100 Islands of Cockroach Bay GCJ9NJ

Sisyphus must've been a geocacher.
I reckon it's time for this cache's bi-annual visit.

My sister and I both work very strange schedules, so when we decide to do something together, it often takes many weeks of planning to pull it off. In this particular instance, our objective was a moonlight paddle in Tampa Bay, with a cache at the end. The date was chiseled in stone as being Friday night, come Hell or high water.

We got to the ramp at the end of Cockroach Bay Rd at about midnight, and pondered Tropical Storm Barry. Winds were howling, driving the pouring rain sideways. The sight brought to mind a quote, which I think came from Garrison Keller:
"At birth, God grants each person a specific number of stupid things they can get away with". As we stared into the tempest, I conducted a review of my life, trying to count how many stupid things I've done, in an attempt to determine the likelihood that I would survive this quest.

Brenda, and her friend Donald, were equipped with sit-in-side yaks & full rain gear, whilst I was paddling an O.K. Drifter, wearing shorts & a T-shirt. A recent 'yak article compared the Drifter to paddling a couch, yet this article was refuted by a study conducted at Cambridge University, in which it was determined a couch is actually faster and more maneuverable than the Drifter.

Cry 'Havoc', and let slip the yaks of lore!

By 12:30, we were in the water. By 12:31, I was completely drenched. There were wet places on me that don't get wet in the shower! Paddle on! A few strokes put us in the bay, and once we turned north, the gale was hitting us square in the faces. The wind was so intense, when my paddle strokes would falter, my groundspead read "0 MPH". Vision was reduced to a few 'yak lengths, and all we could do was keep paddling, following the arrow on my 60CSx.

After what felt like a month of paddling, we reached the proper island, and found a suitable place to beach, a few hundred feet from ground zero. At that point, the rain quit. We had hoped that the storm would keep the skeeters away, commencing our bushwhack, but as soon as we reached the cache, my legs were covered in the little buggers.

We removed the cache covering, finding a hornet's nest underneath, but fortunately, the hornets opted not to attack, probably figuring the skeeters would suck us dry before they had a chance to sting. Ha! We followed the Golden Rule, doing unto others before they could do unto us, eliminating the threat.

We looked into the exterior container, observing that it was half filled with water and leaves. Apparently the drain holes plugged up sometime in the past. However, the Lock-n-Lock inside was bobbing contentedly, and there wasn't a trace of moisture inside. Whoo Hoo!! We left a handmade "Geocaching" keychain, a green & black polished semiprecious stone, and a chunk of polished magnetite. We then dumped out the exterior container, clearing out the drain holes, then we put everything back the way we found it.

Back to the bay!

We discovered that there was a landing much closer to the cache than the one we used, so we staggered out into the water and waded back to our boats. On our return trip, the gale was at our backs, so we figured we'd have an easy paddle back. Alas, almost as soon as our paddles touched the water, the rain returned with a gusto.

We got back to the ramp at 3:00am, absolutely worn out, aching in every muscle, yet I felt more alive than I had in several weeks. I guess I haven't met my quota on stupid acts yet.

Thanx for a most excellent adventure!
Sean, Brenda & Donald.

By Clan Riffster

Clan Riffster is a contributing author to The Online Geocacher.