Day 48 (At Peace With the Banana) 01/22/2010
Daily stats Start: 8:15 AM - Pensacola Kayak and Sail, Pensacola FL Finish: 4:09 PM - Fort Walton Beach, FL Time: 7:52:49 Daily dist: 37 miles Total dist: 1,396 miles Plans had been made for me to stay at the kayak shop last night in order to get an early start today. However, after dinner I was just too sleepy and comfortable to re-locate all my gear and get settled into a whole other location for one night. So I stayed with the Blackingtons one more night and they gave me a ride over to the kayak shop bright and early this morning. Waiting for us at the marina was Tom whom I have been corresponding with ever since I put out the call to the Pensacola fishing forum looking for info on the local waters. I didn’t have the energy to visit with him last night so he made the trek down to the put in to see me off this morning. Aside from providing me with some excellent information about the local waterways I believe this fortuitous connection with Tom may have come with it a higher meaning. You see… Tom’s on-line moniker is “Banana Tom.” There was a thread of thought, from those who appreciate my observation of the superstition around bananas on boats, that it was bananas that may have caused the streak of bad luck that befell me on the first month of this trip. I had purged the dehydrated bananas from my food stores and thoroughly scrubbed the location where a prankster stashed a banana peel under my deck lines last fall. Yet I still felt a twinge of doubt that the banana curse had been completely exercised from my craft. This morning however, I think I finally removed all doubt that the bad luck of the banana has been neutralized by handling the curse on a more diplomatic level by inviting Banana Tom to sign my boat.  Making friends with 'Banana Tom' A diplomatic solution to the Banana curse. Of course I asked him to sign it “Tom” not “Banana Tom”… there is no need to push my luck. One noteable thing I saw today was another group of kayak campers. They were set up on the far west end of the series of islands where I am camped now. This was only the third group I've seen since the start of the trip. The first was on an island jsut above Lake Wisconsin on the first day, the second was below Natchez MS on the Mississippi River. I hope with the weather getting warmer this becomes a trend that continues for the rest of the trip.  I'm not the only one... Other campers on the water. CommentsAaron Stachovak Fri, 22 Jan 2010 9:51:12 pm 37 miles - not bad mileage considering you don't have the river pushing you anymore :) Dude it is looking warm down there! Sat, 23 Jan 2010 8:45:08 am I have heard the banana story but I'm not sold on it. I have been actually trying to disprove this theory, I actually eat a banana while kayaking quite often =) I've only flipped once and lost all my gear lol. I wish we knew when you'd be paddeling by, we'd wave and cheer you on like the ironman that was held here a few months ago! You are welcome to stay here a night while in PCB, or if you decide to Camp at St andrews state park, it's right down the road from our house. I'd be honored to sign your yak! Alicia Sat, 23 Jan 2010 1:50:58 pm Hi Jake: lyn stachovak Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:21:51 pm Looks like you are in for some really interesting weather. I hope you, your kayak and gear are in a nice safe and secure place so you can ride out the storms. Love you and please pay attention to all and any weather alerts. Gene Sun, 24 Jan 2010 7:56:53 pm Bananas ARE bad luck on a boat. Our Alaska fishing trip ended a mile from launch when one of the engines died. Then we were nearly swamped by a passing cruise liner. When the skipper found our lunch sack with the bananas inside, he nearly through us overboard! Leave a Reply | Best of the Blog
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