. We first headed for a little island at the mouth of the river called Shell Island. On our way there we passed near what at first I thought was a sand bar. But when we got closer we discovered it was not a sand bar, but an oyster bar. It was a mound of oyster shells sticking out of the water.We had never seen an oyster bar like that before.

We paddled over to Shell Island and pulled our kayaks up on the little beach. It is not a sandy beach. The beach is all seashells! And most of them are oyster shells! I guess that is why they call this island Shell Island. We spent about 35 minutes there walking around and taking pictures. It is a very green island with lots of trees and plants. There are also a lot of mosquitos there. I have eight mosquito bites on my arms and legs now. They bit me right through my dive skins. (Dive skins look like a wetsuit but they don't have extra padding that keeps you warm.)

We paddled up the river, keeping watch for manatees and other animals. We saw lots of birds, especially brown pelicans and cormorants and gulls. We saw a few great egrets. I kept looking for herons but I didn't see any. Also, we kept looking for alligators and snakes. But we didn't see any.

10:30 AM - We paddled to Wash Island. The other day, Mr. Purcell told us a story about this island. He said that a long time ago a pirate named Jose Gasbar was being chased by the Coast Guard. Jose Gasbar ran his ship aground on the shore of Wash Island. People say that he hid his treasure on this island but no one has ever found it.

We paddled some more, slowly making our way up the river. At noon we saw a building that was under construction. There was a man outside working on a window. I asked him if this was the new Florida Department of Environmental Protection building. He said yes but it wasn't quite finished. I asked him if they had any bathrooms and thank goodness he said yes! So we pulled our kayaks up on the shore and made a bathroom stop.

Our next stop was for lunch. We brought sandwiches and cookies and juice and water. We pulled our kayaks on a little beach and had a picnic. It was really beautiful there. We had our lunch under a palm tree.Just behind us on the shore of the river is an ancient Indian mound. A very long time ago, Indians lived here. One of the things you can still see today is a huge pile of seashells. They made a small hill out of seashells and used it in their religious ceremonies.

1:00 PM - We left our picnic spot and continued on our way up the river. Earlier on the trip we saw motor boats from time to time. But now we were seeing even more because more people live near this part of the river. Most boats were going at a slow speed but we did see some boats that looked like they were going too fast. We worry about the manatees when the boats go too fast.

By this time I was getting tired. My arms were getting especially tired. It was getting more difficult to paddle because the breeze was blowing against us. I told Wayne I wished the wind would start to blow the other way!

Pretty soon I saw some houses I recognized. Then I saw the marina that is near the place where we are staying, Kings Bay Lodge. I got a burst of energy (and the wind died down) and I paddled into the little inlet where our dock is. It was quiet and calm and beautiful there, and easy paddling. I wish the whole river had been that calm and easy to paddle.

2:30 PM - We arrived back at Kings Bay Lodge.

We had a great day even though we didn't see any manatees. We saw a beautiful river up close. We saw lots of birds and islands. I had a fun day and someday maybe I'll have a chance to paddle up Crystal River again!

Wayne is looking for pirate treasure along the beach on Wash Island.

Kings Bay, Crystal River, our destination. Crystal River enters Kings Bay from the upper left side of the picture.

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