Saturday morning - schedule says 20km paddle out to Howard Park Beach.


We did this same paddle last weekend in the worst possible conditions - howling winds and low, low tide. I think I commented on the fact that none of the commercial or pleasure boats were on the water?
Anyway, this Saturday was calm, beautiful and HOT. Pete had decided to split the trip into 4 legs so that everyone could switch up and try the different boats - OC-6, 4, 2 and single. I had on my bikini and carried a bag of gatorade, water, sunscreen and aspirin (see previous post re: jello shooters). I started out steering the 6 which is quite easy if you have someone who knows what they're doing teach you (thanks Peter!). I need to qualify that "easy" - 4 or 5 years ago at a db training camp, we had some Oc-6s to try out. They asked me to steer in a race - no one knew how to steer them so all I did was rudder and draw. It was exhausting! In reality, steering OC-4s and OC-6s just requires you to jam the blade in at the side of the boat and use the top hand to make subtle adjustments to blade angle. Okay, anyone who grew up sailing or steering crew boats is thinking, "Yeah? And what's your point?" but this kind of stuff is new to me. Point is, compared to that first time in OC-6, this was way less taxing, incredibly efficient and ummm...logical. The OC-4 is touchier and breaks away quickly if you oversteer. I've always had respect for those who race in the big water but this took it to a new level, especially for the steersperson.
Anyway, the trip was relatively uneventful. I ended up steering the OC-6 for 2 of the legs because Coach Del was a no-show for the workout. Something to do with Mucho Grande flu. We had some concern when we arrived at Howard Park because one of the OC-2s, Clem and Gail (a non-swimmer wearing a life-jacket), was nowhere to be seen. Rich paddled back in a single and found them making slow progress in the shallow water between the channel and Howard Park. They had hulied just where we entered the Gulf of Mexico and while walking the boat across a sandbar, Gail cut her foot badly on a shell. They had very little rest before we decided it was time to head home.
The trip back was more difficult. The beautiful weather had brought everyone out and the weekend traffic was unbelievable. The wash from those big boats and sea-doos was challenging to say the least. The OC-4 and a couple of singles hulied and we were all happy when, 4 hours after starting out, we got back to the bayou.
I grabbed a quick nap after breakfast at Danny K's and then headed back to the bayou where we unrigged and loaded the boats. I kept my C-1 out so I could keep paddling until we left but otherwise, all 34 boats were on the trailer by the end of the afternoon.

Afterward, we cleaned up and got ready to hit the town. We had tickets to see the Senators play the Lightning in Tampa Bay. St. Pete Times Forum was packed and Tampa has great fans. Even when they were down 7-2 they kept cheering for their team!
Everyone was leaving the next morning so it was a great way to finish the training camp.

Ha ha...this is perfect, I miss home and I'm up the road from Dunedin...(give it a few minutes to load).

The bayou is pretty active this week. I sat and watched 4 manatees rolling around for about an hour this morning while I talked on my cell phone (I might actually be a voyeur if that was some hard core manatee lovin'). Later in the afternoon, 3 dolphins swam with us for a few kilometres out to the Gulf. They were right in the middle of all the boats, disappearing for a few seconds and then leaping up from under someone's ama. They startled a few people this way but it made the paddle a lot less like work.
The weather has gotten really hot but I hear it's fantastic at home too. I've actually been here long enough that I'm looking forward to heading home next week. I'm tired of eating restaurant food and living in my training clothes and bathing suit.

I'm not sick of Danny K.'s breakfast though! Danny K.'s Alley Cafe is a staple of the Tarpon Springs Training Camp. The tables are spread around an indoor alleyway the runs between Tarpon Avenue and the next street. I could live on their "almost famous" omelettes and endless coffee. And the servers are the same year after year which makes it feel like home. It's kind of like Helen's South.
The mayor of tarpon Springs came to our afternoon practice for a photo op. She jumped in the motor boat with Peter and they shot her with the outriggers all piled in around them. She said if she'd known we would be paddling, she'd have worn her spandex and come with us. Nice sentiment but I'm sceptical that a 50-something female politician would allow herself to be photographed in spandex! Anyway, I'm not sure when it'll be in the paper but Carl Vogel (our host when we're down there) will let us know.
Friday, the three dolphins were waiting in the channel for us. They didn't stick with us for very long this time - we were doing long pieces so maybe they got bored.
It's friday night and you know what that means - Mucho Grandes at the Mexican! The mariachi singer has loosened up a bit (probably because of his encounter with a particular db paddler from the week before) and he paid a lot of attention to the ladies at our table (did I mention the group this week was 90% women? I don't think Matt's too upset about that.) Joanne was up dancing - she's really good which is not surprising since she's a dance instructor- and we were all up on the floor by the end of the bowl, I mean night.
Afterward, we headed over to Shades where we consumed ridiculous quantities of jello shooters (new rule - I'm not ingesting anything purple after 11:00pm) and people took turns testing their strength at the punching bag. You know I'm not into those macho displays so I ended up chatting with the drummer from the band. One of the paddlers insisted we had to go to some lounge called the Zone. It sounded kind of cougar-ish so as the group walked ahead, a couple of us ducked down a side street to see what was going on at the Lime 'N Coconut. It was dead so we followed the music down the street and across Alt 19 to Bally Hoo's. It was awesome! They had a huge deck with a live band so we grabbed a couple of beers and started ripping it up on the dance floor...After just a couple of songs, the band said, "Thanks everybody, that's it for tonight. Take care getting home". Crap. We finally got to the Zone where we found just the one lone paddler sitting at the bar by herself. We looked around for the others but they were no-shows so we left. Everyone was back at the hotel, lounging on the balcony. Perfect wind-up to the night. It sounded like my roommate was lining up a little rendevous and a discussion of possible room conifgurations was going on. In the end, everyone ended up sleeping in their own beds. I woke up around 5:30am - ugh - fully dressed, under the covers with the tv remote in my hand and contact lenses glued to my eyes. The smell of the popcorn I'd burnt a few hours earlier lingered in our room. I downed some water, aspirin, crawled back into bed and was ready for our 20Km paddle at 8:00am.
more later, I'm exhausted...

Okay, I know I'm all over the map but I'll fill in the gaps eventually. Today was our afternoon off so Del, Jess and I headed to Caladesi Island. We keep hearing about this place ranked as the top natural beach in the united states. It was pretty nice! We drove to Honeymoon Island (the beach we went to on monday - also verra nice) and caught the ferry - $9.00. This isn't at all like the Toronto Island Ferry, it's a pontoon boat which actually holds a deceptively large number of people. The water is turquoise and shallow - surrounded by mangrove islands. The beach is also a state park and nature preserve. The sand was amazing, fine and white. From where we lay, it looked like we could walk across the bay to Honeymoon Beach, it was so shallow. We're hoping that next year, we can put in a workout that entails paddling to Caladesi for the day. After a couple of hours, we decided to head home. One thing I wanted to mention - when you buy your ticket, you're given a return time. We arrived at 1:00 and were advised that we had to leave on the 5:30 ferry. However you are able to return earlier if there's room on the boat.
Since it's midweek wednesday - we were able to jump on the 3:30 ferry. On the return trip we saw 3 bottlenose dolphins and our boat driver Capt. Ron stopped so we could watch them playing in the surf. He had warned us that the boat's motor was unreliable and kept cutting out on him and we had a dramatic demonstration of this just as we were cruising into the dock. Without an engine, Capt. Ron couldn't steer or reverse and we heard him yell "Hold on!" just seconds before we crashed into the dock piling. One chubby lady (representative of the female american population in this area) was tossed to the deck and it sounded like she was working up quite the court case as we disembarked. It was a great afternoon trip and although we decided we'd be happy just going to Honeymoon Beach in the future, it was a great experience and were happy to have done it. We stopped at Panera's for a latte and to pick up some dinner. Happy hour had already started by the time we got home - Pete and Del were heading out for a bit of tennis (with the aid of some Crown Royal). A nice relaxing day. I'm starting to get used to this!

Happy birthday to Louise and Mia!

Last night we had a party at a place we just call "The Mexican". It has another name but we can never remember what it is. They serve, yeah that's right, mexican food. The real reason we go there is for the Mucho Grande - a one litre margarita served in a giant glass. However, since our group was about 20 people, they brought us a Mucho MUCHO Grande - margarita in a massive punch bowl. We served everyone at our table (and several others at neighbouring tables) but still hadn't made a dent in it. A few glasses of that and everyone was up dancing to the mariachi singer. He seemed a little surprised.
After that (it was still disgustingly early) we headed to Lime 'n Coconut. This is the closest I've ever come to Jimmy Buffet's Florida. We had some of their fantastic sangria and then I started the long walk home. Cabs are basically non-existent here - Pete claims that the Greeks who settled this community didn't want the Athens cab mafia here and banned them forever. I'm not sure if that's true but whatever it is, there aren't any around. I stuck to Alt 19 because it's fairly well lit and busy but still, some creepy guy on a bicycle followed me. I stopped at Walgreens and wandered around for a bit hoping it was just a coincidence that we were going the same way but a few minutes after I left, a glance over my shoulder showed he was still there, hunched over the handlebars, paddling himself along with his feet. At least now I had a water bottle in a bag - a makeshift blackjack. He rode ahead of me and I could see him stopped by some bushes on an unlit stretch of the sidewalk. When I crossed the road, he road back a ways and then started to come up behind me. I crossed again and then again as he followed. By then I was at the service centre and the hospital which are both really busy. The next time I looked he was peddling up a sidestreet.
Even with the long walk, I was still home before midnight. I fell asleep and didn't even wake up when the bathroom window smashed while Peter was trying to close it at 4:00am. It had gotten really windy in the night. I also slept through some paddler knocking at the door around 6:30am. We were paddling at 8:00am so I'm glad I was oblivious to everything. As I mentioned, it had gotten really windy in the night. Our plan for the morning paddle was approximately 20kms to Howard Park an off-shore beach. Conditions were the WORST. Brutal wind and the
tide was against us but the group was determined to go. We put together crews for an OC-6, 4, 2 and OC-1. Jess paddled one of the Hukis but turned back when we got to the Gulf. I'll write more about the trip tomorrow. I just want to say that if you're ever staying in community where there are commercial fishermen and you're thinking of going out on the water, you should take note when they stay tied up to the dock...

Just a quick update - training camp is great, as always! Jackie, I really wish we had talked sooner. It's not the same without you.

This is such a great location and the weather has been phenomenal. Lots of dolphins and manatees in the bayou. And we lucked out. Our motel wanted to free up some rooms so offered us an empty two-bedroom house on the property for the same cost as our rooms. It's so great to have. That all changes next week when we move back to the Tarpon Inn with regular room assignments but right now we're spoiled. There's a beautiful golf course right across the street - makes me want to start golfing again. And we have a pool which is pretty but FREEZING all the time.

We paddled out to the Gulf this morning but didn't have enough time to go out as there's a second group that goes out after us - they need the boats. Lots of people at the camp this year. Liz & Fritz are here as well as Stan and his wife Daniella. Have met some Florida paddlers (always great people) who are interested in coming up to do the Around the Island race. Anyway, time's up at the library.

Meghan was in town last week so Alyson, Meghan, Carrie, Dominique and I got together for dinner in Oakville. Dom and I were the only non-pregnant women in the restaurant. What is going on in Oakville?? Okay, obviously we know what. Anyway, everyone looks fantastic and Carrie had some ultrasound pics with her. I stole this pic from Meghan's Facebook album because we all forgot to bring cameras. See... fantastic!

On Sunday, Marisha and I met up with Jax and

Blake to go pick their tree. Remember? The women's team dedicated a tree to them on the racecourse? So there are a few possibilities and we jsut have to get photos and coordinates to the city so the plaque can be installed! Exciting.

I'll be leaving for Florida momentarily. I don't know how often I'll be updating. I'll be doing it from the library in Tarpon Springs so no photos until I get home.

I love the way nature cleans up after itself. Big blizzard last night...rain and temp of +1 this morning. It wasn't too messy at all by the time I got on the road.
And BONUS... heavy snowfall + rain = clean car