Egg Harbor Township Author Revisits Incredible 1,300-Mile Rowboat Journey in New Book

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — Nearly 50 years after embarking on an extraordinary rowing adventure that carried two young South Jersey men more than 1,300 miles from the Jersey Shore to the Florida Keys, Egg Harbor Township resident Dan Steelman has finally told the story he always knew he wanted to write.

The result is One Summer Dream: More Than Miles, a memoir chronicling the remarkable 1978 journey that began with what many considered an impossible idea: rowing an Atlantic City lifeguard boat all the way to Florida.

"It's always in your mind," Steelman said during an appearance on WOND's Off The Press with Scott Cronick. "Years go by, and you keep saying, 'I'm going to write a book about this.' But once you get into life and you have kids and your job, some things take a back seat. Looking back, it was probably better that I wrote it now than if I had written it right after the trip."

The Atlantic City native said retirement finally gave him the opportunity to bring the story to life.

Steelman retired after spending roughly 25 years working in the flooring distribution business. Even then, getting started proved difficult.

He credits a chance conversation with his pastor for providing the push he needed.

"I had just retired, and he asked me how the book was coming," Steelman recalled. "The truth was, all I had was the title. He came over, gave me some ideas on how to get started, and once I got in the mindset of just telling the story the way I would tell it, everything came together."

A dream born on the Jersey Shore

The adventure began during the summer of 1978, when Steelman was just 21 years old and working as a lifeguard.

Atlantic City was beginning its transformation into a casino destination, and optimism seemed to be everywhere.

"It was a time period where Atlantic City was really coming out of the doldrums," Steelman said. "Everybody was charged up. We were young guys working as lifeguards on the beach, and you could just feel that excitement."

One rainy evening, his lifelong friend and next-door neighbor, Kelly O'Neal, casually suggested rowing a lifeguard boat to Miami.

"At first it was a joke," Steelman said. "Then I started thinking, 'Why not?' I'd grown up rowing boats, and the more I thought about it, the more I believed we could actually do it."

There was just one problem.

"We didn't even have a boat when we started," Steelman said with a laugh. "We really didn't have money, and we really didn't have a plan."

Eventually, the pair secured a 16-foot Atlantic City lifeguard boat and set off on what would become a three-and-a-half-month expedition.

Learning as they went

The trip quickly proved far more difficult than either man expected.

Their first day ended after rowing only from Longport to Sea Isle City.

"That's when we started laughing to ourselves," Steelman said. "This wasn't really what we expected."

Battling headwinds and tides became an immediate lesson.

"We learned very quickly that you can't row against an incoming tide all day," he said. "You had to learn how to use the tides, use the maps and take advantage of protected waterways."

Without GPS or smartphones, navigation depended on paper maps and advice from local fishermen and boaters they met along the way.

"Local knowledge was always the best," Steelman said. "We'd ask people where to go, and we'd learn as we went."

The kindness of strangers

Steelman said the greatest surprise wasn't the physical challenge—it was the generosity they encountered throughout the journey.

On their very first day, after arriving exhausted in Sea Isle City, a man recognized them from a radio interview promoting the trip.

"He waved us over and said, 'You're the guys that were on the radio,'" Steelman recalled. "He invited us to stay in an apartment over his garage for the night. We were saved by the kindness of strangers from the very first day."

Experiences like that became a recurring theme throughout the expedition.

As word spread up and down the Intracoastal Waterway, boaters began recognizing the two young men attempting the unlikely voyage.

"People would see us farther south and realize we were actually doing it," Steelman said. "They'd start telling other people to look out for us. We had people looking after us that we didn't even know."

Those encounters ultimately shaped the book's subtitle.

"I was worried people would think it was just a book about rowing," Steelman said. "It wasn't. It was about the people we met along the way and everything that happened between the miles."

More than just an adventure

Although the pair encountered dangerous weather and other setbacks—including one major incident in Georgia that nearly ended the trip—Steelman says the journey strengthened a friendship that already felt more like family.

"I would never have done this with anyone but Kelly," he said. "I knew exactly who I was going with, and I knew he was the right person for an adventure like this."

The two eventually rowed beyond Miami to the Upper Florida Keys before making the trip home by vehicle.

Looking back nearly five decades later, Steelman still finds it difficult to believe they accomplished what they set out to do.

"If you had told me back then that I'd actually finish this book, I probably wouldn't have believed you," he said. "The rowing trip gave me the memories, but writing the book allowed me to relive them all over again."

One Summer Dream: More Than Miles is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers, including in Kindle format.