I had went down to Flamingo on Jan. 29th with plans of going to the finish and back. To make a long story short, I slept Tues. night out at Palm Key after putting in at Flamingo in the late afternoon sun. I was rushing (it can take an hour) to get out of the way at the ramp for when the charter fishing captains come in at the days end.
That was the start of my dehydration. The next morning I woke up and started out for the Keys. I was paddling lazily with my Balogh Boss system out just waiting for the wind to pick up. It was hot and still. Then I got to the Dump Keys at noon and out of no where it hit me. Heat Exhaustion. I didn't realize that at the time but it was. I thought it was just dehydration until days later.
Keeping the story short... it took everything I had to make it back to Flamingo. I was whipped and I didn't want to drive home to Naples until the next day. It took me a week to recover.
I only got 27 miles in over about a 24 hour period.
