Team Kayak Lake Mead - Everglades Challenge 2021

 

Moonrise Over the Plovers, 0430 hrs March 8, 2021, 25.63 deg N, 81.32 deg W.

This is the EC 2021 story of IronBob and TheJuice aka Robert and Druce Finlay, father and son. We've completed twelve Everglades Challenges. If you browse the record book, you'll find only eleven finishes. This is because there was a dark year, everyone that year is listed as DNF. But, everyone wasn't DNF. Here is the story of that year. 

This year we finished with our second best time at 72 hours 38 minutes. It was our fastest time to CP3 at Flamingo. Yet, it was our second slowest time on the last leg across Florida Bay to the Finish. Our fastest year was 2018. That story is here. Every year is a good memory. In 2006, Druce and I found a WWII anti-ship mine near Highland Point. I jumped on it a few times. I'm not too smart. Druce stood on it for a photo op, sans clothes. Every year is a good memory. 

Solar Pillar Sighting Everglades Challenge 2013

Solar Pillar off the Highland Coast Everglades Challenge 2013

Solar Pillar
I mention in our EC2020 report that Druce and I witnessed the solar pillar off the Highland Coast (some miles off of Highland Point) in 2013. This is my first attempt at recreating that sighting.

The silhouette of Druce, the boat, and the seas (sans light column) are from an existing photo of the setting sun that very evening, 4 March 2013.

I scrubbed the sun and the sky from the original photo, added a new sky, and tried to recreate the scene we witnessed that evening near the end of nautical twilight. The original photo jarred my memory of that sunset. I remember I could not resist my eyes from the resulting twilight to the northwest.

Near the time when twilight was complete, I panned my eyes to the northwest one more time. The light from the setting sun, just below the horizon was illuminating ice crystals in the atmosphere, that illumination reflected off the sea into our eyes, and that light was converted to electrical impulses which our brains interpreted. All of which is a miracle really, but at the time we had no idea what we were seeing. Honestly, it kind of freaked us out. 

Team Kayak Lake Mead - Everglades Challenge 2020

Light winds from the north, final 6 miles to Key Largo 

This was a good year, it would be a year with plenty of challenge for everyone. There were over one hundred craft of various types on the start beach. Four did not start. Fifty-six started but did not finish. Forty-three out of a one hundred and three boats made it to the finish beach in Key Largo. You can see types of boats, crews, and results below (1).

5 Years Old Climbing a City Water Tower

Robert Finlay 5 Years Old Climbing the City of Westminster, Ca Water Tower

Climbing the city's water tank, I believe this was my first adventure. Well, the first adventure where I could very likely have died. I was five years old. 

Team Kayak Lake Mead - Everglades Challenge 2019

Practicing our start: Robert and Druce Finlay Everglades Challenge Start Beach Ft DeSoto, FL 2019

This year was dreamlike, very dreamlike. We have done this race nine times before, this would be our 10th, never seeming to reach the end...

We race, no secret about that. We would race if beaten a hundred times. We would race if no one else was on the beach. Our biggest competitor is ourselves from past years, the Ghost Team, those guys are hard to beat. But we try, every year we try.

For the second year in a row we paddled the Black Boat, our Stellar ST21 and swung Odin Gara Racing Paddles.

Boat Team: IronBob and TheJuice aka Robert and Druce Finlay

Team Kayak Lake Mead - Everglades Challenge 2018

Druce and I on the Start Beach the day before the race.

This is the 2018 Everglades Challenge story of IronBob and TheJuice, sometimes we're known as the Sea Breeze Ninjas. This was a very good year.

Team Kayak Lake Mead - Everglades Challenge 2017

Sunrise on Florida Bay for IronBob and TheJuice

This is the 2017 Everglades Challenge story of IronBob and TheJuice, sometimes we're known as the Sea Breeze Ninjas. This was a very strange year.

There was a small craft advisory in effect due to strong winds...

Saturday morning Druce (The Juice) and I (IronBob) and Sunshine (our kayak) were ready to race in all respects. But at 0615 the morning of the race it was announced the challenge would not launch from Ft De Soto until the advisory was lifted, yet the advisory was not likely to be lifted any time soon.