Jan. 12:

Today could not have been much better. We pulled away from Juno Park in Juno Beach at 9:00 a.m. and worked against the tidal currents in canals for four miles before entering Lake Worth. The East wind was light enough to allow us to row into it and get to the Palm Beach side. That shore was protected all the way to Lantana. Only a few large wakes stopped our progress. As we passed the Lake Worth Inlet Channel I noticed a cruise ship heading out of the harbor about a ¼ mile away and coming at us. I took up the stroke and put on some extra steam to get out of its way. It passed by our stern about 100 yds away. The awesome contrast between our boats was a real wake up.

We passed one large stately mansion after another the entire length of Lake Worth. The name Gold Coast could certainly fit here. The huge powerboats and sailboats complemented the splendor on shore. We slid by the powerboat "Honey Fitz" tied up at a dock and several America’s cup boats among the fleet. On second thought, this place should be called the Platinum Coast.

I thought a lot about Heather’s role in this expedition today. Without her to tell me to pull harder on starboard or port, look out for obstacles, warn me of wakes, read the charts for the best route, pass me lunch bites and, of course just sit there and smile at me now and then, I could not be doing this. I am very fortunate that she is as interested in doing this with me as she is. She says she has never been bored and seems to always be busy and involved in what is going on. She has certainly never been a passive rider! We are doing this together and each of our roles is essential to its success.

I also thought about myself today! I have begun to notice that my strength has improved considerably. I am no longer "on the paddle" as a crew coach would call rowing at less than full strength. My spacing has improved so that my puddles are being pushed astern further and they last longer. I feel like I could go on forever and have rowed several times for two hours or more without missing a stroke. Each day the 20-mile objective seems easier to achieve.

After rowing almost the whole length of Lake Worth we pulled over to Sportsman Park in Lantana. We had agreed to meet Carolyn Vickey, the Executive Director of the West Palm Beach Habitat Affiliate there at 3:30. She arrived and took me back to the car that seemed to be much further away than the distance rowed. Huge traffic jams on I-95 reminded me that there is still that frantic world out there outside of the peace in my mind brought on by the rhythm of rowing for a day. We finally got to the car and met Karen Kerwin, Executive Director of Habitat’s Martin County Affiliate, who had agreed to meet us there. We decided to meet for dinner at 7:30. I drove back to retrieve Heather and the boat, went to our motel to clean up and met the two directors for dinner.

The distance ahead seems to be getting much shorter rapidly and now we wonder if we might not be able to get to Key Largo a week earlier than planned! We’ll see. We covered 18.7 miles today under pretty ideal conditions, but these may not last forever.