Everglades Challenge Report: Day 4

DAY 4

Up and off in the early daylight, thoroughly enjoying our sandy, secluded camp spot (above), we headed from White Horse Key for Everglades City’s Ranger Station and nearby CP2 at Chokoloskee.

Though the wind was against us, we made the delicious incoming tide up the longish Indian River, arriving at the Ranger Station around 1100. Grabbing my wallet, I headed straight up to the Ranger office for our Wilderness Waterway camping permits--another filter--with the campsites Lostman's Five and Shark River Chickee in mind. Sites were filling up fast, and the rangers had a white board up with all the full ones. A frustrating 30 minutes later, even though first in queue, knowing I was missing out on ice cream time, I had our permits for four kayakers in hand.

At the ramp, a group of Duke students were heading off in their rental tin canoes for a few days in the Ten Thousand Islands. I told them I was also at Duke, working at the Nasher Museum: “We love the Nasher!” Made my day.

We scooted under the causeway bridge and began the long paddle up to CP2 (above) behind the causeway, against the tide and wind, finally checking in at Chokoloskee's CP2 at noon. Seiche’s parents, Jerry and Mina, were there again to meet us, travelling the EC route in their RV. Topping up with a bit of water, depositing used WagBags, we headed off on our Wilderness Waterway (WW) adventure.

Paddling the Wilderness Waterway adds about another 48 kms (30 miles) to the overall EC route, but I can’t imagine doing the EC without not experiencing this section—it adds another whole exciting dimension and, you get an extra tooth for your troubles!

Dodging the stiff headwinds coming down the bay to the entrance of the WW, we scooted across to the more sheltered Lopez River—a slightly longer route, to meet up with the WW a mile or so on.

And on we paddled, into the night, through the very dark Alligator Alley, finally reaching Lostman's around 2015, having paddling 43.5 kms (27 miles) just from Chokolokee.

Scareman was already bunked for the night, with his huge tandem Passat and ama/aka system. We soon had him up and chatting as we ate a cooked dinner. Paddling the route unofficially, after missing the start due to illness, he was happily doing as much of the route as possible. A good, keen man.

Everglades Challenge Report: Days 2 & 3

DAY 2
Water supplies replenished at a very busy CP1, we were off at 0700 the next morning.

DaveOnCudjoe had capsized his beloved Sea Pearl Maggie the previous day, and after four hours sitting on his upturned hull, had been rescued by fellow WaterTriber, Ika. Just as I left CP1, Ika sculled in, with Dave on the bow (above). Tears welled up in my eyes, as I told him I was very glad to see him.

Paddling with Floatsome, we took a shortcut west of the ICW, cutting directly down the west of Sandfly Key. Deciding to take the inside of Pine Island Sound, we had a great sail across the expanse to the north of Pine Island. A large basking shark cruised by me.

Then Floatsome (above) started flagging. As an accomplished Ironman and triathlete, he recognized that the previous day, while more than doable, wasn’t normally followed by the same effort for another five or six days. For six hours we slowly sailed down Pine Island Sound, my concern mounting. His wife had threatened me to bring her husband home alive! I made the decision with him to pull him out, up ahead at the nearest hotel. Around 1700 hours, two miles from Punta Rassa and the western of the three Sanibel bridges, to my surprise, KneadingWater and Seiche appeared. We hadn’t seen anyone else doing the inside route and thought everyone else far ahead of us. Taking an on-the-water diagnosis, KneadingWater (cat vet extraordinaire) considered Floatsome’s problem to be a potassium overload. Taking him in an inline tow, unable to paddle, KW and Seiche had Floatsome on the beach of the Punta Rassa Marriott at nearly 1800 hours. Linda, the catering manager on duty at the dock went out of her way to ensure that his gear was safely stowed in her office, and that he found a dry, safe room. (The next week, back home, I called the hotel to have her commended.) Floatsome’s first EC was over. You can read his experience here.

Into the dusk and night we paddled down the coast, RiverJohn and his wife once again waving madly from the beach as we passed. In the very dark night, the shoals of Big Carlo Pass and New Pass were quick to wake us from any dosing, a wave or two suddenly breaking over us out of the dark. We made Wiggins Pass around 2240 hours, another long but satisfying day in the cockpit.

NatureCalls was already tent bound, having arrived about a half-hour earlier. And to my surprise, again thinking everyone would be ahead, SandyBottom, SunDance and HammerStroke turned up near midnight.

DAY 3

A leisurely pack in beautiful morning sun (above). At 0800, off and away, this time with SandyBottom aside me. Around Doctors Pass, KneadingWater and Seiche joined us, and we comfortably paddled down the coast toward Big Marco Pass. The plan was to have dinner at Goodland restaurant, up the head of the Big Marco River. An experience I had never given myself in my four ECs—eating for fun while in race mode!

For a change of scenery we headed into the very scenic Gordon Pass (above), adding some additional distance, but a new route for me, and nice to see it in the daylight, as it’s often a good escape route from grotty coastal weather when trying to make Big Marco. While KW and Seiche stopped for a nap, SB and I headed up the Big Marco River, tide and wind in our favour. (Can I comment here how many times this does not happen!)

Near 1700, we dragged our boats up some riprap outside Goodland restaurant (above), donned beanies to cover ghastly hair, plopped our wet bottoms in a nice dry cane chair, and ordered some wonderful sea food. Lovely.

Every time a paddler came by, we’d dash out on to the restaurant’s pier and wave them down to join us. We soon had FourFather, Seiche, KW, HammerStroke and SunDance. Fearing for his fragile amas, RunningMouth kept on.

We heard from FourFather (left; the father of four children) his previous night’s experience, of being caught by New Pass’ shoals—capsized, he swam the very cold half-mile to shore and spent 12 hours shivering in tent on the beach, trying to warm up.

As dusk fell, the seven of us paddled up and out into the Everglades’ Ten Thousand Islands, with White Horse Key in mind for the night, about another ten miles paddling. Arriving around 2230 hours, we split FourFather, HammerStroke and SunDance into one beach spot that fitted the three of them, and SandyBottom, KneadingWater, Seiche and I headed around the other side of the island, to another beautiful spot.

Everglades Challenge Report: Day 1

Leaving a chilly Durham, NC at 0530 in the morning, with SandyBottom and Floatsome, we headed off on the 12-hour drive to Florida, to compete in 2010’s WaterTribe Everglades Challenge: a 300+ mile race over six to seven days of sea kayaking or sailing, from Tampa's Fort De Soto to Key Largo, via the Everglades' Wilderness Waterway. As the rules state (p22, in red): "you may DIE".

Prepared to endure Florida’s coldest winter on record, we’d packed many a fleece, down jackets and sleeping bags for the first two nights camping at Fort De Soto, before the race started March 6, at 0700. And downright chilly it was, too.

Seventy boats slowly appeared on Fort De Soto’s beach over the Friday leading up to the late afternoon’s Skipper’s meeting: 20 for the 67 mile UltraMarathon to Placida’s Check Point 1; 42 for the 300+ miles Everglades Challenge; and another eight for the every-four-years Ultimate Florida Challenge—1,200 miles around the state of Florida.

And what a variety making up the races’ six classes: sea kayakers—solo and tandem, an expedition windsurfer, self-designed and -built prototypes, stock Sea Pearls and class racing boats, Kruger canoes—something to mull over for everyone.

And the word must be getting out about the race, as this was the biggest crowd I’d seen on a Friday viewing the craft and chatting with skippers, and seeing everyone off early on a Saturday morning.
Saturday, March 6, 0700: a cry goes up for the start. The kayakers are quick away, having just their boats to drag from above the highwater line. The bigger boats have a variety of ingenious methods to get themselves into the water, but whatever they use has to be taken with them for the entirety of the race. The first filter of the EC.

The weather was perfect. Cool and sunny. For the next three days we enjoyed predominantly northerly winds, pushing us along with our one square-metre Pacific Action Sails. For those craft that today headed to the outside, they were later to experience more severe conditions, resulting in two capsizes and rescues, both by fellow WaterTribers.

With the weather being so unseasonably chilly, following the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) for the first day was the calmest I’d experienced in my four ECs—hardly any pleasure boats were ripping up and down, normally contributing to a frustrating confused wash.

As night fell, SandyBottom, Floatsome (his first EC), Seiche (also his first EC), KneadingWater and I fell in together and paddled the last 15 or so miles to CP1. We finally made it at 2355 hours, the 68 miles taking us 16 hours and 55 minutes. We dragged our boats up amongst a sea of other boats, and set to pitching tents right there. After my first EC I have no interest camping at CP1—it’s too noisy and the hard coral ground makes pitching tents a chore. But no one else was interested in heading a mile or so away for a better spot.

It was very cold. Again I am grateful that FliesWithKiwiBird insisted that I pack a stack of handwarmers. I changed into every stitch of dry clothing I had and thrust a handwarmer down each sock against my solid white feet. Bliss. And still I experienced uncontrollable shivering.

EC 2010 gear reflections

WaterTribe's Everglades Challenge: 300+ miles over six to seven days of sea kayaking or sailing, from Florida, Tampa's Fort De Soto to Key Largo, via the Everglades' Wilderness Waterway. As the rules state (p22): "you may DIE".

In many ways, this gear reflections section is the bit that excites me the most of any Everglades Challenge--gear used, and what worked and didn't.

First, a big thank you to my sponsor BAD GIRL: Be Adventurous and Daring: Get Into Real Life, a subset of BUBBA GIRL. For four years BUBBA GIRL has supported my race entry, for which I am hugely grateful. If one woman, at whatever age, reads these tales and feels motivated to go for a hike, a paddle or a bike ride, I'll be happy.

The boat remained the same: Graham Sisson's Arctic Raider. Not a flawless boat this year: half-an-hour into the race, testing the foot pump, the strut across the boat broke, which severely compromised use of the rudder bar sitting above it. Hours later at Venice Inlet I spied a three foot sandbank, and dragging the bow of the boat up on that and leaning the hull on its side, I managed to squeeze myself inside and strap the joint with a zip tie. (Zip ties and duct tape: never leave home without them.) The one zip tie lasted the entire week.

Greenland paddle: Still using a GP for the race, and loving it. Once again I used a paddle made by previous EC challenger StripBuilder--a beautifully laminated stick.

Pacific Action Sail: This year I could test the Glowfast Luminous Sailtape I'd added to each side of the V of my sail, covered in a previous post. According to any paddling buddy around me at night, it didn't glow as "bright" as I'd anticipated. No body hit me: perhaps that as good as it gets. More testing to come on this one. As every year, or with any kayak outing, I can't imagine doing an EC without the sail--adds far too much fun.

Sleep system: Thankgoodness I bought an REI lightweight mummy fleece liner the night before we left for Florida. With that in my 1C (30F) sleeping bag, I achieved another 12C (10F) of warmth, plus all my sacrosscant dry clothes on the first two days of the race. It was FREEZING! FliesWithKiwiBird had insisted I also take along a stash of handwarmers. Thankgoodness I listened: those first two nights, after 17 or so hours paddling non-stop, with white blocks for feet, I tucked one each in my socks as I hit my pit. Bliss. Thankfully, the evenings warmed as Florida recovered from its coldest winter on record and we drifted further south. With the cooler temperatures, the Exped DownMat 7 came into its own, and even when warmer. I can't sleep comfortably on anything else now: age. One big lesson learned this year though, courtesy of Floatsome, is that you need another layer between the bottom of your Exped and the floor of your tent. Whenever shifting position, the noise has been driving me and my fellow tenters mad for a few years now, and we finally clicked as to what the problem was. So I tucked the Exped into my sleeping bag liner, and voila! quiet a a lamb.

Tent: As always, my Macpac Microlight, which, as not free-standing, I can now string quite happily on a chickee. At 1.8kg, heaps of solo room, and the inner pitches with the fly, I'll use no other.

Hydration system: The new no hassle drinking system (left) worked perfectly! Check this previous blog post for details.

Food: Even after four ECs, I'm still trying to get it right. Once again I loaded too many energy bars, but at least this year I wasn't gagging over a primary base of Clif or Larabars. I mixed seven daily ziplocks with ten bars and a couple of goos each; I had four full bags left at the end of the race. The bars were a mixture of non-fruit Larabars (the acidity of the fruit very quickly attacks my gums, but banana flavour's okay), Luna Bars and Nature Valley Oats 'n Honey Crucnhy Granola Bar, which are my favourites (bought bulk from Costco). Varied with dry mango and Trader Joe peanut butter pretzels, I had more than enough energy every day. I even managed to cook up three meals late in the evening. Coupled with a high-cal Ensure for breakfast (with a few dried apricots and chocolate biscuits) and another for the evening, I was a lean mean paddling machine for the week. Lost five pounds, in fact--all the poundage put on since Christmas ;)

Clothing: With the cooler temperatures experienced this year, my stalwart upper clothing was an Icebreaker Crew 150. Even with the spray flying, this kept me warm. As the cool evenings set in, for the first time I used my Reed Chill Cheater Coverall Cag Deck--great piece of made-to-measure kit, and fits quickly over the top of one's PDF.

Overall health: No problems this year. Two pressure spots on each thumb after day 3, which were remedied with a new wrap of waterproof tape each morning. Using for the first time Hydropel Sports Ointment every few hours or so really appeared to do the trick--never used gloves at all this year. A must for future long paddles. As always, I religiously used my SunPaws, from Hydraulics--anything to cut down the sun on the back of the hands. Over a week later, the tip of my right forefinger is still very numb, just like the last few years. Once again, I still ended up with a rash on my derriere after a few days, but nothing as bad as previous years. For the first time I wore a pair of Mysterioso part-neoprene close fitting shorts. Seemed to do the trick, but I'm still looking for those perfect pair of long distance kayaking shorts for women.

Most of the rest of the gear remains the same as in previous ECs. You can find those here, for 2007, 2008 and 2009. If I haven't covered anything in particular, let me know.

Next: The EC itself.

Dry land adventures

While FliesWithKiwiBird's away in San Diego for a week or so, and instead of writing up this year's completed-last-week Everglades Challenge, I took the WeeOne camping in our 1972 Shasta Compact. Right on our own doorstep, aside Jordan Lake--our paddling training lake--is the quite wonderful Poplar Point Campground. Half-an-hour from home, and away in the wilds of a State Park. All for $23 a night.

Timing it just right for the WeeOne's afternoon nap, we arrived. He awoke: "Are we there yet?" I remember travelling like this with my folks--no stress.

Mat laid, chairs out, bike tyres pumped. Bless his heart--not even three yet, and we spent most of the weekend cycling around the campground, exploring the lake's beaches. This time I brought my own bike. The WeeOne rides a peddle-less Strider running bike, but I can't keep up with him now, running.

We lit the obligatory fire, and scoffed S'mores well into the night. Cannot believe how many the chappie's puku quite readily took. And, yes, we are wearing shorts--first time this year.

Camping's even better when your bunk mate wakes up with a smile on his face.

Bit chilly in the morning, but not enough not to push a few trains around while mum rustles up some scrambled eggs and bagels,

And we're off again next weekend!

At the Finish!!!!

This photo just arrived of a drowned rat spotted at the finish line in Key Largo. Looks like it got there about 4:40PM along with a few friends. Considering the number of DNFs this year, it's good she's safe.

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.