Day 49 (Six hours into a head wind is enough)

Daily stats
Start: 6:09 AM- Fort Walton Beach, FL
Finish: 12:00 PM - Destin, FL
Time: 5:50
Daily dist: 18 miles
Total dist: x miles
Companions: None
Weather: WINDY 15-20 mph head wind
Notes:The wind took it out of me today so I pulled off the water early.

If you had asked me this morning "What is the worst wind you could see today?" I would have said, “East... please no east wind.” Of course that is exactly what I had…. All day. The wind is actually what woke me up at 3:00 AM. I had planned on paddling out of the Intracoastal to the open coast and down to Grayton Beach. However, when I woke to the wind already blowing so early I opted to stay on the inside to try to hide from the wind as much as possible. Going on the open coast to Grayton would have committed me to the outside (and potential big seas) for the next couple days, which could mean I‘d be going nowhere. With big winds in the forecast until Tuesday I figured staying inside would increase my chances of being able to move and put more miles on. I had set my sights on an island 32 miles away at the entrance of a very narrow dredged out portion of the waterway known as the “Big ditch.” In the end, however, the wind changed all my plans.

After six hours of slogging into harsh headwinds I finally threw in the towel and decided to go for plan B and find someplace to hunker down for the next couple nights. I originally had plans to meet up with a local paddle boarder named Cory, he had been the one to recommend Grayton State park as a great place to stay, and wanted to meet up and paddle a bit with me down there. The big winds took paddle boarding out of the picture, but thankfully not Cory. Cory is a truly great guy who is currently at ground zero of the local paddleboard community. He has started "Waterman Gulf Coast" on-line and with that organization he has put on several great events to promote this relatively new sport beyond surfing and racing to everyone else. When I found a place to land I gave Cory a call and he (and his friend another local SUP paddler, David) came down to the park where I was to pick me up and take me out for a bight to eat. When they found me I was engrossed in a conversation with a local Sherriff’s deputy in his squad car (nothing but good things this time) and yet another local SUP paddler just in after playing around in the very wind that was too much for me. The SUP community is certainly alive and well in northwest Florida.

This sherrif's deputy and I chatted while i waited for Cory to pick me up. It was nice to talk to a law enforcement officer and not require his services..

It’s interesting how, in my experience, almost all of the folks come in contact with who are involved in paddle-sports are great people. Cory and David showed me that stand up paddlers are no different. It seems as though if you are the type that enjoys putting paddle to water, in no matter what craft, you’re probably going to be OK in my book.

Me with Dave and Cory two of the big names in the local paddling community.

After lunch Cory drove me to Wal-Mart to replace the watch I had lost the day before (which of course I found later on) then on to a nearby RV park “Camping on the Gulf.” Cory turned on his charm and helped me explain my predicament to see if they could make room for me for a couple nights. The campground was very sympathetic to my cause and helped me get set up on one of their smaller sites. I was warned by the staff that when it rains (there are storms in the forecast) the grassy areas usually flood so I ended up setting my tent up on the concrete slab there for RV’s to park on. With my good sleeping mat I wasn’t worried about the hard ground, but anchoring my tent to deal with the blowing winds was interesting. I ended up using the Ikkuma itself to anchor one side of the tent and was able to pull my anchor lines over the edge of the slab to anchor the other three sides.

I'm not much for RV camping and have come to prefer my tent on a nice sand bar in the river to just about any other place to stay.  However, “Camping on the Gulf” is amazing and the manager David and the rest of the staff have gone out of their way to make sure I'm comfortable during my stay. The campground has every amenity a person could want complete with two pools, a hot tub, rec. center, store, laundry, and (of course) campsites right on the beach. I’m looking forward to a nice shower and might just take a soak in the hot tub, despite my brother’s warnings that it can sap my energy.  Somehow I don't think twenty minutes in a hot tub could be any worse than six hours of head wnds.

The plan now is to lay low for the day tomorrow (Sunday) to wait for the storms and wind that are still in the forecast to finally clear out. Then I’ll be back on the water Monday to put on some miles toward Panama City. David volunteered to give me a ride back to the park where I took out today and is planning on paddling along with me for part of the day. With the sunshine and a nice tail wind that’s predicted we should have a great time.