“Kayaking from Lubec, Maine to Key West, Florida”
It’s been done before.
That’s what I keep telling myself when I think about how impossible it feels to try and kayak the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. Putting our kayaks in at the public boat ramp in Lubec, Maine was perhaps one of the most jumbled, scared, confused, excited, and fabulous I can remember feeling in my life… and what I predict I will feel when I beach my kayak on the sand of Key West, Florida. It’s funny how a kayak trip can transform from being simply a fun, crazy idea in a plastic boat to a life altering, relationship building, inter- and intra-personal experience unparalleled in regular life. Thats what my husband Dan and I are going through right now in our 18 foot seakayaks along the Atlantic Coast.
“Do it while you can” is the most popular comment we hear from the people we meet along the way and im sure there’s an element of truth in there, however, I desperately hope that I will always be free enough in my heart to go for it, whatever “it” may be. I pray that I always “can” do amazing things regardless of whether it makes sense or if I have a mortgage, children, and regular responsibilities of an American woman, wife, daughter, sister.. and future mother. Basically I never want to get caught in regularity to a degree I just don’t see that truth that I can…
Teamwork!
The hardships are there. REALLY THERE. Cold water. Wind. Waves. Nowhere to sleep. Bugs… (good GRIEF the bugs). Grumpy people. Tired bodies minds and hearts. But let me just tell you, it’s worth it.
One of my favorite events that seems to sum up the blessings that this trip brings forth was on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. We met a kind man who seemed to be the man to know on the Eastern Shore. He took good care of us of course but he also called people he knew all over the place to find us places to sleep. On such person he called and simply let him know that there would be two kayakers dropping by his house and he was to let us sleep in his home, even though he was not there, and had never met us. We are good kids he said.The permission was given. Paddling into a 20-25 knot headwind for 8 hours, making sometimes less than 1mph we paddled up to the secluded vacation home, feeling rather strange knowing that we were about to go inside a house and sleep in the beds of a person who we had never met, and who was also… not there. As we creeped through the marsh, exhausted, a man in a Carolina Skiff came up and told us he was sent by our friend to check on us and see if we were ok and to let us in the house. We slept the night in a beautiful home, watching the southern sunset across the ocean and listening to the sound of the marsh bugs knowing that we would find a restful sleep purely from the grace of strangers.
All this from a kayak trip.
It rocks.
P.S. Let me just say, without our Immersion Research Dry Suits, the New England portion of our trip would have been more than a nightmare of freezing cold and dangerous paddling. We’ve made it to the south thanks to their gear.
1 response so far ↓
1 hal yoder // Oct 22, 2009 at 8:21 pm
i was searching to see if it had been done. it’s been a dream of mine for the last couple of years as i look toward my retirement. i would love to have more info on your trek and the others who have done it before. i am probably three or four years from it, but i would love to train and prepare for it properly.
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