I have had this experience on my bucket list for a few years, since I moved to Florida. Took advantage of a long holiday weekend to head to the Space Coast with a friend and excited that the weather looked cooperative, the moon would be behind clouds, and the stars shimmered in full force. We were on the 10pm tour but we headed out to the meeting location about 7:30pm because the sun was setting and we didn't want to be fully in the dark looking for it later. I wish I had gone to the bathroom on the mainland before heading out, as the email suggested. There were no facilities there and my backside would have been eaten alive by mosquitoes if I had tried to stop on the roadside. The boat launch is on a very bumpy gravel road with a number of potholes to avoid. Make sure you have decent tires and take it easy! Oh and plenty of gas too! It's a long way from NOWHERE and no street lights. We were bitten up pretty good before we even stepped out of our car. We sprayed like crazy but they swarmed the car as soon as we opened the doors. We must have looked quite the sight, screaming and slapping each other silly. There are no lights other than a few headlights from the parked cars when you go to look for your meeting spot. There are no signs, just a lot of confusion as people try to figure out where to sign in. We walked up and some ladies asked if we had signed in yet. We said no and one pointed us to someone with an iPad next to a van. We showed him our confirmation email and he couldn't find us on the list. We had signed up last minute, by phone. He had extra room on his boats so we were about to join them when another guide realized we were with BK Adventures and they were A Day Away tours. We didn't know that several tour companies left at the same spot at the same time. So they pointed us to another group, with a table and the waivers to sign, but we stood around for a long time and there seemed to be a lot of confusion and wasted time. Watching A Day Away, they had their groups sorted, with each participant receiving a colored glow stick - pink or green - so their teams were easily identified. Everyone was lined up and ready to go, and they were on the water in no time, while we stood around, getting bit up (again, we had sprayed a lot of bug spray, as directed!)
Thankfully there was a decent breeze picking up and the bugs died down and we even saw a shooting star fly across the starry sky so we had something to look at it. It was quite the sight! Eventually they had us divided into our two teams, each with 2 guides. We were the 2nd group to leave so again we had longer to wait. I don't think we were on the water until after 10:30pm. We had Ashley and Elijah(?) and they were funny and really nice. Each group of 2 was given a number. They helped us into the kayaks right at the edge of the boat launch and you didn't really get wet so that was nice. We were the very last kayak to go out. We did count off to make sure they had all of us and then we headed out. THIS is where we found out that this is called Mosquito Lagoon! So now you're warned!!! The breeze helped so once we were on the water, it really wasn't bad but we heard some horror stories of the buzzing of 1000s of skeeters in the still of the night.
NOW we got to the good stuff! Every strike of your oar brings up a bright blue glow in the water. Splash a little of the water on your clothes and you start to glimmer. Watching the fish glide through the water below you is like watching Tinkerbell fly under you! Splash around your hand on the side of the kayak and the water comes to life. With a partly cloudy sky and the stars in the heavens above you, it feels like you've left Earth. My friend exclaimed "It's like we're in Avatar!" and I added "Without Disney prices!" It's so surreal and beautiful! And we picked one of the best times of year to go. They said that the night before was probably the most brilliant it had ever been and we were certainly not disappointed!
Because it is so incredibly dark, there was not really any way to take photos - I tried to do a video with my cell phone, but it was just pitch black with the sounds of splashing because the glow doesn't pick up easily on such a camera. If you're a pro photographer with a fancy camera, maybe you could get some good shots with a longer exposure but you risk getting it wet! The kayak we were in was pretty stable. There were a few spots where we were in extremely shallow water and hit the bottom a few times, even getting a little bit "beached" in one spot. It was at that time that not going to the bathroom beforehand started to make my stomach upset and I almost threw up over the side... but thankfully didn't! Haha, though we did joke that it would be quite a sight to see fluorescent puke! :P Ashley paddled over and checked to make sure we were OK and talked about the bioluminescence to help distract me and keep my mind off of my stomach. We sat for a few minutes and just relaxed and played with the water and watched the fish dart around below us. We stopped at several spots and took boat count off. It started to look like a storm rolling in with lightning far off in the distance so we started to head in. We were pretty much along the open water, past the lagoon so it got a little choppier and harder to steer. I wouldn't recommend this so much for first time kayakers, but the guides helped to make sure everyone got headed in the right direction back for the boat launch. The way out seemed a lot longer than the way back but maybe we were just ready to be done and paddled harder? We were one of the first 2 boats to get back to the dock, but again, there were no lights and no one on the shore really giving us directions on where to go or how to get out, so we just kinda shoved into the massive pile of kayaks that were along the docks and crawled up and over everything. We dropped off our oars and life vests and told them that #9 was over and out. We grabbed our car keys from the bin where they kept things for us that we didn't want to take out on the water and headed back to the car. Again, the drive back to the mainland didn't seem as long as the drive out, but it was past midnight and we were tired and ready to find a place to go to the bathroom and head to bed. I'm glad we decided to stay in the area and not go all the way back to Orlando for the night. We did hang out in Cocoa Beach the whole next morning, walking the beach and playing in the water. Feeling the muscles all getting sore now, but definitely worth the visit out here. Thanks to BKA for making it happen!