TRAVEL | ADVENTURE | KAYAK | FLORIDA EVERGLADES

An Epic Kayaking Adventure — Part One

We had never kayaked before!

In 2001, at the age of 24, my then-boyfriend and I were on a pretty interesting adventure. We first found ourselves in South Carolina where we were working on an 80-foot (24-meter) sailboat for a friend of my parents. The Captain's plan was to fix the boat up, then we would take it down to Florida where he would then run charters over to the Bahamas. He told us that we would make good money from the charters if we stuck around to crew for him.

He had owned many boats in the past and had run charters in the Virgin Islands for many years. So it wasn’t an empty promise, and I knew he knew what he was doing.

We spent a couple of months getting the ship all ready for chartering, then motored it down to Ft. Lauderdale where we would pick up the charter guests. In South Carolina, the owner had built new masts, and we raised them when we were there, but we didn’t attach the sails until we got to Ft. Lauderdale.

We took the first charter guests on a week-long sailing trip to the Bahamas, then returned to Ft. Lauderdale. Much could be said about that trip, but let's just say it didn’t exactly run smoothly. It was then that the captain told us that the following charter wouldn’t be for another month or more, so we were just going to stay in Ft. Lauderdale and work on the boat.

This wasn’t what we had had in mind when he told us we would be running charters to the Bahamas for the next few months. We quickly decided that we needed to go somewhere to do some thinking about what our future looked like. Ft. Lauderdale was just a big expensive city, and we didn’t fancy staying there for an extended period of time. It didn't help that our relationship with the Captain was deteriorating by the day.

We decided to rent a car and drive down to the Florida Keys for a new perspective.

On this trip, some way or the other, we concocted an idea to purchase a kayak and go paddle the Florida Everglades. We had never kayaked before, but we had lots of experience camping in the wilderness and knew that we were fit and we would figure it out. We found a kayak shop that literally backed onto the shore of Blackwater Sound, which led to Florida Bay, which then led to the Everglades.

We went in and told the salesman what we were thinking. “Oh, you need the Cadillac of all kayaks for a trip like that.” He told us.

He led us out to the back of the shop to show us a 21-foot (approx 7m) Current Design Libra XT tandem kayak. YES! This was exactly what we needed. It had plenty of water-tight storage and lots of room for us in the cockpits. We could see that we could store a lot of gear in it. PLUS, it was made by a Canadian company!

SOLD!

We had enough money on our credit line to purchase it on-site and did so gleefully. The salesman's name was Frank, and we had told him that eventually, we might try to get the kayak to the Bahamas and paddle over there.

He said, “Well, I have a good buddy named Mike (last name left out for privacy reasons) in Georgetown. He works at a kayaking tour outfit there. If you make it there, tell him Frank says hi.”

“Okay, we definitely will.” We told him. We didn’t know it at the time, but once we were given that mission, it became something that we really wanted to accomplish. The next day we drove back to Ft. Lauderdale, returned our rental car, and said goodbye to the boat owners while picking up our stuff.

Coincidentally, my Dad had business in Miami at this time and my mom was with him. We told them the new plan and they suggested that they come and pick us up in Ft. Lauderdale, and take us to the Keys with all of our stuff.

The timing could not have been more perfect.

We spent a weekend with them driving around to all the West Marine stores and boating shops so we could buy the necessary safety equipment. We bought a handheld GPS and a two-way radio so that we had communication should an emergency happen. We also purchased a chart book and a few camping supplies. We had brought our tent, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags with us when we flew to South Carolina, because, well we didn’t travel without those things. So at least we had them. But we also needed a stove, cooking utensils, fishing gear, and a few other bits and bobs.

At the end of the weekend, they took us back to the Kayak shop. We didn’t have dry sacs, so we stuffed our things into big black garbage bags and then stuffed them in the storage compartments at the bow and stern. We would soon learn that those compartments really were watertight, and we didn’t need to worry about using the bags.

We pushed off from the beach behind the kayak shop and waved to my parents standing on the shoreline. I still marvel at their courage in allowing me to go on these crazy adventures. This wasn’t the first time either. As usual, I received nothing but support from them, and I am still so grateful for it.

We had scouted out our first destination on our charts the night before, and after quite the time trying to find our way through the narrow channel in the mangroves from Blackwater Sound, and our first argument of what would be MANY (they don’t call tandem kayaks the ‘divorce boat’ for nothing!), we finally made our way out into Florida Bay.

Florida Bay is the area between the Keys and the mainland of Florida. It is littered with thousands of tiny islands, some of which are set up for campers. What we didn’t anticipate with this area, is that it is very shallow. Unless you stay on regularly paddled routes, you get yourself into shallow places that are only about a foot deep. This doesn’t bode well for paddling and can be a very exhaustive affair when you get caught in one of these spots. We learned this lesson the hard way.

We camped on a few of the islands that were properly set up for us, but one day decided to do a ‘shortcut’ to Flamingo, the entrance to Everglades National Park. We didn’t see any reason why we couldn’t just paddle up closer to the mainland coastline, then cut straight across to Flamingo. It was then that we discovered why, and we spent two grueling days inching our kayak along in the shallows.

At one point, we even went so far as to get out and walk while pulling the kayak! It was very exhausting.

Plus, you can’t imagine the gnarly campsites that we had to endure which had thousands of mosquitos at them! I’ll have to save one story in particular for another time. Anyways, there was a reason that we shouldn’t have gone that way, and we learned all of them at once! It was a very trying two days.

We eventually reached Flamingo where we had to purchase our permit to camp in the Everglades. We had to provide them with a route and let them know where we were going as the accommodation options were limited. It was there that a store attendant decided to inform us about how dangerous the crocodiles were, and told us “I grew up in this area and you wouldn’t catch me paddling around in these waters!”

Thanks, bud.

We got our permit and headed off. On day one my boyfriend decided to cast out to see if he could get some dinner. As we floated along, I happened to see two lumps sticking out of the water by the shoreline.

“Is that a crocodile?” I asked pointing towards it.

“Yup looks to be,” he said as he started to reel in his line. “Guess the fish aren’t biting today.”

We laughed at our naivety but were obviously a little freaked out. We two Canadian kids had never had experiences with crocodiles before.

Grizzly bears we knew, crocodiles we did not.

We cautiously paddled away from the menacing eyeballs that were watching us, and decided that rice and canned veggies would be good enough for dinner that night!

In Everglades National Park there is a series of ‘chickees’ built where campers can camp out on platforms in the middle of the water and away from the bugs. This is why we had to register our trip so that they could make sure that there was space for us at each chickee. You can see, of course, that they only accommodate two tents at once.

We paddled our way through Everglades National Park, then decided to continue our journey up to Everglades City. I can’t remember our exact decision-making process, but one thing was for sure, it was certainly an adventure that we were on!

Unfortunately, I‘m also not exactly sure how much distance we covered, but by the looks of the map above, my estimation is 100–120 km (60–75 miles) It’s a good thing that we were young and fit!

After paddling and camping for two weeks, we reached Everglades City. We then had a decision to make. We either continued paddling up the coastline and into what looked to be a lot of cities and population, or we turned around and went back down where we had come from, this time staying on the outside, and not going back through the park. We chose the latter.

We were both more into hanging out in the wilderness, than dealing with people.

We had a couple of interesting experiences on the way down. One day in particular we pulled up to a beach where we wanted to camp, and all we could see were crocodile tail drag marks all over the sand. We decided that we should move a bit further down the coastline to pitch our tent, lest we get some unexpected visitors at night.

Once we arrived at the next location, we simply pulled our kayak to the edge of the water, then decided to cook some lunch before we set up our tent. As we sat on the beach, we noticed, not one, not two, but three crocodiles out in the water swimming back and forth past the beach. We could see that they had their eyes on us. Of course, we realized that this was not a good place to camp, so ate our lunch with the intention of leaving after.

However, by the time lunch was finished, the tide had gone down and our kayak was now resting on a very muddy and sticky bottom. Upon arriving, we knew that the tide was going down, so we just pulled the bow up onto the sand. We didn’t know that just below where we did that, there was mud. With the kayak weighing an estimated 300lbs because of all of our gear and 15 gallons of water in it, we couldn’t budge it. We had no choice but to sit and wait until the tide came back in again, 6 hours later, before we could move on. Not only did the crocodiles swim back and forth, but a small shark came quite close to shore and was making its presence known.

By the time the tide came back in and we were able to leave, we were both completely scared shitless enough that we didn’t dare put our feet in the water. Instead, we brought the kayak alongside the beach, then did our best to step in from the sand.

That was a stressful day!

The next exciting event was New Year's Day. It had been raining non-stop for about 2 days at that point and we did nothing but hang out in our tent reading for the duration. At some point, the clouds broke and we decided to take advantage of the time and walk down the beach and around the corner to do some exploring.

As we rounded the corner, we came across three people that had pulled up to the beach with their boat. Of course, we got to talking to them for a bit and asked them where they had come from. They lived in Miami and were on a bit of a boating adventure for the holiday. We wished them Happy New Year, chatted for a bit, then turned around to head back to our tent.

“Oh, where are you from?” the lady asked us as we were walking away.

“Canada, well Alberta,” I told her.

“Oh, I’m from Alberta as well.” She said.

“Oh cool, we are from Canmore,” (a population of about 4000 at that time)

“Oh!” She exclaimed. “I’m from Canmore as well!” She said, much to our surprise.

She was about 5 years older than us and when she told us her name, I recognized it right away. Jennifer Champagne was her name, a pretty memorable one. One of my best friends growing up had a sister that was 5 years older than us, so I knew the names of some of the girls that she did sports with and things like that. Apparently, she had married an American and was now living in Miami.

What a small world!

There were only 5 people on that immense stretch of one of the most remote beaches in Florida that day, and three of them were from Canmore. It was remarkable!

We continued our journey and made our way back to Flamingo. On the way, the temperatures started to drop and it actually got as low as 0C (32F). We kept pushing to Flamingo and knew that we couldn’t be on the water with those frigid temperatures. When we arrived, I called home and my parents offered to pay for a hotel room for us for a couple of nights where we could rest and warm up.

Then we had some decisions to make.

We were aghast that Florida was so cold! As we sat in that warm hotel room, pouring over our chart books, we started to analyze just where the Bahamas were, and if it was possible to somehow get our kayak over there. We had had a taste of its warmth and beauty from the one charter that we had done, and we longed for more. Plus, we knew that we had to go and find Mike in Georgetown!

Somehow, someway, we learned that we could ship things to the Bahamas by cargo ship from Palm Beach, 246km (153 miles) away. We now had our sights set on this option, but how the heck do we get our kayak up there?

The next morning boyfriend went outside and spotted an electrical van in the parking lot. He asked them where they had come from and was happy to learn that they had come from Homestead, and it was on the way to Palm Beach. He then asked them if they would be willing to put our kayak on their roof and give us a ride up there.

They agreed to do it and our plans were set. At least we would be on our way.

Thus began a multiple-day journey to Palm Beach where we would hitchhike with our 21-foot kayak to get there. Never in my wildest dreams could anyone have ever told me that it was possible. But we did it!

Read Part TWO:

Thank you to JoAnn Ryan, Adrienne Beaumont 🇦🇺, and Gerald Sturgill for doing such a great job with the publication Globetrotters and to Anne Bonfert for the June prompt “Flow Like Water”. This prompt has prompted me (no pun intended) to really get down to business and write many stories that I probably would have put off for quite some time. Part two will be along shortly, hopefully before the deadline of June 28th.

Hi there, we are 2 Canadians, Jill and Chris from Artistic Voyages. We have been nomadic since 2017 living in numerous different countries, and experiencing the life and diversity of our planet on the ground and firsthand. We have now been on the African continent for over 2 years!

Subscribe to Medium through my referral link to get full access to my writing plus thousands of others! Plus sign up here to get my articles by email!

Join our adventure by hitting the links below!

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Patreon| YouTube | Medium