April, 2010 A strong headwind picked up as we paddled North along the British Columbia coast. We stopped for an extended lunch to rest and wait for the wind to die. Amy cracked a book and was content reading in the sun, glancing up on occasion to see if the wind was letting up, and admire the snow capped mountains across the straight on Vancouver Island.
It was the first week of a 3 year journey across North America. I knew that paddling into the howling wind didn’t make sense. We had more than 11,000 miles to go. We needed to let our muscles and tendons slowly adjust to hours of continuous paddling.
I think one of the main reasons Amy and I were able to paddle into Key West, Florida and complete this journey almost 3 years to the day after I snapped this photo is our ability to provide balance to each other. I am always pushing ahead. Amy is good at stepping back and taking care of details that I miss, or knowing when we should stop rest.
