Canadian expedition sea kayakers and brothers, Russell and Graham Henry, are setting out on the longest open water crossing of their 4,000-mile Brazil to Florida expedition: 90 miles across the Caribbean.
“The most obvious danger of the trip is the big open water crossings in the Caribbean,” Russell told Adventure Kayak in a pre-trip interview.
The brothers began their journey in July 2013 in Belem, Brazil, and over the past six months have paddled 1,500 miles along the inhospitable coast of South America, and island-hopped across the Caribbean from Trinidad to the Dominican Republic. After a holiday lay-over in the Dominican, they departed the morning of January 16 on the 90-mile crossing to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“After 10 days of waiting for the right winds, we are pulling the trigger and setting out on the longest crossing of the expedition,” the brothers wrote on their blog at Henrykayak.com, estimating the crossing will take about 30 hours.
The notoriously unpredictable waters of the Caribbean have served up their share of challenges to the brothers, who have already notched several significant crossings—including two 40-milers between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic— and overcome high winds, big water and bad currents.
“We have both been paddling all our lives,” says Graham, “We want this trip to beat us down and give us something seemingly insurmountable to overcome.”
Read more about the Henry Brothers and the motivation behind their Brazil to Florida Expedition in Paddling Magazine, here.
See photos and video from the trip, and follow the brothers’ progress with hourly updates here.
