Hit Check Point Three at approx. 4:45PM!

Kiwibird called from a borrowed cell phone this evening at 6:04 PM. She travelled again with SandyBottom, Kneading Water and Seiche, leaving their chickee at 7:30AM this morning.

She said it was a really rough day of paddling, only completing a bit over 20 miles in a bit over 9 hours. KW lost his SPOT in the water.

Dolphins and Manatee were spotted today, hopefully that will bring them good luck and good weather in the morning.

Wind Shifts...Rough Going Ahead

After a yummy meal last night of pasta alfredo with shrimp and scallops (KW was still talking about it this afternoon!) the tough hall is about to begin. Winds have shifted and are now Southerlies, running about 7-10 knots with sporadic light rain.

KB is still paddling with KneadingWater, Seiche and SandyBottom and has reserved Lost Mans Place chickee for this evening. Wednesday will require approximately a 40 mile paddle to Shark River chickee and then about 30 miles to Flamingo on Thursday. If weather and her shoulder holds, a Friday arrival in Key Largo shouldn't be a problem.

No signs yet of gators!

Today is a Good Day

This photo was sent at 6:25PM on Monday and was taken at Goodlands Restaurant. This is the first time in four ECs that KB has ever stopped for a meal!! The dinner party includes SandyBottom, KneadingWater, Seiche and I think RunningMouth (not sure on that).

Today was a good day for the group as they were able to hit Marco with the wind at their backs and the tide helping them on their way. KB paddled the first part of the day with KW and Seiche and the second half with SB.

After dinner they plan on stopping at White Horse Key for the night and then hit CP2 and the Ranger's Station for their permits first thing in the morning. Once they get into the Everglades there will be radio silence for about two days.

Yesterday was a bit rough as KB lost her paddling buddy, Floatsome, at the end of the day. This was Floatsome's first EC and he decided to retire at Sanibel Island, where there was a very nice hotel and hot shower waiting for him.

This EC is the coldest in the last four years. KB has been making great use of the hand warmers that were pushed on her before she left Durham and I know one other paddler that had to sit by the campfire for most of the night just to get the chill out of their bones.

For a more detailed description of events throughout the watertribe, visit www.watertribe.com or SandyBottom's blog (link on the right). DanceswithSandyBottom has completed an EC and NCC and has excellent commentary.

Technical Difficulties Continue...

KiwiBird left Tampa Bay this morning under rather good conditions with NNE winds at 9 MPH and projected high of 63 degrees F. She called in at 1:47PM from the middle of Sarasota Bay to say that the mouthpiece to her water bladder busted and she lost most of her water. She's operating on a spare liter she keeps and luckily has a back-up mouthpiece to put in place once she hits Check Point 1 and can refill her bladder.

Floatsome reported at 4:17PM that her rudder, that was recently repaired, also busted. She is continuing to CP1 this evening, paddling along with SandyBottom and Floatsome.

At 5:17 KiwiBird reported that she was at Venice Inlet and had repaired her rudder by ramming her boat in to a sandbar and then climbing in to make the repair with a ziptie. Kiwi ingenuity! She also said that winds were at about 12 knots and she was sailing at about 5-7 MPH and having lots of fun!

Once again this year KiwiBird is being sponsored by BubbaGirls (http://www.bubbagirl.com/) and their new BAD girl initiative that encourages young women to Be Adventurous and Daring. Special thanks to Mary Holsenbeck and her mentorship of women of all ages through Bubba Girls.

For the first time, KiwiBird plans to paddle with an Ad Hoc team that includes Floatsome and SandyBottom. Floatsome is new to the EC this year, but did participate in the NC Challenge last year and has a strong record of tenacity through his triathalon events. Pictured are the trio at 5:30AM on Thursday as they were leaving Durham, NC for Fort DeSoto.

Last minute panics

We leave for this year's Everglades Challenge pre-sparrow fart tomorrow morning. The race starts Saturday, March 6.

I was fiddling with some last minute cockpit adjustments--kayak in the lounge, upside down spread across a couple of couches--when I noticed that one of the straps on my Bulldog Footrest had just about parted company with the stud on the rear side of the tiller bar. Yikes. Paddling my boat without a rudder is not a pretty sight, so this could have been a bit messy, if not downright embarrassing.

It took a bit of muscle in a tight compartment, with mirror and headlamp to get the fitting undone. But to fix it will require drilling out the pop rivets attaching the strap to the bar and fitting another couple of rivets to refit the strap to the bar.

Thankfully, Floatsome (aka. David) has the necessary equipment, and we'll be making the repairs at the Fort De Soto campsite, the day before the race. Plenty of time!

With much cooler weather predicted for this year's race, and nights near freezing, the WeeOne and I also made a last-minute dash to REI last night. My non-down sleeping bag is rated at 1C (30F), but I run on the chilly side. So I'm now the proud and hopefully warm owner of a lightweight mummy fleece liner, which should give me another 12C (10F) of warmth.

For those wishing to follow the race, you can keep an eye on the WaterTribe site, or follow along here: FliesWithKiwiBird and the WeeOne will be making updates as we head along!

Drinking system update

Well, we got the new drinking systems worked out, with great team work from SandyBottom, DancesWithSandyBottom and Floatsome.

We ended up using rubber push-in grommets, ordered from McMaster. We drilled 5/8" diameter holes in the deck, and just pushed through the grommets. Adding an O ring to the under side of the grommet made for a firm fit. The inside diameter of the grommets are 3/8", which is the same as our drinking tubes, and the widest width of the outside diameter is 7/8" (apologies for the lack of metric here ;)

And the beauty of this system? No epoxy, etc.

Since my seat is a pod, I'll have my four-litre dromedary between my legs. Dawn and David can tuck theirs in the gap between their seat back and aft bulkhead.

All-in-all, this should be a nice set up for this year's Everglades Challenge, starting this Saturday!

Wet feet

Last summer, the Wee One refused to wear the life jacket we had for him for the pool. Now that he's nearly three, one is able to reason with him a wee bit more--safety belt for the car, cycle helmet for on his bike, life jacket for kayaking/sailing. And the life jacket so he doesn't sink.

A week ago I took him to SandyBottom's (aka Dawn) while we messed about with kayaks, and Dawn popped him in her Core Sound 20 Dawn Patrol. He was so excited, he swore off kayaking and now believes sail is the only way to travel (!)

This weekend, we again went around to Dawn's, complete with a new life jacket I'd just picked up at REI, thinking that this would be the way to kick start him wearing it.

Sure enough, he's hooked!

Hydration systems

With this year's WaterTribe Everglades Challenge looming, I wanted to rethink my hydration system. I normally have a four litre MSR Dromedary lying in the bilge between my legs, with the drinking hose threaded up under my spray shirt and then under and out of clothing and PFD. While this means the mouth piece is in the general vicinity of my lips, it's been a pain in the rear when disembarking from the cockpit for a pit stop, or even wet exiting.

I figured, while off the coast of home paddling North Carolina, or even in the EC's large water expanses of Pine Island Sound, Florida, from a safety perspective it was not the smartest of drinking systems.

Where to relocate the hose and water bag was a first issue. Since my seat is a pod seat (see awful top photo from two ECs ago) and effectively a third bulkhead (the for'ad end of my "day hatch"), I can't have the waterbag behind my seat like many folks. And I'm not comfortable having a water bag in the day hatch--if need be, I can't change over the bag to a new one, as these hatches can't be opened and closed on the water. (My boat's designer/builder, Grahame Sisson, was the first to "invent" the day hatch, and he made all three hatches so secure, you can't open or close them on the water, which was his absolute intention--safety first.)

I started searching for an alternative cockpit-driven option, which, of course, would invariably necessitate drilling a(nother) hole in my dear boat.

The first decent piece of online advice I found was the renowned Ocker, GnarleyDog, who has a blog entry devoted to solving my dilemma. And true to DownUnder form, he answered a couple of my queries in rapid cyber-time.


Then EC2010 entry PaddlePeddler (aka Paul Shaw) chimed in via FaceBook with another solution: screwing in a Hobie Mirage shockcord end screw (to the left), to take the drinking hose. But this would have necessitated drilling a 7/8" hole, which is heck of a "hole."

The solution is still not absolutely confirmed, but sometime this week, SandyBottom, Floatsome and I will have it sussed, and we'll be happy to share our results.

Kind of training

While more dedicated WaterTribe paddlers than I were out training today for next month's Everglades Challenge, I happened to see an ad in this morning's News & Observer that the Toy Train Show was on at the NC State Fairgrounds.

(Trains... training... well, close enough.)

Knowing the Wee One's love of trains, and my more-than-mild affection for them myself, off we headed.

And for nearly fours hours we had a ball. In fact, I saw many youngsters being bodily hauled out at leaving, crying their eyes out--mine being one of them.

I don't know if we fit it, but there was definitely a "type" there ;)

Shasta "restoration" underway

Our 1972 Shasta Compact was towed away a couple of weeks ago by local NC restorer-extraordinaire Dan Hellier.

Last year I had managed to clean it out and completely reline/pad the ceiling and walls to protect ourselves from the non-skid paint the previous owner had employed, rough enough to take the hair off your skin. Lori had also sewn some fabulous curtains and we'd replaced the squabs with new 4" foam and covers.

It was looking pretty good and we'd already had a fabulous four days last September at Cedar Island, NC in it, but we had only mains power connection and no 12V nor battery source for that, the gas line to the original but working three-burner gas stove had been cut, some of the tow lights didn't work or needed replacing, the screen door tottered on its failing hinges, and we really needed a roof ventilation/fan unit of some sort.

Dan's already well under way with his work, and you can keep up with progress at his site.

Can't wait to get away again, with the kayak.