It's a hard rain gonna fall!!!

Make no mistake about it, we've been hit with some pretty heavy rain over the past few weeks. One of the spots that we like to frequent as paddlers here is St. Philip's gut. For those unfamiliar with the area, a river runs out through a channel created by two breakwaters (jetties) and out into the ocean. It's what I would call a moderately flowing river - the water inside the breakwater is generally much less salty than the outside.

I managed to capture underwater images on both the 8th of April and the 22nd. These shots were taken approximately 100-200 feet off the seaward end of the jetty. Just prior to the 22nd, we had a lot of rain and the river was quite swollen, pushing a lot of fresh water out into the bay. The salt water on the 8th was noticeably clearer and, I'll be the first to admit, warmer than that of the 22nd. Why because the fresh water run off from the river had a major impact on the salt water in the area. Fresh water is much colder than salt at this time of year (go figure) and when the two mix, the water has tendency to get mirky!!

Have a look at these two images. Can you tell the difference - eventhough they were taken in the exact same location??