This is an excerpt from something I wrote about the Texas Water Safari Canoe Race I did in June of 2021:
Above is the 265-mile course me and my buddy Charlie paddled down the river in the Texas Water Safari Adventure Race. The race starts just south of Austin in San Marcos. The finish is in the Gulf of Mexico near the city of Seadrift.
For 258 miles, we paddled in the safety of a river channel. At the place marked by the blue arrow is where we popped out of the river and started making our open water bay crossing to reach the finish line 7 miles away. At the point indicated by the blue arrow, we had been in the boat right at 84 hours. That’s 3 and ½ days. We thought the worst was behind us. Here’s a story about the next 4-hours.
We started paddling with a husband and wife team the night before. Safety in numbers. They, like Charlie, were from New Braunfels. They were an awesome couple. It was their first Texas Water Safari too. It was somewhere around 9:30 to 10 PM when we reached the end of the river channel. There were two other boats that were just 100 yards or so ahead of us. A storm was taking off in front of us. We saw the lightning on the bow of the canoe. We hoped it was moving away. It wasn’t.
About an hour earlier, we put spray skirts over the top of our canoes to prevent the waves in the bay from swamping our canoes. The skirts now had a secondary use because as we approached open water we were hit head-on by a tremendous thunderstorm. It had it all; lightning, high wind, and pounding rain. Crossing the bay in a canoe in perfect weather is difficult because of the waves. The shape of the bay turns the body of water into a washing machine. The currents are all confused and bounce in every direction. This storm was big and scary. We had to be careful. If we capsized the canoe in the middle of that bay, there would be little hope for us to get back into the boat. We were exhausted, beat up, and the water was just too rough. We had to make sure we stayed in the boat. Knowing this, when we exited the river channel Charlie made the decision for the team that we would not angle for the finish line but would paddle directly into the wind. He felt this was the only chance we stood to keep the boat upright. The other two boats that were just ahead of us didn’t do that. They went directly to the finish line. This would be a decision they would later regret.
Once in the open water, the storm intensified. The winds grew and the lightning filled the sky. I think we were all scared, at least I know that I was. At one point, we could hear tornado sirens going off in the distance. We later learned there was a tornado in the thunderstorm just a few miles to our north. We paddled hard but made little progress against the wind and the current. It took us almost an hour to go from the blue arrow to the green arrow. It was now 11 PM and the storm was continuing to build. We received some relief when we got to the blue arrow. At this point, we had some protection from the wind by a small chain of barrier islands. These islands also separated the bay from the intercoastal waterway. We were not allowed to go into the I.C.W. It was too dangerous due to the traffic created by the large ships and barges. Having the barrier islands gave us a small sense of safety. In the event we capsized, we had a way out of the water. We could also potentially get back in the boat in the shallow water. Paddling continued to be difficult. To make matters worse, we were not exactly sure of our coordinates in the bay or the location of the finish line. I am not being over dramatic when I say that we were in a very dangerous situation.
We paddled parallel to the barrier islands. The islands to our left and open water to our right. The storm was still in full bloom. It had been over an hour since we left the river channel. Pop! What was that? It sounded like a gunshot. About then, I saw the glow of a flare in the sky. It was at about 2 o’clock off of our bow. It was quite a ways off in the distance. A few minutes later, we saw more flares go up but these appeared to come from a totally different area than the first ones. Later, we would find out that the flares came from the other two boats that opted for the direct route to the finish line. With flares illuminating, the gravity of the situation deepened.
We pointed our boats toward the shoreline at the tip of the last barrier island. Once we were in calmer waters we had a team discussion. Do we call it quits? There would be nothing wrong if we did. Crossing 5 miles of open water in the Gulf of Mexico could end in disaster. We also talked about spending another night out in the open on the little island and then making a run for the finish line in the morning. We decided we were in no shape to do this. The race had taken its toll on our bodies and our minds. We started this race on Saturday morning at 9 am. It was now a little before midnight on Tuesday. Charlie and I had only stopped to sleep a couple of times over the past 4 days. Cumulatively, a total of about 7 or 8 hours. 
Most of that sleep had taken place the night before on a river bank in the mud. During the night, fire ants had literally crawled into my pants. When I woke up and moved, they went to work stinging me. I would later find out that I had about 200 stings and they were all on my butt and groin. What prompted us to stop for a nap was a capsizing that almost killed me and wrecked our canoe. We were running this small rapid around 11 PM. We got crossed up and flipped over. Charlie got swept downstream. Me and the boat were pushed by the current into a log jam and we both became entangled. I was underwater for about 30 seconds. It seemed like a lot longer. The current was swift and pushed hard against me. My life jacket was snagged on an underwater limb sticking out from the log jam. I had a headlamp on my head when I went under. The couple paddling with us on the other boat said they could see my headlamp and that I was struggling under the water, but there was nothing they could do to help. I freed myself first and then I had to untangle the boat. Once done, I paddled down the river to a sandbar and collected Charlie and all our gear that had fallen out of our boat. Enough of the night before.
So here we were at this crossroads at the end of the barrier island. Option 1, sleep another night in the open so we can cross the bay in the light. Option 2, say to hell with it and take our chances and go for it. Option 3, Quit. We debated for a few minutes. We then made our decision; We did not come this far to only come this far! We finish tonight.
We were maybe 4 miles from the finish line. We had endured 4 days of hell and paddled 260 miles and we were determined to finish. We were unsure of the best route to cross the bay for the finish. There was supposed to be a flashing yellow light, but we did not see anything. Remembering that my Garmin watch has a mapping feature, we used the GPS to approximate a bearing across the bay. We began paddling. We all dug deep. We wanted to finish. The saltwater on my ant bites was very painful. After about 20 minutes in the open water, the storm passed. The waves on the bay were still messy, but things were better. Our happiest moment was when we crossed from behind this small island and in an instant, we saw the flashing yellow light onshore that marked the finish line. The bearing we took from my watch was perfect. At 12:58 am, 87 hours and 58 minutes after starting the race, we crossed the finish line. There was a crowd of people onshore to welcome us. I’ve never been so proud of completing something in my life. The team that was never supposed to even make it through the 1st checkpoint had completed the journey. Best of all I did it with my buddy Charlie and my kids, Jason and Ellie, handling our around-the-clock support. Jamie was there too.
That year, 150 boats started the race. Only 99 finished. We finished in 96th place. For that, we got the same award as the first-place team; An embroidered Texas Water Safari patch. In races like this, it’s not about the trophy or the prize. It’s about finishing what you started.
Here’s a photo of the patch finishers are awarded. It is one of my most treasured possessions.
