Daily Archives: March 11, 2014

By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

We completed the 2014 WaterTribe Everglades Challenge in 7 days and about 14½ hours. We set no records—in fact, we were among the last to finish. But in a race in which many worthy competitors don’t finish, simply completing the course within the 8-day time limit felt like a “win”. (Plus, we got snazzy sharktooth necklaces to commemorate the event!)

As expected, it was quite an adventure: Bright sunshine, dark nights, wind, rain, laughter, tears, friendly and scary creatures, sleep deprivation, hypothermia, hallucinations… and water, 300 miles of it. We made friends and discovered many things that worked, and quite a few that didn’t.

Our writeup is forthcoming, but meanwhile, here are some of the photographic highlights (click on any photo to start slideshow):

Tension builds in the predawn darkness

Dawn over Tampa Bay

There’s a sandbar just offshore that we have to drag our boats over

… on a windsurfer

Backlit by the sun

A lovely morning to be out on the water

Approaching Anna Maria Island

Friendly WaterTribers

Out in the Gulf with the sailboats

The wind dies and we overtake them (later they will overtake us)

A friendly sea creature

In the afternoon, the wind (fortunately, a tailwind) picks up

Sparkling in the sun

A mass of silver

Today, we paddle on the “inside”… But what’s this??

A swimming sea hare

We paddle down the Intracoastal Waterway

We stop for dinner on North Captiva Island. Then we continue…

Dawn hunt among the highrises

… just big enough for one tent

… precious hours before we have to get going again

We paddle on

… we are still paddling

A brief nap on the beach

We land on one of the Ten Thousand Islands

We paddle on down the line of the Ten Thousand Islands

A marker…

Another evening on the water…

High clouds catch the last rays

Dawn in Chokoloskee Bay

We glide over the still water

We paddle down the line of the Ten Thousand Islands

Whale skull at Highland Beach

This is worse than The Nightmare! :-)

Out in broader waterways again… but the storm front overtakes us

Dinner and boat repair on the Harney River chickee

Dawn in the Joe River

Dead calm, for the moment

We surf the last few miles across Whitewater Bay and, soon, Flamingo

The passes are well marked

Markers mark the passes

And he’s got a fish!

We chat… before he moves ahead

Shoals grow new mangroves

It’s not all blue and green

Last evening over the teal waters

We watch the last sunset of the trip

We paddle on into the deepening colors

After 300 miles, the finish is just a couple of miles away!

Update March 17, 2014: Our writeup begins here.