Jake Thiel, left, and Timothy Homan embark on their 8-day trip to Maryland on restored 1995 Yamaha WaveRunners from Fernandina Beach's downtown marina early Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 24, 2026 at 2:01 pm
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Timothy Homan and Jake Thiel made sure extra cans of gas were securely battened down on the back of their 1995 Yamaha WaveRunners as they prepared to launch from Fernandina Beach’s Downtown marina early Saturday.
If all goes as planned, the childhood friends will cruise into Fenwick, Maryland, next Saturday after an 1,200-mile trip up the Intracoastal Waterway.
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“I’ve got a plan. Let’s see how it goes,” Homan quipped as he loaded more food. “Nothing’s guaranteed.”
Called Riding With a Purpose, the days-long journey is raising funds for Active Minds, which works with teens on mental health and mental health awareness. It is also a “learning experience” for him, admitted Thiel.
“I’ve never ridden one of these before,” he said.
Homan is an air traffic controller from Yulee, while Thiel is an architect now living in Germany. The eight-day journey through the Intracoastal Waterway of Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland was born from their love of water since childhood days.
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Both men say that cruising that many miles on 10-foot-long WaveRunners is not a scary prospect. But Homan, who tracks weather radar as part of his air traffic controller job, said he had “some concerns,” like when he saw a line of thunderstorms tracking along the South Carolina coast.
“Man, if that’s the day we are trying to get through South Carolina, we are going be sitting somewhere,” Homan said. “We are going to be responsible. We are going to have to watch the radar and seek some shelter if we have to…but these things don’t sink, they have Styrofoam. And we have life jackets.”
Thiel admits bad weather could force them to “get as much ground underway as possible” when the sun shines.
The two grew up together in Fenwick, Maryland Homan says they were known as “water boys” because of all the boating they did together.
The 1995 Yamaha WaveRunners used for the trip originally belonged to Homan’s grandfather, then his father before being handed down to an older brother. Decades later, Homan restored them to “keep them in the family,” although he had to replace a split fuel line in one the night before they left Fernandina Beach.
“We used to canoe and ride our jon boats all up and down the D.C. and Maryland area,” Homan said. “We are very familiar with water, so we thought, ‘We are 45, and wouldn’t it be great to take a trip with these? So we conquered the waters of the Potomac River growing up. Now we are going to conquer the waters of the Eastern United States. So we decided to do a trip.”
The idea to raise funds for Active Minds came from Fernandina Beach resident and friend Paul Lore, who, with Dawn Smith, rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in 2021, and set their third world record earlier this month. Their rowing efforts raise money for Florida-based K9s For Warriors and a British organization that also helps veterans.
The 23-year-old Active Minds teen mental health program was an easy choice for Thiel, an architect who said that he is a “survivor of police brutality.”
“This is kind of a big issue for me, and also for Tim as well,” he said. ” … We have a completely dysfunctional justice system based on liability and recompense and not on healing or transformation. So I am a strong proponent of preparing young people especially for a future that they have to protect themselves mentally, not only physically.”
The trip is also a chance to explore their differences. Homan was raised in a politically conservative household and Thiel in a liberal one. Though political differences can divide families and communities, the men hope their their journey will show that disagreement doesn’t have to break meaningful relationships.
“We have always got along because we grew up together, friends from the very beginning,” Thiel said.
Along with waterproof cell phones, Homan and Thiel wore headset radios to communicate with each other as they run along the Intracoastal Waterway on WaveRunners that can do over 45 mph. The pair plan to travel for about three hours each morning, then longer runs after a lunchtime break. Stops include Brunswick, Savannah, Beaufort, Charleston and Myrtle Beach on the first few days. And they plan 14 stops for fuel alone.
They made Savannah by Sunday night after spotting dolphins in the Intracoastal Waterway, camping in South Georgia on their first landfall late Saturday. Later stops will include Norfolk, Gloucester Point and Colonial Beach, Virginia, before they arrive in Fenwick, Maryland.
They also said they have plenty of food and water strapped onto platforms added to the back of the WaveRunners. They plan to camp out for four nights and overnight in hotels on the other days.
“I think we are a bit overprepared,” Thiel said as they loaded the platforms. “We’ve never done this before.”
Both men are sharing photos, video, and live updates from the water through their YamaHoman website.
