03/05/04

03/06/04.

07:00. Fort Desoto. Start of the race. There were 26 boats in the Everglades Challenge going 300 miles all the way to Key Largo and 21 boats in the Ultra Marathon racing just 60 miles to the first checkpoint at Placida. I delayed my departure for about 15 minutes to shoot some video but I still wasn't the last one to leave the beach at Fort Desoto.

It was first time with my Sea Wind in salt water. I was paddling across Tampa Bay against the wind. Most of the kayakers were gone, but I passed Porky and Etchemin in their Kruger Cruiser and a folding kayak (RubberDucky?). I could see the red sail of Raptor’s outrigger canoe at different places on the bay. Before Anna Maria Bridge I caught Manitou Cruiser and Chief paddling their Dreamcatchers. The crossing in my Sea Wind was much more comfortable than a year ago in my new Surfrigger when I was really nervous about waves coming from side of my ama.

I was paddling through familiar waters. I had a first short stop in the narrow passage near Sister Keys and the next one in the shallow water of Sarasota Bay. Near Sarasota Bridge, Manitou Cruiser and Chief went ahead of me paddling with the aid of sail. They had already formed an “ad hoc” team and joined their boats into a catamaran. I caught them again later when wind died and paddled with them for the rest of the day. The night was calm and foggy. There was not much boat traffic but several motorboats were running without any lights. Our progress was quite slow.

03/07/04.

07:30. I wanted to shoot paddlers leaving the Snake Island but nobody was in a hurry to launch. So, I filmed myself from a tripod and headed toward Venice Canal. There was almost no boat traffic in the early morning. At the end of the canal I saw Raptor sailing/paddling his outrigger canoe and then Porky and Etchemin in their Kruger Cruiser. There are nice sandy beaches at the end of the canal, so I stopped for few minutes at one of them.

Further south on the Intercoastal Waterway was long Lemon Bay. Visibility was limited by fog. Despite this, the boat traffic was intense with many monster boats creating huge wakes. The visibility improved when I passed the Stump Pass.

The last few last miles before the checkpoint #1 I paddled together with Woodyaker (Mike Rachelson) who was completing the Ultra Marathon in his CLC Chesapeake 17 kayak. When crossing Placida Harbor he ran into a sleeping manatee. A huge splash! It was my only meeting with a manatee during this race. A year ago I enjoyed several meetings with manatee along the ICW and outside of the Everglades.

15:41. Grand Tours, Placida. Checkpoint #1. A lot of people and a lot of boats. Interestingly, Chief and ManitouCruiser who choose the shorter outside route didn’t arrive before me. Shower. Hotdogs from barbeque. Water: 1 gallon from SaltyFrog (thanks!) and 2 gallons of tap water (it was OK at least as long as used with my sport drinks). Just before leaving I broke my flag/light pole when stepping over the boat on a busy boat ramp. So, I added some rigging from a reflective rope to my pole. It gave my Sea Wind more exotic look.

16:27. After I shot Etchemin and Porky arriving at the checkpoint, I left Grand Tours and I paddled the shallow waters on eastern side of Gasparilla Sound. I passed Sandfly Key, and then Devilfish Key at sunset and reached Charlotte Harbor after dark. I paddled a mile or so east towards the Cape Haze and then took a direct course for eastern side of Pine Island with some light visible. No boat traffic.

22:00. Before I reached Pine Island the full moon rose. I set up my sail and continued into Matlacha Pass on eastern side of Pine Island. That night reminded me keeping a night watch when sailing on Baltic Sea twenty years ago. Different waters, different boats, but the stars looked similar.

03/08/04

01:30. After passing Little Pine Island Bridge I called Connie She was in the state of panic because my arrival at the checkpoint #1 was not reported on-line for some reasons and everybody else had checked in. I started to look for a place to land but have troubles to find anything. Mangrove islands occupied by hundreds of birds didn’t look and didn’t smell very inviting. Finally, I found a higher ground on one of the small islands where I could land. I should setup my hammock but, instead, decided to experiment with sleeping in the boat. I guess I wasn't tired enough. What a mistake! I could fit in the front of my Sea Wind with a sleeping pad and sleeping bag. However, sleeping was a different issue. I had learned that to sleep comfortably I need a room to bend my knees. Fortunately, I had only a few hours of torture till the morning.

07:00. A local fisherman checked to see if I’m OK. He was surprised to see somebody stranded there. Breakfast, a little bit of video shooting and I was ready to go.

13:00. When sailing along Estero Bay I was passed by two kayakers. One of them was Alaskan SeaHorse who was already complaining about his blisters. They took different routes going outside through Big Carlos Pass and New Pass and I continued inside along Hickory Bay route. It was a scenic, narrow and twisty channel, unfortunately, crowded by small powerboats during the day.

17:00. After crossing Little Hickory Bay I noticed tall pine trees above mangroves and a tiny beach. It looked like the camping spot mentioned by Johnny Molloy in his recent book From the Swamp to the Keys: A Paddle Through Florida History. I decided to take an early break and wait there for a better weather before going outside to the Gulf. It was very nice high place to camp, though little bit trashy. I setup my hammock and had the only one good sleep during the entire race. After sunset, a raccoon visited the camp, and, of course, was interested in my boat but wasn’t very persistent.

03/09/04

4:45. I started early in the morning to reach Wiggins Pass before sunrise. The channel was clearly marked all the way to Cocohatchee River and looked much better than the maps would suggest. At Wiggins Pass, several WaterTribers including DrKayak/SandDollar and Porky/Etchemin were just preparing for launching. It seems that it is a good spot for stealth camping after the park is officially closed.

12:50 Big Marco Pass. Cirrus clouds were warning about another front approaching. I tried to stop but the beach appeared to be quite steep and I couldn’t drag the boat away from the waves. I stopped a little later at Marco Island Bridge.

16:41. Tripod Key. A dinner and video stop. A WaterTribe kayaker passed by but I couldn’t recognize him.

17:30. I started to paddle across Gullivan Bay towards Indian Key Pass. Wind and waves were growing. I was going pretty fast with the following sea but my sail didn't work well in those conditions. It had tendency to wobble from side to side. I was even afraid that it could break the deck. The red sunset with some clouds was spectacular, but it was too choppy to reach for the camera.

19:47. I decided to hide on the lee of Round Key and prepare for the night. I run aground about 200 yards from the beach and 20 minutes later all water was gone. I spent next couple of hours sleeping in my boat and waiting for high tide. I was lying down back on duffels and pfd in the cockpit behind the seat. That position proved to be quite comfortable and used it later for short naps. The sky was dark and full of stars. Beautiful! I couldn’t remember when last time was that I could see the night sky without any light pollution.

23:01. I was woken up by the coming water. The wind was gone and the full moon was already high in the sky. I paddled towards Indian Key Pass taking shortcuts between some small islands.

00:13. Indian Kay Pass. Going through the pass with the help from the rising tide was great. I didn’t even notice when I reached Chokoloskee Bay and found myself next to the Park Ranger Station. However, I decided that I would have better chances for camping at Chokoloskee. It was getting windy again.

03/10/04.

07:56. I bought water and pastry in a small convenience store (they open early). Then, I shot some pictures and video of kayakers leaving the checkpoint (Snore and SlackJack). After breakfast I paddled 3 miles against a strong wind back to Everglades City to buy a wilderness camping permit: I reserved nights at Rodgers River and Watson River chickees. Last call to Connie before her trip to Florida.

09:32. I started to sail/paddle along Chokoloskee Bay with a strong wind and soon passed the checkpoint #2 again, then I went through the shallow waters around Chokoloskee to Lopez River.

12:25. A short stop at Lopez River camp. A lady kayaker was just setting up her tent. I guessed from her comments that she was paddling on the Lopez River with WaterTribe’s Pelican.

13:19 Sunday Bay. I reached more familiar waters where I paddled my Surfrigger a year ago. I used the Harddles Creek Route instead of the Lopez River then.

17:00. Darwins Place. I stopped to stretch my legs and shoot some video greeted warmly by mosquitoes. I camped at Darwins Place a year ago but I arrived at late night and didn’t experience any bugs. In my further paddling through Everglades I enjoyed narrow passages between Tarpon, Alligator, Dads and Plate Creek Bays.

19:30. Plate Creek Chickee. The platform was occupied, so I didn’t stop. It was already dark.

22:37. Originally, I had planned to go through Toms Creek, but decided to stay longer on a wider Wilderness Waterway for night paddling. I left the waterway after marker #47 and took a shortcut to Rodger River Bay. The night sky was nice again but I could see a glow from Miami. The temperature was dropping.

03/11/04.

00:36 Rodgers River Chickee. One platform was taken by two motor boaters I saw at ranger station. They passed me somewhere around Darwins Place. I setup my hammock (a perfect span of the chickee posts). Unfortunately, it was quite cold. About 3am I was woken up by some sort of creature climbing the platform: Pelican.

09:50. Broad River. I saw two or three alligators from a distance. They didn't allow me to approach close but just slid into water. Later, Pelican mentioned that he noticed gators slide tracks and knew that I was ahead of him on the Broad River.

10:56 The Broad River camp didn’t look very inviting at low tide: a muddy shore and a very high dock. The low tide didn’t allow me to take the Nightmare route, so I paddled further down the Broad River out to the Gulf.

11:27. A nice change of scenery at the mouth of Broad River: numerous small islands and sandbars.

12:15. After just a couple miles outside I entered Broad Creek. It was initially pretty wide, then getting narrow and overgrown with a lot of fallen trees and tight passages. The best of Everglades paddling! It took me almost 4 hours to reach the upper part of the Broad Creek when I turned south towards the Harney River.

18:31 Shark River Chickee. Sunset. Pelican proceeded along the official Wilderness Waterway while I took a little bit of navigational challenge and turned into Labyrinth Route. This route described in Johnny Molloy’s A Paddler's Guide to Everglades National Park is the shortest connection between the Shark River and the Whitewater Bay through a maze of small creeks. It cannot be considered as a real shortcut for paddlers going to Flamingo (perhaps a mile shorter than the official route through the Shark River Cutoff). However, it allowed me to travel along the eastern edge of the Whitewater Bay with some protection from a potential east wind. Paddling through Labyrinth in darkness without a moon was quite interesting but not so challenging with the aid of GPS. I didn’t use lights except for checking the GPS and map at each turning or “confusion” point. Channels were deep and wide, not overgrown. I didn’t have any trouble staying in the middle of the water by observing the lighter sky over the black mangroves. Just after sunset I could hear mosquitoes but it was not a problem to out-paddle them.

20:40. Whitewater Bay after 6 miles in Labyrinth.

21:48. Watson River Chickee at the NE end of the Whitewater Bay. After the previous cold night in the hammock I decided to sleep directly on the platform in my sleeping bag over my mini sleeping pad and plastic emergency bag.

03/12/04.

01:28. I planned to leave early enough to have time to cross Whitewater Bay and reach Flamingo well before the 10:00 deadline. My departure was delayed by a small accident with my NiteDiver light. A leaking battery exploded in the waterproof canister. I didn’t manage to clean up the mess or get my light working again. I only burnt my fingers in alkaline goo. Don’t buy cheap battery cells in WalMart!

04:35. After crossing an almost calm Whitewater Bay I entered Tarpon Creek and then navigated across Coon Bay still in darkness.

5:34 Buttonwood Canal. Sunrise came together with the mosquitoes. I was forced to use a bug repellant for the first and only time during the trip. When I was closer to Flamingo, the first fishing boats were just leaving and heading towards Whitewater Bay.

06:36. Flamingo. I didn’t see the famous crocodile at the boat ramp. Maybe, I was too tired. The portage between boat ramps was easy with the aid of one of the carts provided at the checkpoint. I joined DrKayak, SandDollar, Alaskan SeaHorse, KneadingWater and SaltyFrog for the breakfast buffet at a restaurant. At that time, an upset Alaskan SeaHorse was decided to drop out of the race due to his injuries, but after an extra day of rest he changed his mind and made it successfully to Key Largo. I made small shopping at the marina including a new flashlight.

12:24 Buoy Key. The wind started to grow. A headwind, of course, but the sea was remaining smooth.

14:39 Dump Keys. I tried to rest in some mangroves between Dump Keys but a powerboat going full speed through the narrow channel dumped a wake on me. Later, another boat (or maybe it was the same one) approached me three times. They tried to rescue me. "Buddy, come with us, you cannot stay here!"

19:17. I went aground searching for the entry to Jimmy Channel. It looked like a good opportunity for a rest, so I tied the boat to a young mangrove stick and took a nap. According to the GPS log, once again I only slept for about 30 minutes. It seems that I was unable to sleep any longer in the boat.

19:53. I couldn’t find the channel, so I simply poled the boat through shallow waters towards Manatee Keys. Schools (flocks?) of fish were jumping and flying in front of me. It was amazing view and sound!

00:13 Little Manatee Key. After going around Big Manatee Key I could take a straight shot to the finish. However, there was a big dark cloud hanging over Key Largo and the wind and chop was growing. I decided to take a rest before the final crossing and took another nap deep in the mangrove of Little Manatee Key.

00:54. I started the final approach to Key Largo against the wind. After a couple of hours, I started to suffer from sleep deprivation and had problems staying on my course. This crisis lasted about one hour and was clearly demonstrated by perturbations visible on my GPS track. That was a pretty long night. Before sunrise when approaching Key Largo, the wind was calming down.