d&b kayak

Hey! This is Dan reporting… Bethany is painting with Jacqueline, the lady of the house here where we are staying for Thanksgiving. Sorry it has been so long since an update! We have been working hard to get south… And let me tell you, Florida has blown us away with its hopitality. Thanks EVERYONE!

Picking up were we left off at Matt and Jodi’s, we got on the water that afternoon right in the nick of time to catch a shuttle launch… We paddled out, chatted, looked at our watch, and BAM a blinding light shot up into the sky. Wow, I cannot even imagine going into outerspace! We turned south, paddled ten miles, putting us close to where Matt worked and got picked up to spend one last night at their house. After enjoying a great mexican dinner we hit the sack.

The next morning Matt took us by his shop Indian River Outfitters and got us geared up for the days paddle. More north winds pushed us along towards Sebastian. Around 6:00 we finally made our destination and pulled up to a small sandy beach in the dark where Kristen  from Kayaks Etc met us along with some reporters from the local news. Fun! After negotiating the embankment we headed back to the Becks, got interviewed by the Vero Beach News and enjoyed reading the article later. We also did a little interviewing of our own. Mike  is into Kayak Racing so we got a glimpse into a part of the kayaking world we do not know to much about. He helped us scheme up new plans for our next adventure…

The next morning we got dropped off by the water and paddled away again with MORE north winds pushing us along. Once again we paddled until night fall and made camp on an awesome island complete with fire rings, grills, tables and plenty of fire ants (my feet are still hurting!). We enjoyed a fire and a nice evening then slept well.

The alarm went off at 5:00 and we were paddling before the sun was up. We had 8 miles to go to meet Jack, Kevin and Ted, all local paddlers who were going paddling with us! We told them we would meet them at 9:00 so we had to make it. After meeting those guys we were off again for another nearly 30 mile day. It was great to have the company because we were dragging… Tired… Hot… Sore… After we finished Jack took us back to his house were we had a party! Kayakers, Food, Drinks, good times!

Once again we woke up and got on the water… Paddling through the Saint Lucie Inlet was amazing. Our first taste of the clear water paddling Florida has to offer. Awesome. We paddled down past Jupiter island and got picked up by Ted and Karen local kayakers who have been following our journey since we left in 2008! Thanks for the encouragment Ted and Karen! We finally got to take a rest day and catch up on our rest and resupply.

Leaving Jupiter we paddled into feirce south winds and chop and barely made it the 13 miles to Peanut island. Let me tell you this island was one non-stop party. By nightfall we were the only ones left… Or so we thought. Ted (we had met three Teds in three days – wild!), who is the trail keeper for this section, came to the island and brought us a great mcdonalds dinner. That was a first – Island delivery – Royal Florida treatment! We talked and planned the next few days then headed off to bed.

Ugg… Another long, hot day, but once again the Floridians came through and Ted came to the rescue and had everything set up at a hotel when we arrived and took us out for Dinner again! Thanks so much! We finally entered the “walled in” section of Florida. There is nothing but stone walls and crazy boaters. It can get really rough on this part of the waterway. Huge boats, big wakes and rebounding waves. There is no where to camp either, so it is tricky for the distance paddler like ourselves.

The night went to fast and Ted came the next morning to paddle with us to Ft Lauderdale. Another long day but again the company made it enjoyable. As we paddled along Ted introduced us to some fellow North Carolinians who just started an around the world sailing adventure – check these NCSU grads out! Leaving their mooring we headed to the Hyatt Peir 66 where Glenn is a Yacht Captain and offered to let us stay on one of his boats. We rounded the corner and there was an awesome yacht (80+) foot with a huge banner that read “WOW! Welcome Dan and Bethany, kayaking from Maine to Key West.” That was so exciting and the boat was amazing as well! We did an awkward scramble out of our boats said goodbye to our savior of the last 50 miles, Ted, and got acclamated to the boat. After showering Gleen and Louise took us out to eat at a great little raw bar. After getting back to the Marina, we took a look at some of the other boats in the place, one was over 250 feet long with a crew of 30 and a helicopter on board! Chatted with Glen and Lousia then went to bed.

The next morning we awoke to pouring rain and thunder… Bad because we wanted to get to Miami for thanksgiving, but also good because we were in such a splended location. We spent the day relaxing and doing absouloutly nothing! We had not had a day like that in weeks. It was much needed.

Thanksgiving day was much nicer and we headed towards Blue Moon Outfitters where we were leaving our boats for the night. We took one wrong turn but finally found our way up the correct “creek” and got picked up by Nina. She is the sister of Jamie, a Miami local who offered to let us stay with him for thanksgiving. Everyone at Blue Moon was extremely enthusasitic and as soon as we got to Jamies we enjoyed a great meal.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing, bethany did some painting and we watchd a movie. Not a bad thanksgiving! And to top it all off we are in MIAMI!!!!

So without further delay, we would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. We are sure you have a lot to be thankful for. We do!

We have a date of arrival! We plan to land on the sandy shore of Key West, right at the southernmost point buoy in the afternoon of FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH!!!

In our minds, this date is set in stone. We’ve factored in a little bit of wiggle room just to make SURE we arrive on that date. We will paddled through the night, day, rain, wind, cold…. to make it. Count on it.

If you can get yourself to Key West, please come and celebrate with us!

I’m sitting here at Matt and Jodi’s apt in Coco Beach. The breeze from the open door is blowing in and I can see our three kayaks in the yard, resting after a short paddle, not more than a 10 second walk to their dock and wide open waterway. Its a pretty nice thing to be sitting here enjoying. Matt and Jodi are ALSO long distance expeditioners and we followed their trip around the entire shoreline of Florida and then hiking from the top of Florida to Key West they completed only recently. Check it out at http://sunshineexpedition.com/ You’ll be just as intrigued as we were, reading about it from our chilly cold freezing apartment in Portland, Maine last winter.

We have had a very nice, laid back past few days from New Smyrna to here in Coco Beach.

We left Chris and Guy’s  house with a strong N wind, which was good, and a low morning temperature, which was bad. I was chilly but zipped up my raincoat and headed on. We were cold all day long. It was a bummer. I guess I had different expectations about Florida’s weather, but we can make it. We paddled alllll day long. We saw a lot of wildlife including all the common shore birds, dolphins and also some white pelicans and manatees. We were heading to the Haulover Canal. We made it to the entrance right as the sun was setting. I paddled up on a manatee and startled it and it made a crazy scary wave and my heart jumped all the way into my throat. Thank goodness they are nice animals and also… herbivores. We made it to the NW corner of the canal and met up with Mike of A Day Away kayak tours. He had waited for us for 2 hours! Sorry mike. We had no idea. He took us back to his house and his wife Elizabeth cooked us a really tasty dinner and we slept like babies.

The next morning Mike dropped us off again and we were off. The wind was again, blowing hard, but thankfully it was in the right direction. We battled through somewhat annoying chop to Titusville and  an absolutely BEAUTIFUL little spoil island in the middle of the waterway. I called my mom since it was her birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! We ate some lunch and paddled on. We made it to the Manatee Hammock Campground and were able to really relax for the evening. We met some really nice people including THIS GUY and his wife. Check it out. We got up at 12:30am to see a rocket launch but it was canceled unfortunately. O well.

We were loading our boats to leave and we got a facebook message from Matt, inviting us to stay with them for a few nights and “slack pack,” (carry no gear) for a few days as we paddle. Of course we took him up on his offer. He met us on the water that afternoon and we left our boats at Jodi’s parents house. We made some stinkin GOOD pizza’s for dinner. They were just getting back from their Costa Rican honeymoon and had fun wedding presents scattered about. It was amazing being able to swap adventure stories AND advice for the rest of our Florida journey.

This morning we left from Jodi’s parents house, with Matt, and even Jodi’s dad for a few miles. Matt and Dan and I had a great time and swapped future adventure plans all the way to Matt and Jodi’s adorable apt on the Banana River.

Here’s to more adventures!

We’ve been hunkered down here in New Smyrna Beach, FL waiting out the storm. Thankfully Chris and Guy, our hosts here, offered to let us stay during the storm it sure beats getting another hotel. We have been here for the past three nights and are planning on leaving tomorrow since the winds will be switching to north (remember we are headed south!).

The last time I updated, it was right after my birthday, and also right after a pretty hard time due to Park Rangers and grumpy fisherman. This post will be quite a bit more cheerful since we had such a great time getting from Jacksonville Beach to here.

We left Jacksonville Beach early in the morning and headed towards Vilano Beach, near St. Augustine. It was around 30 miles of paddling, which is a long way for us, but the wind AND the current was with us almost the entire way. It was a good thing too since it was a Harvest Moon with huge tides and also high winds. We made it to Vilano Beach, Camachee Island Marina, who kept our boats, in record time with huge huge smiles. We were so happy to get there. One reason was because we had been looking forward to see Dolly and Smith again, who we met in Atlantic Beach, NC, and they immediatly offered to let us stay with them when we got to FL. Secondly because we recieved a voicemail while on the water, from Joan at Marineland, who said,”We are happy to provide an opportunity for you and your wife to swim with the dolphins at Marineland!” O man. We were so stinkin excited it was hard to kayak to the marina.

Smith and Dolly took us back to thier condo and then out to dinner at “the Club” in thier condo community. We had an excellent meal and played trivia with some VERY competitive people. We lost, but thats ok. I think it meant a lot more to the other players.

The following day we woke up to a scrumptious breakfast and went to MARINELAND! I dont know how to really explain to you what a huge deal this was to me. I was a total “dolphin girl” growing up, dreaming to be a marine biologist, the whole thing. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to be able to swim with them. Marineland, made my dream come true! Smith and Dolly drove us to the facility, and we got a tour of the pools before our actual experience with the dolphins began. At 1:30pm, the Immersion, which is what our experience was called, began. We got an educational time first, telling us about the part of the dolphin, what they do at marineland to care for them and learn about them, how to put on wetsuits (which we are of course well experienced in) and then… it was time. Cat, our Dolphin Trainer led us over to meet our first dolphin, a little baby. AMAZING! We got to play games, pet her, feed her, even participate in her training. We even got photos of us giving her a kiss. It was adorable. Next we put on goggles and got to swim in the deep water with the dolphins. Our next dolphin was the mom of our first dolphin and her name was Roxy. It was breathtaking to be in the water with this big sea creatures and feel secure and get to enjoy them. Roxy danced with us, did huge jumps into the air, posed for a photo with us and escorted us back to the edge of the pool.  It was something I will never ever forget. My face was sore from smiling the entire time. I highly reccomend it to pretty much everyone. It was well worth the cost advertised, perhaps even more than that. THANK YOU SO MUCH MARINELAND.

After we left marineland, i was on a high i cannot describe. im sure you can imagine it though. Smith and Dolly had big things planned for the evening too. We went to the Conch House and later to Caps on the Water. We ate like KINGS. Dan and I were actually full, which rarely happens on this trip. Can you imagine Dan saying he was full? If you know him, im sure you cant. We got to meet some of thier friends, including the Penny’s, who gave us a humbling donation for our trip. It is an understatement to say that it was a good day. It was an unforgetable day.

The next day we woke up to another fantastic homemade breakfast and then headed over to tour St. Augustine. What a cool place! Dolly got us tickets to the tour train and we rode it all the way around and listened to the whole story of the place. We visited the Fountain of Youth and drank of the water. We will see if it works. We also kissed under the “Love Tree”  which is an Oak Tree wrapped around a Palm Tree. It’s said that if you kiss someone under the tree, you’ll be in love forever. We will let you know if that works too. We walked all around the old part of town, and even played some mini-golf. It was a really fun day. Smith and Dolly called and told us to meet them at the Casa Monica hotel for dinner. We were completely unprepared for how nice the dinner would be. It was absoutly beautiful. There we sat in Crocs and board shorts, enjoying the finest food and fanicies that St. Augustine had to offer. It was overwhelming and really one of the finest dining experiences that I have ever experienced. It was a wonderful time and we are so blessed to have been able to enjoy it.

We left Vilano Beach/St Sugustine the following morning, crossing paths with Tom, the Habitat Rower again! He was just getting to St. Augustine. That was fun. We paddled all day and arrived at Palm Coast Marina late in the day. We were very tired. Thankfully we had a place to put our boats and we were meeting Wanda, the Aunt of Lance, who we stayed with in Charleston. Wanda took great care of us. She cooked us a homecooked meal and we had really good conversation about forgiveness actually. It was really interesting and it really got me thinking. Im really glad we got time to talk.

Wanda got us back to the marina early the next morning, but not before she cooked us a yummy breakfast. We were able to get paddling quickly. It was a good thing too, since for some reason, it was a hard day. Perhaps it was becasue it was hot outside or perhaps we were tired, but it was simply a challenge to make it to our campsite. It wasnt even that far to go but the gusty winds made for a hard day. When we finally made it to the spoil island we were camping on, we were exhausted. There was another person camping there too, and thank goodness they weet re willing to let us stay there too. It was a big island after all. Dan was able to look ahead and plan for the following day and we realized that the tides for the next day were ALL WRONG for us. We had 22  miles to go, to get to the inlet, and low tide was at 6:45am. That meant that there was no way for us to get to the inlet before the tide switched and was coming against us. We had a long way to go the following day, and we were concerned. We came to the decision and chose to get some quick sleep and get up at 1:00 am to paddle through the night and perhaps avoid the tides and the strong predicted winds. It was a bold move but i am SO glad we decided that. We were on the water by 2:00am, with glow sticks and strobe lights on the boats. It was actually very fun until the sun came up. Paddling through Daytona Beach at night was so cool. There are a lot of bridges and it kept us entertained all the way until 6:00am. Once the sun came up, our energy went down. The wind also picked up in a big way and we just had to keep going… we didnt really have any other choice. Thank goodness we were headed here, to Guy and Chris’s house. We got here almost 12 hours after we left in the morning darkness. They have been fantastic hosts and taken very good care of us these past few days. Dan has been able to plan the rest of Florida and we can almost TASTE Key West now.

Check it out!

http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2009-10-29/story/couple_paddling_kayaks_from_tip_of_maine_to_key_west

You read that right, we made it to our final state of the kayak trip, state #14, the Sunshine state… FLORIDA! It’s pretty hard for us to wrap our minds around it actually. Knowing that we have come so far to get here and our ultimate goal is within reach is overwhelming. We pretty much can’t imagine what Key West will feel like.

FYI: This post is going to sound like a rant near the end since we had some pretty aggrivating experiences. The kind of grumpy unhelpful annoying expereinces that could make a soul bitter and angry. Please know… we have emotionally recovered and are happy again… but it totally stunk there for a while.

On to the story:

Dan posted last fron the King and Prince Resort on St. Simon’s Island. We had such a welcoming experience there. After we left the business center, working on all the logistics of the trip, we enjoyed a lunch with Colleen, who work s at the hotel and after that we went shopping in town for some new books to read and replacement dry bags at Southeast Adventures. That night we met Rob, who works at the front desk. He gave us a book and a big dose of encouragement,as well as a dinner at Waffle House. Gotta love it. Terry from the Florida Times Union came to the hotel and interviewed us for THIS article. We were very overwhelmed by the outpouring of interest and kindness at the King and Prince.

The next morning, Ron met us for breakfast to talk about our experience on the GA coast since he is trying to set up at paddling trail along the coast. He gave us a ride to the marina where we met Terry from the paper again to take photos. We were packing up and realized that I had a pretty bad hole in the bottom of my boat. That’s a problem. For real. Dan tested the water tightness of the boat and it was leaking for sure. Dan tried to do a quick fix with some aquaseal and duct tape but it was not really working. We were at a loss. Like it was planned, Michael from Southeast Adventures showed up and rescued us with his friend. A few minutes, a heat gun, and some plastic solved our rather large dilema and we were on the water without losing a day. It was like it never happened, sortof.

The paddle to Jekyll Island was rather short but we got to watch a HEAVY rainstorm pass us by on the West. It was really cool to see. Thank goodness we didnt get hit by that… not that getting wet is all that big of a deal. When we paddled under the bridge to Jekyll, Terry was there taking photos again. We finally got some shots of us in the boats, NOT from our perspective. Wating for us on the docks of Jekyll Harbor Marina, was Tom from Habitat Crew with his current rowing partner Denny. We met Tom in Charleston, if you remember, and it was really fun to see him again. The marina let us keep our boats there for the night AND lent us some bikes for the day. The four of us rode our bikes all over that island, and saw the sights. It was really a beautiful place full of huge fancy historic “cottages” and spanish moss. We had a little mini celebration for Denny’s end of the trail there in Jekyll. Pizza from a motor scooter rental place isnt so bad by the way. shocking.

With a continental breakfast in our tummies, we left for Cumberland Island. Crossing the St. Andrews Sound wasn’t actually too bad. We had heard about it being a beast at times but I guess Dan and I just times it right. There was a little bit of chop and I’ll admit we were tired in the end but it really was rather tame compared to what I had envisioned. We called the ranger station on Cumberland island, trying to make reservations for the night at the Brickhill Campsite but they were “Unable to help us.” The Ranger even told us that they did not have access to that site via vehicle and could not come and collect our money that way. That’s funny, because there is a road that runs right behind that site. Was that a lie perhaps? UGH! why why why why WHY do rangers, both state and national, always seem to TRY and ruin our days, (excluding Edisto Beach State Park in SC and Reid State Park in ME)?

We camped there anyway. What were we supposed to do?

The next morning, after hearing trucks drive by the “unaccessable” site many time, we got up to a swarm of no-see-ums. We bolted to the boats and paddled away without a good sweep of the campsite. As you might guess, we left something there. All the way down at the south end of the island, we realized we had left Dan’s greenland paddle back at the campsite. This paddle, handmade for Dan by Bill Bremmer of Lumpy Paddles, we too important to simply forget about so we had to come up with a way to get it back. We paddled to the dock at Sea Camp on the south end of Cumberland and headed to ask the rangers for help. Usually this is unsuccesful and this time was no different. The rangers just told Dan that they just weren’t heading up that way until the morning, (it was around 1:00 in the afternoon and remember yesterday they told us they had no rode access to that site..) and that Dan was welcome to fill out a lost and found card if he liked. Thanks so much… Meanwhile, I had asked a man fishing on his motorboat if he could drive Dan up to the site. He was fishing for shrimp when we pulled up to the dock earlier. Dan said hello to him and asked if this was Sea Camp docks from our kayaks and he had ignored us, answering only after Dan was basically 3 feet away and he could not ignore him anymore. I walked down to the docks when Dan left for the Ranger Station 20 min later and asked him if he would motor us back up to the Campsite, offereing him $30 for the ride. He impatiently asked my why we needed this paddle so bad, told me it was not an emergency, and that he did not have time for me. “I dont have time for this”… then he continued to throw his cast net out for shrimp for 2 more hours. During this time, I hung out with Charlie and Linda from NJ who were waiting for the ferry. Dan was off trying to work something out with the rangers and called Charlie’s phone after about 1.5 hours and let me know how unhelpful they were, laughing at him, and ignoring him for a while until he walked right up to them in their offices. Fabulous. I walked back down to the docks to the SAME recreational fisherman who was still there, who didnt have time earlier for me, and he proceeded to let me know how FAR away the campsite was, and how expensive gas was, and how he was tired of fishing for the day. Thankfully, after listening to him explain his woes to me for quite some time, putting me through akward silences and long explanations of what a great guy he was for being willing to CONSIDER helping us out, Dan arrived and this fisherman with no time agreed to take Dan back to the site, “And Im gonna charge you for every mile!” whatever. We wanted this paddle back and it was to far to paddle back to and stay on schedule. An hour later, Dan and the fisherman came back with the paddle and Dan gave him all the cash in our wallet: $35. The fisherman, who I will keep anonymous since he was such a jerk, kindly offerend to let us keep the money in the wallet and MAIL him some money later. gee. thanks. Its weird when someone does something nice for you but is a complete “you-know-what” the whole time. Im thankful but also appauled by his nastiness. Weird. We got the paddle and paddled on… a few hours behind scedule with a re-enforced aggrivation with park rangers.. and a new aggrivation with the GA recreational shrimp fisherman.

The FL state line was our only gleaming hope for the end of the day. We have been looking forwards to that moment for a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time obviously. We crossed it. It was awesome.

Then…. more weirdness. The Nassau County Sherrif boat pulled up to us with their lights flashing and checked us out making sure we had PFD’s and whistles. Welcome to FL. The first safety check of our trip. I didnt mind actually. We had what we needed and those guys were pretty nice. They told us that Fort Clinch State park, (our destination) was beautiful and to land right there on the beach. Good Plan.

Earlier that day, Dan had called the state park, trying to make a reservation for the night. The Ranger, knowing our story, exclaimed “NO LAUNCHING OR LANDING OF KAYAKS FROM THE BEACH!!!” ok…. so what do we do then? He told Dan about a little island nearby that was for kayakers and that we could camp there. No problem. So where do we camp on the island Dan asks…. “I cant help you with that… youll have to fugure that one out on your own.” great. Another really unhelpful park ranger. When we got into Florida, the sun was setting and we saw the Campground as well as the other option… the island. We decided to go for the campground since we didnt know where the campsite was on the island and the ranger wouldnt tell us. We broke the launching and landing rule but…. what else were we supposed to do? When we got there, some kind hearts at the campground let us keep our boats on their site, right near the water, and Dan called to ask for a reservation again. The ranger… was unhelpful. “You have to come to the ranger station (4 miles away) in order to make a reservation. NO i will not come to the site to meet you. You have to move your boats all the way to YOUR site. You have to launch your kayaks from the public launch outside of the park, (miles away).” great…. this day kept getting worse. Finally Dan let him know that there was NO way for us to get to the ranger station before it closed. We would be happy to pay if we could get to him. The ranger told us a site to go to…. the furthest one from the water across from the DUMP station for the campers, and he would be by later to get our money. Nice. We decieded to leave our boats right where they were with our new friends, and set up camp at the other end of the campground. Thankfully… Captain Grouch never came by. I think it would have made things ugly since i had quite a few things to say to him.

whew… this is where things started to look up thank goodness.

Mark, a local paddler and part of the Florida Paddling Trails Assoc, came by in the morning, found a ranger, and got us a free campsite for us and permission to launch. Then he paddled with us from Fort Clinch allllll the way to the N end of Little Talbot Island. Mark was a trooper since the day was totally challenging. When the current wasnt against us, the wind was. I was exhausted at the end of the day and I do this all the time. Props to you mark! Marks friend picked us up and ran shuttle and also took us to Kayak Amelia where we left our boats for the night. Mark took us out to a seafood dinner and let us sleep in his family’s oceanfront condo for the night. It was an unforgettable Halloween.

November 1st was my 26th birthday. I got an extra hour of sleep and woke up to a sunrise I could watch right from bed. Cant beat that. We had breakfast and then Ray and Jody from Kayak Amelia picked us up at the condo. They took us back to the shop, gave us both Tshirts and cookies and then dropped us and our boats off at the Boat Ramp from the day before. They were great folks and if you are ever in the area, go and a kayak trip with them. It’s worth it JUST for the cookies

The paddle yesterday was somehow one of the most fun paddling days to date. For some reason I couldnt wipe the smile off my face. I think it was a combo of good weather, sweet jams, good currents, a hotel to head to, the fact that it was my birthday and most of all… the sinking in of the reality that we were paddling in Florida finally. We also spotted our first manatee of the trip right after crossing the Saint Johns River! Even though we know they do not hurt anyone or anything it was still huge enough to scare the living daylights out of us. It surfaced right next to Dan. It looked like a underwater elephant or something…  We ended our day at the Beach Marine in Jacksonville Beach where they helped us with our boats for the next two nights, gave us a ride, and were generally cheerful and welcoming. Gotta love it. The hotel gave us an upgraded room and they were extreemly nice to us! This place is a must stay if you are ever in the area! My birthday dinner was phenomenal. Good birthday, ended watching MILK on HBO into the morning. Cant complain.

What’s next I wonder….