Just found out that Mark is less than 10Km from Maubitou…
He made up for the poor mileage on the 12th by kayaking more than 70Km today… 
I don’t have the journals for the 13th and today but will fill you in…
Mark was able to take advantage of favorable conditions and put in about 75km between 5am and 6pm…Which put him within striking distance of Kenting.
This morning had Mark realizing he’d pushed it too hard the day before. Coming around the tip of Maubitou, he gave into the fact that his strength was spent and came ashore for a 3 hour rest. He then proceeded across the bay to Erluanbi in the late afternoon…The halfway point has been reached!
Tomorrow he plans to paddle in the morning, and has a beach activity/cleanup/party planned in Taidong until 8pm. He’ll then drive back down to Kenting, and depart for a full paddling day on Sunday.
I’ll be heading down myself tomorrow, and will update this thread when I return on Monday evening.
Now the fun begins…The Pacific and East coast scenery! 
[quote=“Michael J Botti”]
Hotels can be difficult to find in the smaller towns, and so we
Ok, I’ve returned and here’s my 3rd person report for the last 48 hours…
We met Mark in Kenting at around midnight Saturday where he’d just returned from an event in Taidong…
Sunday morning:
Mark departed from a small harbor just south of Chialoushui around 8:30am. The goal for the day was to pass entirely the military bases scattered between there and Tawu in Taidong county, a distance of about 45km. We followed him north using small roads coming off of highway 200 and the 199, discovering some delightful out of the way harbors and met him for lunch at around 12:30pm in the small town of gangztai. The beach was baking hot (41C on the sand) and Mark was showing some signs of fatigue. After a short nap, he proceeded onto Tawu, arriving at around 5:45. Two other paddlers, who set off with him in the morning were over 20km behind and ended up doing 3 hours in the dark to reach Tawu harbor…Total distance: 42Km.
Mark elected to rest up in Chrben for the night. So we drove the 44k and spent the evening catching up and soaking in the overpriced tourist trap that only Chrben can be…
We were off at 7am, driving back to Tawu for his 8am departure. The sea, despite looking very calm, had a long gradual swell which ended up as a heavy beach break which we rightly took as the sign of a heavy storm out to sea. This was to prove dangerous later in the day. We left Mark at this point to rush back north to work.
We called Mark while driving somewhere around Chiayi and he told us he was flipped and held underwater by the beachbreak where he was attemping to land for lunch. He lost some equipment and was a little shaken. The two other paddlers were also thrashed (flipped several times) trying to land. The conditions have deteriorated to the point where paddling was no longer feasible and they called it a day…
Super Typhoon Nida will be affecting the Southeast coast for the next couple of days, and will give Mark a chance for some much needed rest. After watching his daily routine, I now understand how utterly exhausting this trip is for him. Mark was in the kayak paddling for a full 9 hours as I followed his progress along along the shore (Thank god for 4-wheel drive) and was totally wiped out by the heat at the end of the day. I can’t even begin to fathom the pace he kept in that heat, never slacking.
Mark will be staying in Taidong tonight and checking the water conditions in the morning. Very likely he’ll have a chance to collapse exhausted for a full 24-48 hours.
Sorry this was not better written, but I’ve logged some 1,200km behind the wheel over the last 36 hours…A bit groggy.
Thanks again to everyone following this thread, and again I’ll post Marks first-hand accounts when I receive them.
Sorry this hasn’t been updated, but with the inclement weather Mark’s progress has been somewhat slow this week.
He’s in the process of getting caught up as we speak, and I should have the goods in a few hours…
Mark is currently about 15K south of Taidong.
Michael,
Thanks for taking the time to post Mark’s progress reports. It’s nice to imagine oneself out on the ocean rather than think about the reality of teaching in a buxiban!!
I’ve got a few general questions about his progress down the West Coast.
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On average, how far from the shoreline was he?
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Did he have problems running into off-shore fish farms?
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How did he co-ordinate the difficult leg that took him past Kaohsiung port?
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Do I need to buy the book to find out the answers?
Cheers.
Marks Journals from May 13th-16th…And no Almas John you don’t have to wait for the book. Some of your answers lie within these passages…Read on.
Paddle Taiwan Project
Daily Journal
Date: May 13th
Headline News (
Marks Journals from the 17th to the 20th…
Paddle Taiwan Project
Daily Journal: May 17th
Highlight:
Without much warning, the wind started to blow and gray clouds came down over the mountain tops. Tony called me on the mobile and told me to quickly paddle to the designated rest stop which was another 3 kilometers up the coast. Paddle quickly? Not possible, with 15 knot gusts blowing in my face. Instead, I was forced to make a rather dangerous landing through the beach surf. With only a single breaking wave, the chance of making it ashore right-side-up was, in my mind, a meek possibility. Each wave cascades onto the shore and quickly twists under itself before being sucked back out to sea. And that
Thanks so much Michael, I’m really enjoying this!
Yeh, Michael, thanks. Even if Mark doesn’t get a chance to write a book on the trip, these diaries are worth looking at. Thanks for posting.
Thank goodness…I thought for a while there I was just wasting bandwidth
Happy reading everyone!
Mike,
Just got on and checked out the latest about Mark. Why didn’t you tell me you were posting these yesterday? :raspberry:
Anyway, thanks for the reads.
Bob
Well, actually this brings up a question…
I’m on the phone with Mark daily, and have info far ahead of his journals. My problem is this; Should I give away the current goods or should I wait and post Marks first-hand accounts? (more interesting reading for sure)
I realized early on that I’ll never make a career as a writer, so if any of you have thoughts on this could you let me know? :help:
Thanks for everyones support…Mark is currently battling up the southeast coast between Fukang and San-shien tai. I say battling because the winds have been in his face the entire time, with large waves and currents all running in the wrong direction. His progress therefore has been somewhat slow compared to the lightning speed exhibited on the west side.
Will post as I receive…
[quote=“Michael J Botti”]Well, actually this brings up a question…
I’m on the phone with Mark daily, and have info far ahead of his journals. My problem is this; Should I give away the current goods or should I wait and post Marks first-hand accounts? (more interesting reading for sure)
quote]
Michael, I like your diary posts after he hits land best. Keep going. But some short future details like above are cool too, such as “Mark is currently …etc and plans to reach XXX by ____day.” Both in combo is cool. Thanks. You are a good writer! BTW…
[color=indigo]Is that him in the Subway adverts in the paper ?
“Simply the freshest, healthiest, food available, I can’t think of a better fuel for paddling 1000 kilometers around Taiwan. Thank you Subway!” Guess they’re sponsoring him. Does he take the butties with him, or are they delivered by helicopter fresh or what ?
Didn’t Subway close down ?[/color]
Yes that’s him…
And considering he doesn’t eat meat, even funnier.
But a sponsor is a sponsor is a sponsor…
Damn, can somebody paste that on here, or tell me how?..Computer idiot at the helm… :help:
Marks latest journals…
Paddle Taiwan Project
Daily Journal: May 21st
Highlight:
l I suppose getting back in my boat and
I was not able to reach Mark today…
Which leads me to conclude that he’s making up for lost time, and that the waves are too large/dangerous for him to answer the phone.
I’ll get caught up tomorrow, whether by phone or journal, and post ASAP.
Sorry for the delay…
A partial update…
I talked to Mark at 11am this morning and he had just come ashore in a small harbor north of the Hsiokuluan river mouth. At that point, he’d paddled about 23km in about 4 hours. The conditions were calm, flat and no wind which is a marked improvement from last week. If he holds to schedule and the weather/sea cooperates, he should be in or close to Hualien by late Friday afternoon.
He was stoked to see 5 or 6 large sea turtles basking on the surface. I asked him how large and he said “As big or bigger than anything we saw in Sipidan”. OK, we saw some monster turtles there, and one of my favorite underwater photos is a tight wide-angle shot of him on a night dive with a sea turtle. It’s head was larger than his, so if he saw turtles of that size here in Taiwan then my day’s been made as well!
I’ll be heading down on Saturday, and will post my observations when I return…We are planning to charter a boat for some seaside photos north of the gorge.
Now, to make the trip perfect, how to go?..My RZX is in desperate need of a good road trip, but sitting in the gas-guzzling SUV listening to MP-3’s sounds good too…Life in Taiwan is so tough sometimes…
Ok, Mark has put his paddles to the water and is now 5km north of Hualien city proper…
He will paddle to the small town of Hoping tomorrow (roughly a third of the way to Suao), then he’s off to do a clean up beach activity scheduled at his original departure point. Though he’s not finished yet, the powers that be have elected to hold it anyway so Mark will drive up on Saturday, do the publicity circus, and head back down to Hualien to paddle again on Sunday…12 hours of driving for a 2 hour activity… 
I wish they could have re-scheduled this activity for his actual arrival date…Somehow this cheapens the journey, and will include Mark doing a paddle into the harbor for the press. He did try to persuade the sponsers…But no go. His frustration with this decision was very apparent while on the phone, along with other issues that will rear their ugly heads in his journals…
Anyway, let the press hounds and the sponsors do their thing up north. It saves me the hassle of fighting reporters while documenting the ACTUAL journey boatside. Sounds like I’ll have a chartered boat pretty much to myself, and if he slows down enough for me to do it, I may slip on the snorkeling gear and try some over/under shots…Maybe we’ll get really lucky and run into a pod of spinner dolphins playing around the kayak.
I’ll post again Tomorrow night, but I’ll be off the Forumosa radar until Monday evening…Probably a good thing. 