Well, after a year of furious training, a disappointing flood delay, and only three weeks to re-acclimate with a new paddling partner and boat, we are STOKED to report that our favorite paddling Fly Fish Chick (Christine Johnson) has finished the 260-mile The Texas Water Safari in a very impressive 73.5 hours!
Christine and her partner Phil Meyer (Team Paddlefish) were actually on pace to finish with a blistering time of 65 hours, but a small weather problem forced their hand in the final leg of the race. At midnight on their third paddling day, they reached the mouth of the Guadalupe River with only 7 paddling miles to go. Unfortunately, those 7 miles entailed a sprint across the open waters of San Antonio Bay which was whipped into a chocolate froth by a 30-knot southeast wind. After an unpleasant 5-hour bivouac among the mosquitoes, fire ants, and poison ivy, they awoke to sunny skies and a slightly better wind velocity of only 27.5 knots. With their spray skirt affixed, they pointed their canoe into the waves and made a valiant push for the flagpole in Seadrift.
Congratulations to Christine and Phil for a fantastic race. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be releasing Christine’s memoir of the race in the summer of 2011. If you’ve followed her blog for any length of time, then you’re probably just as excited about that book as we are.
Can I get an autographed copy from the world renown Fly Fish Chick?