We had an easy sail south to Middle Long Cay and we anchored behind the island with the plan to paddle out to Rendezvous Cay the next day. Rendezvous Cay exists on the actual reef and it was rumored to be a “must see.” It lay two and half miles to the east of where we were anchored so the next morning we gathered several bottles of water, some crackers and PB&J, a strong state of mind and started to paddle.
We did some calculations of paddle strength/speed vs. wind/wave elements, punched a few numbers and figured we could at least paddle at 2 knots (which was funny to think because we are happy to sail to a destination at anything over three knots) which would get us there in a little over an hour. That was totally do-able for us we thought.
The day was windier than we would of asked for but the adventure and the unknown encouraged us along. We took a few waves over the bow of the canoe and the paddling wasn’t exactly down stream but I kept our spirits raised by singing energetically. I thought it was a great, morale boosting idea and although 90% of the songs I could think of lyrics to were Beatles songs, I still thought it was a fun and effective way to pass the time while we were paddling. Con listened to a few of the songs in silence and just as I was wondering why he wasn’t joining in he stated that if I have that much extra breath to sing so loudly than I am clearly not paddling hard enough. After that little comment I did try to paddle harder but I continued to sing and as it turns out the more I focused on the paddling the quieter I did end up singing.
So forty-five minutes later (no big deal) we beached the canoe on a white sand beach hardly bigger than our first house together in Gainesville and soaked in our surroundings. The small island was surrounded by visible reef and crystal clear pristine water. A small dock was being built by some friendly Belizians and one of the workers came over to say hello and asked where we had come from. Our mast was barely visible in the distance. We pointed to it and smiled at the bewildered look on his face. He then responded with, “Well this is now a private island and I usually charge money to anyone that comes out here but I’m not going to charge you two because I am so impressed with how far you paddled.” Ok, so it wasn’t that far but considering that we didn’t bring any money with us and he didn’t seem like a guy that would accept peanut butter and jelly crackers as a form pf payment, we gladly accepted his praise. The snorkeling was amazing, the PB&J crackers delicious under the shade of a palm, the day warm and full of sunshine, and the paddle back was down wind. It was a glorious afternoon. Conor even enjoyed the singing on the way back.
M.
We did some calculations of paddle strength/speed vs. wind/wave elements, punched a few numbers and figured we could at least paddle at 2 knots (which was funny to think because we are happy to sail to a destination at anything over three knots) which would get us there in a little over an hour. That was totally do-able for us we thought.
The day was windier than we would of asked for but the adventure and the unknown encouraged us along. We took a few waves over the bow of the canoe and the paddling wasn’t exactly down stream but I kept our spirits raised by singing energetically. I thought it was a great, morale boosting idea and although 90% of the songs I could think of lyrics to were Beatles songs, I still thought it was a fun and effective way to pass the time while we were paddling. Con listened to a few of the songs in silence and just as I was wondering why he wasn’t joining in he stated that if I have that much extra breath to sing so loudly than I am clearly not paddling hard enough. After that little comment I did try to paddle harder but I continued to sing and as it turns out the more I focused on the paddling the quieter I did end up singing.
So forty-five minutes later (no big deal) we beached the canoe on a white sand beach hardly bigger than our first house together in Gainesville and soaked in our surroundings. The small island was surrounded by visible reef and crystal clear pristine water. A small dock was being built by some friendly Belizians and one of the workers came over to say hello and asked where we had come from. Our mast was barely visible in the distance. We pointed to it and smiled at the bewildered look on his face. He then responded with, “Well this is now a private island and I usually charge money to anyone that comes out here but I’m not going to charge you two because I am so impressed with how far you paddled.” Ok, so it wasn’t that far but considering that we didn’t bring any money with us and he didn’t seem like a guy that would accept peanut butter and jelly crackers as a form pf payment, we gladly accepted his praise. The snorkeling was amazing, the PB&J crackers delicious under the shade of a palm, the day warm and full of sunshine, and the paddle back was down wind. It was a glorious afternoon. Conor even enjoyed the singing on the way back.
M.
 |
| The Super Paddler and his Super Singer Wife |
 |
I'm still waiting to see a picture of the sailing canoe in action :)
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing you got two thirds of the lyrics right...even if it was only Beatles songs.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding...love you, Meg.