Donn
05-10-2005, 06:51 AM
Tuesday, 10 May 2005
A Solo Sea Kayaking Odyssey to the Caribbean
JACKSON, MS, (NAMC) - Tourists visit the more popular islands of the Caribbean by the planeload. What they don’t see from their resort hotels are the hundreds of inaccessible islands and cays sprinkled along the West Indies chain from Florida to Venezuela that can only be reached by boat. This alluring archipelago of uninhabited islands spaced temptingly close together led Mississippi adventurer Scott B. Williams to embark upon an open-ended quest to see how for south he could paddle in a seventeen-foot sea kayak.
“A mere vacation would not be enough,” he writes. “I wanted to savor the experience, to absorb the places I longed to visit at the average speed of three miles an hour. Why not paddle for a year…two years?” With that, Williams, only twenty-five at the time, quit his job, sold his possessions and purchased the expedition gear he would need for an extended period of long days of paddling and living in a tent on tropical beaches.
Williams chose to travel alone and began his journey on his favorite stream in Mississippi which led to the Gulf of Mexico, and then worked his way down the coast of Florida to the Keys. His journey took him through some of the most unspoiled islands of the Bahamas, on to Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, (University Press of Mississippi) narrates this journey of a lifetime, describing the wonders of discovery as he makes landfall on countless pristine cays and meets like-minded adventurers in a variety of larger sailboats. Relentless headwinds, dangerous surf, beaches declared off-limits to trespassing and camping, and aggressive sharks that ram his kayak and snap him out of his musing remind the adventurer that this paradise is far from perfect. Every day of the journey required constant vigilance.
With no one to depend on and often no one even knowing where he was for weeks at a time, Williams learned what it means to be self-reliant and to adjust to “island time.” With just a simple, human-powered craft and the few belongings that would fit inside, Williams explores hidden parts of the Caribbean rarely if ever accessed by the island tourist.
In addition to On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, Scott B. Williams is the author of: Exploring Coastal Mississippi: A Guide to the Marine Waters and Islands, Astray of the Herd: Observations, Commentaries and Rants from Outside the Mainstream, and, co-authored with Ernest Herndon: Paddling the Pascagoula: The Last Wild River.
On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, University Press of Mississippi, May 2005, ISBN
1-57086-747-2 is now available. More information is available at the author’s website: http://www.scottbwilliams.com or from the publisher: http://www.upress.state.ms.us
A Solo Sea Kayaking Odyssey to the Caribbean
JACKSON, MS, (NAMC) - Tourists visit the more popular islands of the Caribbean by the planeload. What they don’t see from their resort hotels are the hundreds of inaccessible islands and cays sprinkled along the West Indies chain from Florida to Venezuela that can only be reached by boat. This alluring archipelago of uninhabited islands spaced temptingly close together led Mississippi adventurer Scott B. Williams to embark upon an open-ended quest to see how for south he could paddle in a seventeen-foot sea kayak.
“A mere vacation would not be enough,” he writes. “I wanted to savor the experience, to absorb the places I longed to visit at the average speed of three miles an hour. Why not paddle for a year…two years?” With that, Williams, only twenty-five at the time, quit his job, sold his possessions and purchased the expedition gear he would need for an extended period of long days of paddling and living in a tent on tropical beaches.
Williams chose to travel alone and began his journey on his favorite stream in Mississippi which led to the Gulf of Mexico, and then worked his way down the coast of Florida to the Keys. His journey took him through some of the most unspoiled islands of the Bahamas, on to Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, (University Press of Mississippi) narrates this journey of a lifetime, describing the wonders of discovery as he makes landfall on countless pristine cays and meets like-minded adventurers in a variety of larger sailboats. Relentless headwinds, dangerous surf, beaches declared off-limits to trespassing and camping, and aggressive sharks that ram his kayak and snap him out of his musing remind the adventurer that this paradise is far from perfect. Every day of the journey required constant vigilance.
With no one to depend on and often no one even knowing where he was for weeks at a time, Williams learned what it means to be self-reliant and to adjust to “island time.” With just a simple, human-powered craft and the few belongings that would fit inside, Williams explores hidden parts of the Caribbean rarely if ever accessed by the island tourist.
In addition to On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, Scott B. Williams is the author of: Exploring Coastal Mississippi: A Guide to the Marine Waters and Islands, Astray of the Herd: Observations, Commentaries and Rants from Outside the Mainstream, and, co-authored with Ernest Herndon: Paddling the Pascagoula: The Last Wild River.
On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean, University Press of Mississippi, May 2005, ISBN
1-57086-747-2 is now available. More information is available at the author’s website: http://www.scottbwilliams.com or from the publisher: http://www.upress.state.ms.us