Billy Cullity 1st Blog Entry- Spring 2011

Billy Cullity                                                                                                       1-31-11

Expedition 1

            On our previous expedition, we went to the Everglades in South West Florida. We were paddling through the Gulf of Mexico, for the first half of the expedition. We were also paddling through the swampy areas for the second half of the expedition. In general we were paddling the whole time for two weeks straight.

           

            For the first half of the expedition we were paddling through the Gulf of Mexico. While we were paddling through the first half of the expedition we came across a couple storms, two to be exact. The first storm we came across was the worst one; there was a very heavy down pour of rain and very strong winds causing big waves and lots of white caps. We had waves crashing over the canoe with very high chances to flip our canoe. We had to go to an island and beach our canoes until the storm died down. The second storm we came across wasn’t as bad but it was still pretty bad. There was more wind but no rain and bigger waves. We also had to stop at an island and once we got there one of the canoes sank, but we retrieved it and only lost a couple small things. That’s when we decided to stay the night there and then as we were unloading the canoes, another one sank, we retrieved that one to. That was the end of the storms for a while.

            The next morning the sky was clear and there was no storm. We only had to paddle one half of a mile that day. The campsite we stayed at that day was great; Tristan and I got to set up out hammocks. Our hammocks were ser up over water literally! It was also the day we all tried to get in a canoe and then had to flip it once we got in it, it was fun. The next day we paddled about twenty miles and saw one alligator, this was also the day we started paddling inland through rivers and small little bays. We also caught some fish that day and I caught a big spotted sea trout.

            Then the last day of the expedition we only had five miles. We also finished expedition one day early, and got to do fun activities the next day because of this reason. Some of the activities we did were walking around town, going out on a pear, and eating out for Tristan’s birthday.

            The next day we started driving to Georgia. We stopped at the Florida information center as we were crossing over into Georgia for free orange juice. Then once we got to the camp site we played Frisbee and played on the jungle gym after we set up camp. Then the next day we were on the road again, heading back home to North Carolina. Once we got back home we had to sleep in the basement because the new cabin wasn’t done yet. But now were still in the basement waiting on the new cabin but having a normal base week until we go on our next expedition.