WHAT’S IN
ME, MYSELF AND I. PHOTO: COURTESY DEB WALTERS
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DR. WALTERS’ KAYAK H
ow do you pack for a yearlong, transcontinental kayak trip that in- volves stepping from backcountry to boardroom en route?
“Well, I don’t travel light,” says Dr. Deborah Walters, 63, a retired cog-
nitive scientist and university vice president. The grandmother of four is four months into her 2,500-mile solo expedition, paddling from Maine to Guatemala for charity. Struck by the families living in poverty in Guatemala City’s garbage
dump on a trip a decade ago, she began volunteering with Safe Passage, a non-profit that sends local children to school in an area devastated by poverty. Making presentations to schools and potential donors along her route south has already brought her halfway to reaching her goal of $150,000. —Kaydi Pyette
1. Walters built her 18-foot, 75-pound wooden kayak 16 years ago but
never paddled it after trouble getting the hatches watertight. Instead, it sat in her barn, a cozy den for porcupines. Chesapeake Light Craft, manufacturers of the kit, helped get the kayak expedition-ready. By using recycled materials found around their shop, Chesapeake’s designer customized the cockpit to fit Walters and made modifications specific for this trip, including moving bulkheads, adding hatches and reinforcing the structure with carbon fiber and fiberglass. “We’re a good team,” Walters says of her and her boat.
2. Allowing Walters to stay in touch with her family and send daily
social media updates is her MacBook and DeLorme InReach Explorer. Her favorite feature of the Explorer is that it automatically updates her route every 10 minutes, making it easy for strangers to surprise her at the end of the day with a hot meal or for fellow paddlers to join her for an afternoon on the water.
174 KAYAKING || Annual 2015
3. Though Walters loves her freestanding Hilleberg Staika tent, she
hasn’t had to use it very often while paddling near urban areas. “Strang- ers are putting me up in luxury,” she says. “This is the first expedition on which I’m gaining weight.”
4. Walters carries up to a week’s worth of food at a time, most of it homemade
dehydrated snacks, including turkey pepperoni and
spinach chips. Her favorite meal? “It’s a weird one—instant mash potatoes with lemon olive oil, drizzled with a dark chocolate balsamic vinegar.” At capacity, her food and gear weigh 160 pounds.
5. With presentations to make in schools and fundraisers to attend
along her route, Walters also had to pack a city outfit, housed in its own dry bag, so it doesn’t take on the stink of her wet neoprene.
6. “It’s a hammock—lots of people ask what it is,” says Walters. Along
the coasts of Florida and Belize the mangrove forest will prevent her from finding land to set up the tent. “I just tie my hammock up in the top of the mangroves, and tie up my kayak as well, and while the tide goes up and down I have a wonderful sleep in the trees.”
7. “The children in Guatemala thought I would be lonely on my trip
so they gave me a rubber duck,” says Walters. Dubbed Patito Amistoso (Friendly Duckie), the squeaky totem stays in the pocket of her PFD. An occasional star in Walters’ blog entries, Patito is a timid alter ego to Walters’ positivity and confidence. “Whenever I talk with a boater they always tell me how the next portion of my journey will be the most ter- rifying section—I hear about disasters and ships running aground—if I listened to them I’d be scared the whole time, like Patito. Just a little concern keeps me alert and on my toes though.”
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