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.