I am partnering with NRDC to paddle my outrigger canoe 1200 miles around Florida and west to New Orleans. My goal is to build support for a Healthy Oceans Act and steps to protect our oceans from global warming and ocean acidification. For those who do not know, I paddle to inform and for those who don't care, I paddle to inspire. I am documenting my journey on this blog during the month-long paddle.You can read more about the paddle, see photos, and take action here. You can also check out my personal website with information about this and other adventures here.

I love paddling at night. I got another chance last night, and even had a brief foray out onto the Gulf.

Yesterday I had an absolutely fabulous tour at the Mote Aquarium, followed by the first TV camera session of the paddle--woohoo NRDC team, we're getting the word out there for the need for a more concerted effort at the national level for significant ocean protection legislation. Hey, individual action is great, but at this present time, we have some very large individuals that really don't give a damn if they bankrupt our natural resources (the only sure thing my kids and your will inherit), and that needs to change.

Anyway, back to the paddle and the Mote Aquarium tour, where Hayley Rutger, Kim Ritchie, and Martha Wells gave me a tremendously fascinating and informative tour. This place is a  definite come-back place. Like Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and Skidaway in Georgia, this place is turning out amazing research--and supplies 40% of the seahorses in this country's aquariums. The seahorse man himself, Richie Paetsche, gave us a tour of his breeding and fry tanks. He also told me that most of the bad bacteria inhabit the top layers of the water column, and that he had contracted TB from the water and had to be on  antibiotics for nine months.

Following the tour, we had a little press event where I shoved off close to 11am for my 35 mile paddle. The first ten miles went well, wind at my back, then a bit of a duking it out with a current, followed by a 25 mile battle with "wind on the nose."

Despite my lack of charts for the area, I had gathered some local knowledge from a fisherman to get me through to the bit of ICW here.  Melissa Waage, with the help of my rockin' "spot" locator and Google Maps, directed me to the inlet to go out.

Before hitting the Gulf, there was a brief meeting with a channel 9 camera man, who so kindly watched my boat while I ran to the bushes to release what I think might have been a yellow breasted chat.  He must've flown too low to the water and been smacked down by the chop in Tampa Bay. So I scooped him up and paddled with him in my lap.

With the wind slowing me down, I knew it would be another night paddle. If you find yourself paddling in the dark, it is most definitely a good thing to have reflective tape on your boat, a stern light, a head lamp, and a spare flashlight. Staying out of the channels is also a pretty good idea, particularly if the waterway twists and turns. This can be a royal pain in the ass, though, because sometimes there is a real lack of water outside the channel. Then you gotta get out and walk your boat back to deeper water and hope you don't step on anything funky in the process.

Staying far outside the channel in the dark I paddled into a fading wind and light chop. I heard a desperate meow of a cat. It seemed to be coming from the channel. I angled over to get a better idea of where it was while its cries grew increasingly more desperate, before halting altogether.

Not having made it to the channel I stopped and waited for more cries. The silence was only broken by three speeding motor boats heading south on the waterway.