What, Me Blog?

Welcome to the inaugural edition of “Adrift with Floatsome,” my most likely temporary excursion into blogging. A typical day in this 60-year-old’s life holds little of interest for most people, as I ply my daily trade as a mild-mannered editor of a medium-sized science magazine. Sure, I’ve had my forays into what my friend Jim calls “stoopid”—Ironman, centuries, marathons, an attempt at a 50-mile trail race—but none of that has seemed worth chronicling.

But I’m into something a bit different now. My friend Kristen Greenaway (left), aka Kiwibird, has been urging me to give the Everglades Challenge—a 300-to-350-mile small boat race down the west coast of Florida—a try for a few years now. “Urging” is probably not quite the right participle. Besides regaling me with tales of adventure and marvelous sights, she picked out a boat for me (Mirage 19 sea kayak), bought it when I was cash short, fixed it up and sold it to me for the cost of the bits, advised me on kit and helped me fit it out, and even taught me how to talk a bit of Kiwi. Then she did the one thing that could convince me to actually enter the Challenge: volunteer to do it with me.

To put it mildly, Kristen is a considerably more accomplished kayaker and boater than I. Besides growing up on a sailboat in New Zealand, she has completed three Everglades Challenges, winning class 1 overall (male or female) in one of them. It follows that she holds the women’s class 1 record at 5 days, 10 hours and 15 minutes. We will not be going anywhere near as fast—but not because of her.

If you’re not familiar with the Everglades Challenge, be sure to visit the Water Tribe Web site. You’ll get a sense of the camaraderie of this amazing group of people and may even get a clue about why we all have these odd nicknames. (You may call me Floatsome.) There’s also a Challenge Mapper (still has the NC Challenge at the moment) that will allow you to follow the progress of entrants once we all launch on March 6. With luck and a towline from Kristen, you might even see my icon reach Key Largo on March 13 or 14.

Anyhow, for my family and friends who are scratching their heads about my latest bit of insanity, and for anyone else who stumbles by, this blog will recount my preparation for the Challenge, and then my spouse Nancy will track me (thanks to Spot) through the event. After a post-event recap, I expect to return to being utterly boring and shut this thing down.