 About the trip: During the month of January, my wife Heather and I are sculling (rowing) from Key West to wherever we can get to on the East Coast of Florida between Jan 7 and the 23rd. We plan to continue the rest of the way up the East coast from time to time as work and health permit. You can also take a look at our trip journal by browsing through the menu to the left. |
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Total miles rowed from January 6-24, 2003: 147
Dollars raised per mile: $26.23
Total money raised for Damien House (including all donations): $3857
We are raised money during this trip for Damien House, a center devoted to bringing dignity to those affected by Hansen's Disease. Click here to make a pledge, or go to www.damienhouse.org for more information.
We row an 18 foot guideboat from The Adirondack Rowing Company. Click here to read more about our boat. Email us if you're interested in the boat and we can send you more information.
Hosting for this site is being donated by Ron Schwarz of Sunlight Software. Check out his site at www.slsoft.com
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| January 24, 2003 Without the two oar bags to check we had no trouble or stress at check in and security. Our concern was more about how we were going to get from the airport into our car in the frigid temperatures we had heard persisted in New Hampshire. All the layers I had with me added up to be appropriate for the 37 degrees in Ft. Lauderdale but not below zero and windy. Read more... |
 January 23, 2003 I awoke to the sun rising. Having not relished the idea of a cold shower the previous evening (The restroom had no water heater.), I had crawled into my sleeping bag with all the dried on sweat from the day’s 11-mile row. I had not slept well because of it and in spite of the chill decided I had to take that shower. It is only the idea of getting into the cold shower that is unpleasant. Read more... |
 January 22, 2003 I woke to the blowing noise of a large dolphin that had found its way into the lagoon and made a circuit around the chickee and headed off to fish. We jumped for our cameras and binoculars and watched its wake circle the lagoon with occasional rises to blow. Read more... |
 January 21, 2003: The drive into Flamingo, the headquarters of Everglades National Park, starts in Florida City where we had checked into a Hampton Inn the night before. The first 10 miles was through vegetable farms where huge pumps on trucks were spraying water pumped out of shallow wells onto hundreds of acres of spinach, tomatoes, lettuce and some others. Read more... |
| January 20, 2003: I awoke and grabbed the charts. We had reached Key Largo, the northernmost key where the overseas highway turns inland across Jewfish Creek to head to Miami 60 miles away. Continuing north would bring us to Elliot Key and Biscayne National park after passing the Ocean Reef Club. Read on... |
 January 19, 2003: At least the clouds had gone away but the wind from the north came right down both shores of Key Largo at about 20 knots with much stronger gusts. So we started out along the Atlantic shore huddling to the mangrove shoreline the best we could. There were some quiet places but a few mile long hauls straight into the wind. Full story |
 January 18, 2003 The North winds blew and the cold front and its 40 some degree air did not appear rowable this morning. Green heron was in position. There were a ton of emails to answer and the two blisters that tore off my left hand yesterday persuaded me that a wise decision would be to put in a rest day here at the Tropic Vista. Besides this is a vacation. Read more.. |
 January 17, 2003 We pulled out of Calooza Bay Marina at 7:45 a.m. and found the water flat and the tide going our direction. Shortly the wind started to come up from the West and added to our helping influences. This is what I had hoped for for the last few days. Now I was moving faster than ever. Heather has been watching the GPS and telling me our ground speed regularly. Read more.. |
| January 16, 2003: Needless to say our departure from Hawk’s Cay was not as early as it should have been. We left their harbor and headed into a strong tidal current coming from the channel through the Long Key Viaduct and a strong headwind on top of it. The next two miles were some of the most difficult of the trip as the waves, swells, wind and current all added up to a randomly choppy mess. Read more... |
| January 15, 2003: We left the Anchor Lite after restoring order in our bags and packed the boat well from the convenient lower step of the dock off which it had been tied. Marinas and docks in general in these parts are all built with the assumption that the boats to be received have at least three feet of freeboard. Read more... |
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 January 14, 2003: We awoke before our hosts and packed as best we could. After breakfast while Alfeo and Blanche were sitting on the deck down by the boat we were treated to a visit by Barnacle Bill, their resident Manatee. Read more.
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 January 13, 2003: We left the beach at 9:00 a.m. after going for breakfast. The winds from the north meant we should stick to the ocean side of the islands that strung out toward the Seven Mile Bridge to Marathon. The shelter of Missouri and Little Duck Keys gave a degree of confidence that was needed to face the long stretch into the wind ahead. More... |
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 January 12, 2003 The wind had come up from the North overnight so a strong breeze entered the tent as I awoke. I had gotten up once in the night to check the boat fearing that it might have been picked up by a rising tide and floated to Cuba. It was just fine where I had pulled it up and the tide was way out. Read more...
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January 11, 2003: Another report from the field...kite fishing, bald eagles, 21 blisters, jellyfish, beautiful weather...click here for the full story.Keep posted for more updates! Heather has figured out how to send pictures through her cell phone, so at the very least we should have picture updates everyday. |
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January 10, 2003:It was apparent when I awoke that my blisters were going to be very sore if I did not give them a rest. We also decided that we needed to send some weight home. If Heather was not going to be able to row we did not need her oars or her RoWing. We also did not need to carry it in our dunnage! Read on... |
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 January 9, 2003 We decided with great reluctance on Heather’s part that her rowing was not going to be possible. We managed to partially disassemble her RoWing and pack it in the boat with her oars along side, pile the dunnage on top of it, seat her in the stern where I could see her and she could see where we were going. Read more.
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January 8, 2003: We finally left the conch house to bring the boat to the beach at about 10:00. Heather stayed with the boat and what looked like a huge pile of bags while I returned to get the RoWings and check out. After putting them in I left her to go to send a few things we did not need home and pick up some software from Radio shack to help her get the laptop to get along with her cell phone. |
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 January 7, 2003: We got away from old avocado early in the morning and drove quite a ways before feeling hungry for breakfast. By then, of course, a restaurant was hard to find but we lucked upon the Little Italy which served a great breakfast that turned out to be our lunch as well. Read more
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 January 6, 2003: Our 9 ft. oar bags caused some confusion at the US Airways check in counter but only after we had our baggage tags. The service representative had not had any experience with oversized luggage. As I walked away toward the gate I heard someone telling him that those long bags were way over sized and that he should have charged us for them. Read more.
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