Hurricane Irma “cancelled” My 400-km SUP-venture
Hard Call To Make
My suitcases are packed and ready in the hallway. It’s midnight and my flight to the Bahamas leaves in little over 6 hours. My final look at the forecast is even more disappointing than it has been so far and my last hopes seem to diminish quickly. I have been watching Hurricane Irma’s progress every day, all day, for 10 days now. The Exumas, my destination, will be definitely affected by high winds for as many as 5 days if not more. I pick up the phone and call Air Canada to cancel my flight.
Mission scrubbed. After 7 months of preparations, this was a very difficult call to make. I have seriously trained for this mission for the whole season. I SUPed more than 700km this year, I even gave up kiting for a few months as I SUPed in all wind conditions I could find.
My plan is to SUP around Exuma Cay Chain, 365+ little isles, approximately a 360-400 km journey. As usual, I want to go solo and self-supported with 14-days of food supplies and 4 days of water on board of my SUP. The area is stunningly beautiful, it leaves even poets without words. Many of these islands are simply too small to be inhabited, some of them are privately and a few have basic services for sailboat guests and one-day tourists. As far as I know, it has never been done before.
Edit July 29th, 2018: Almost one year later! As many of you know, hurricane Irma “cancelled” my plans to do this trip last year. But... Things are looking up so far this year, the forecast is good, and if everything goes well, I should be paddling into the unknown in a few hours. I am just waiting to board the aircraft bound for Exuma! Wish me luck and you can follow my journey on my tracker. The link will become life when I start to paddle.
Edit 2: And the rest is history! I did it! It was a trip of a lifetime! Here are the pictures, videos, and the highlights of my adventure in 8 episodes!
Episode 1:
Episode 2:
Episode 3:
Episode 4:
Episode 5:
Episode 7:
