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Canoeing & Kayaking

Patrick Air Force Base, FL
This page Copyright 2000 Alfonso Vazquez-Cuervo - See Terms of Use

Our Route Summary

  • Submitted by: Al Vazquez
  • Date Submitted: 3/2000
  • Email: kayak@easyposter.com
  • Location: Banana River, just north of Satellite Beach, FL
  • Class: Typically flat water river and Mangrove canal
  • Distance Paddled: 3.4 miles
  • Water: brackish
  • Wildlife: Fish such as redfish, sea trout, Jack Crevalle, Egrets, Herons, Ospreys, Pelicans, mangroves

Entry and Exit

  • Directions: Entry/Exit at the north east side of the Pineda Causeway just west of the Patrick Air Force Base Marina. You'll see a well used dirt parking area immediately west of the fence that borders the marina. This is the best place to carry the boats down and launch because there are the least rocks in the water there on the sandy beach along the beginning of the causeway.
  • GPS: N 28 deg 12.777' W 080 deg 37.143'
  • Fee: none (under conditions of high security or the annual base air show, the canal may become closed to boat traffic)
  • Description: sand and rock beach along causeway
  • Parking: Adjacent, unpaved roadside
  • Facilities: none there, but numerous nearby in Satellite Beach

Entry off the east bank of the Banana River near the southern end of the Patrick Air Force Base runway, 1 mile north of the Pineda Causeway at:

GPS: N 28 deg 13.537' W 080 deg 36.997'

What We Saw

Fishing, fishing, fishing! For those of you that like to fish while paddling, here's a good route.

This canal was created long ago for who knows what purpose, but now it's a deep channel just off the shallow Banana River that often has great fishing. And it's protected from waves and wind on the wide river for calm casting and paddling around the mangroves that lines both sides.
Paddle north from the Pineda causeway along the east bank of the river (east of the power lines over the water) 1 mile and you'll see the entrance to the channel to the east (see the photo above). Enter the channel and it will immediately turn to the north. You can paddle 7/10 of a mile to it's end at the base skeet range, which is wisely closed to boat traffic with a string of buoys across the canal. The end of the canal there is at:

GPS: N 28 deg 14.079' W 080 deg 36.766'

A side benefit for those of you that like aviation is that you may have a front row seat in your kayak to see military planes take off or land just to the east from time to time. While this route may not always be the quietest or most pristine paddle, the fishing is great and the planes are memorable.