Well, the "Big Day" finally arrived. I climbed out of bed at 3:30am and met up with seven other paddlers at the Burlington Skyway at 5:30am. Entered the water at 6:00am and started paddling towards Toronto, 65kms and 14 hours away. We paddled through heavy mist, rain and fog for the first few hours and had to hug the shoreline, basically so that we could see where we were going. Tough paddling just past Oakville, where first we had to find shelter during a thunderstorm and then had to battle a headwind just before the 35km point which was at Jack Darling Park. There I reassured Lynn that I felt "Just Fine", drank a litre of Gatorade and said that I would meet her at the finish line at Ashbridge's Bay. A couple of hours later the sky cleared just enough so that we could see the Toronto Skyline. This was shortly before we ran into a NE headwind, bad chop and a really spectacular thunderstorm. Once again we headed for shore and took shelter on one of the Toronto Islands. After the storm passed, we paddled to Cherry beach and met up with a group of paddlers who joined us for the last 10kms. We arrived at Ashbridge's Bay at 8:00pm where we were welcomed by a large crowd on the beach. So far we have raised a total of $10,756.00 for the MS Society of Canada. and it's still not too late to donate. A big thanks to Mike and Grant of Surf Ontario for organizing the event, Derek Schrotter of Paddle Sport Performance for the encouragement he gave me, and to Ryan White, who not only drove up from NJ for the event, but also paddled the whole distance prone, and took this video. Also thanks to Dave and Adrian for the land support and these pictures, A huge "Thank You" to all who were kind enough to sponsor me, and to Lynn who put up with me and took even more pics. I think I did OK, I surprised myself, and I think I surprised a lot of other people as well. It's time to start planning for the 2012 event, you have a whole year to get into shape...
