Jan. 26

We had three people meeting us at 8:15 to paddle a canoe and a kayak along side over to the St. Augustine city dock where we were going to meet Verna and any press that might show up. Elliot Smith with his friend Peter Spoehr with the canoe and Lynn Rothemund with the kayak were there early and we all put in and started across the harbor.  We were there in about 15 minutes but found no one there.  I looked at my cell phone and I had two messages from Verna.  She had thought we had agreed to meet at a boat ramp eight miles away where we intended to row after our meeting.  So we waited in our three boats near the dock until she showed up with camera.

Then we rowed away to the south with Lynn in her kayak.  Soon we decided that tying our stern line to her bow handle would keep us together and help her keep up.  I felt little drag from her being there. The tide was coming out with a moderate current working against us.   I did not stop at all for the first six miles until we tied up to a dock to keep us from drifting back and had crackers and cheese while I rested.  A large and fast powerboat roaring toward us interrupted my rest.  It stopped just in time to spare us the full wrath of its wake.  We were under way again.  The wind was now picking up from the West that meant a crosswind. This did not bother us much about a mile from the ramp we were headed for when whitecaps began to form and the waves started splashing Heather.  The wind was growing stronger by the minute and I really wondered if we might start taking in water but the shelter of an inlet to the ramp came just in time. Lynn was happy to have been on tether. As we entered the little harbor I felt a mixture of relief and victory.  We had stretched the envelope a bit. The boat did well.

Along side the entrance to the ramp some men were building a retaining wall. One of them, a frequent Habitat volunteer named Rory, recognized Lynn and called out.  There was an immediate explosion of delight at the meeting and Rory came over to meet us on the shore.  Rory’s big smile and warm handshake at our meeting reconfirmed my feelings about all of these volunteers.

Verna was right there to meet us, of course, for the third time!  She took Heather and Lynn to get their cars while I stayed with the boat and called in to take part in a scheduled conference call. The wind was so strong I had to hide behind a palmetto to keep from annoying the others on the call with the noise.