By Times Staff
A young couple kayaking their way down the coast from Maine to Key West, Fla., spent some time in Cape Ann this past week.
Dan, 22, and Bethany Cox, 25, of North Carolina started their journey in Lubec, Maine, on Sept. 2, 2008, and spent the winter in Portland. They resumed the trip on May 2, landing in Essex last Wednesday after spending the day paddling from Salisbury Beach State Park.
"The paddle to Essex was one of my most memorable thus far. The water was the glassiest I have ever seen it in my life. ... It was heaven. It was hard to believe we were on the open ocean," Bethany Cox wrote on the couple's blog, dbkayak.com, about the trip. "Near the end of our paddling time however, we began to focus on out tiredness and our achy bodies and our discomfort, all because we didn't have anything else to focus on since the ocean was being completely mundane and calm. We got grumpy and tired and by the time we stopped, we were finished physically. It was so nice to know that we were going to be staying in a house for the night with a really nice family and get to enjoy a home for a day or so."
The Coxes spent Wednesday and Thursday night on Maple Street with Lyn and Mike Gelinas and their family, before moving on to Gloucester.
Lyn Gelinas said her daughter, Anna, and Bethany Cox's sister, were suite-mates their freshman year at Elon College in Elon, N.C; both girls are now sophomores. When Anna heard the couple were kayaking the coast, she told them about Essex and how popular kayaking is in town.
"It's crazy how you can get connected with people and find places to stay along the way," Bethany Cox wrote of the couple's Essex stay. "It provided us with a much needed respite and really made us feel like home."
The trip was a dream of Dan Cox's; the couple decided to follow through for no other reason than to inspire others to follow their dreams.
"To see them leave Essex, paddling away from Conomo Point, was very inspiring,'' Lyn Gelinas said. While she hasn't gone out kayaking, she said she and her husband own a few and she is now forward to trying it.
The Gelinas took them to Jalepenos on Friday night before the Coxes went to sleep in a backyard on Gloucester's Rocky Neck. On Saturday, they headed to Salem, and then spent Sunday in Marblehead, Lyn Gelinas said.
The couple is blogging about the trip at dbkayak.com, where visitors can view photos, videos and follow them on a map.
