Chokoloskee, FL – While visiting the Everglades National Park, we visited and hiked the section from Ernest Coe to Flamingo on the east side of the park, biked with gators in Shark Valley on the north end of the park, and wanted to check out the southeast region near Everglades City. We reserved a “Boat Assisted Eco Kayak Tour” out of Chokoloskee after reading many positive reviews. For the tour, up to 6 individuals are taken on a motor boat that has space to haul 6 kayaks in the front of the boat. The boat can quickly travel to some areas of the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands region where you exit the boat and then paddle in more shallow areas the boat can’t reach. Because of the boat’s engine, you can cover more ground on a single trip.
Kayaks are transported in the front of the boat
The day of our trip arrived and a trifecta of conditions came together to make our tour unpleasant and disappointing: Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc on the region, the Super Moon, and we had a storm with rain and heavy winds. We knew Hurricane Irma had caused damage before we booked the tour, but this damage has limited the areas the tour guides can safely take visitors. This was not mentioned on their website. A supermoon is a full moon or a new moon that approximately coincides with the closest distance that the Moon reaches to Earth in its elliptic orbit, resulting in a slightly larger-than-usual apparent size as seen from Earth and much more severe tidal changes, in our case the effect of the Super Moon was a -2 to -3 foot low tide (ie lower than normal).
The final nail in our proverbial coffin was the storm that blew in. The constant heavy winds of the storm blew water levels even lower than they would have been with just the Super Moon low tide. Per Everglades Area Tours, the tour captain is the only one who can cancel the tour based on conditions. They state that they can cover a wide area so there is almost always somewhere they can take the tour group. We relied on Captain Dan to make a decision based on his local knowledge. We feel they didn’t want to loose our revenue and thus didn’t cancel the tour.
Our tour included the viewing of an osprey nest
We went out on the boat with one other couple from South Dakota. After we had left the dock, the captain informed us we would not be able to do any kayaking due to the super low water levels. He then proceeded to try to provide a tour by looking at some of the wildlife in the region. We stopped on a sandbar which would not normally have been exposed. Captain Dan was very knowledgeable about the shells on the sandbar which included welks, conches, oysters, clams, scallops, and snails. We also saw a raccoon, dolphins, an osprey nest, pelicans, herons, and ibis.
I circled the raccoon in this photo
The captain parked the boat at an exposed sand bar where we looked at shells
Seashells on the sand bar
A horseshoe crab
Aside from not getting to kayak, the other major downside was that it started raining shortly after we left the dock. We had on rain jackets, but not rain pants (no one was wearing rain pants) and all of us were completely soaked from the waist down. Oh, and it was in the low 50’s and there was no sun. Captain Dan joked about it being a “memorable” trip. The seas were so rough we didn’t ever leave the immediate bay the harbor is in and the tide was so low we were almost stuck at one point.
All of the negatives aside, if this tour had happened on a better weather day with normal water levels, I think it could have been an awesome experience. Our captain was very knowledgeable about all of the wildlife we saw and we stopped to look and had plenty of time to observe and take photos. Kayaking in more remote areas would have been the icing on the cake. If you book such a tour and the weather is going to be bad, you may want to try to reschedule or even just cancel (but you won’t get your money back). We did this tour while staying at the Naples Motor Coach Resort in Naples, Florida. For those looking to stay closer to Everglades City, the Everglades Isle: Luxury Motorcoach Resort looked very nice as we drove past.
