FloatSome (David), SandyBottom (Dawn),Saturday 7:00 am
And they're off! The WaterTribe challenges began this morning at 7:00 am. SandyBottom sent the above photo from her cellphone a few minutes before the race manager (Marty, SaltyFrog) said, "GO!"
Saturday 8:00 am
Zooming in on the challenge mapper display showed SB amid a cluster of class1 challengers at least half way across Tampa Bay by 8am.
SandyBottom
Some Class1 Kayakers
Saturday 9:00 am
Zooming in on the challenge mapper display showed SandyBottom in the middle of a cluster of class1 kayakers who had successfully crossed Tampa Bay.
A cluster of class1 kayakers spread out over 2 miles
Overall, at 9:00 am the challengers were clustered into 3 groups:
(1) the group (including SB, KB, FS) taking the "inside" route toward Sarasota Bay.
(2) the group taking the "outside" route out in the Gulf of Mexico.
(3) a single boat far to the south in the Gulf of Mexico (which is Bumpy and MachoMan on their record-setting tornado catamaran, of course.)
"Outside route" cluster <------ ------> "Inside route" cluster,
"Tornado Catamaran" (1 boat) cluster
Saturday 4:10 pm
SB called home at 4:10 pm. She reported that she was paddling with a few other class1 kayakers, the wind had picked up again, and she had been moving south at 6 knots without paddling driven by the wind on her Pacific Action sail. She was stopping on a small spot of sand to put on warmer clothes as she, FS, and others were getting cold. She reported that she was glad she had stayed on the inside route in the afternood when the wind had be calm and other kayakers had used an inlet to exit to the outside route. More recently, the strong winds had picked up again (as had been forecast.)At about the same time, FloatSome posted that "KiwiBird's rudder bar broke but she is doing fine."
Saturday 9:00 pm
At 9:00 pm, SPOT tracking and the Challenge Mapper showed that SandyBottom was paddling with/near Floatsome, KiwiBird, Kneading Water and Seiche. They were passing under the Beach Road Bridge at Punta Gorda about 8 miles from CheckPoint #1 (CP1).
Saturday 11:59 pm
SB, FS, KB, KW, et al. reached CP1 at about 11:59 pm. Having paddled the 67 miles from the start to CP1 in 17 hours, SB's average speed was 3.94 mph (3.42 knots). However, a close look at the SPOT data on the Challenge Mapper shows that coming into CP1 she reached a peak speed of "infinity knots"
SB in a hurrySandyBottom called home about an hour after arriving at CP1. The kayakers had enjoyed helpful winds from the north pushing them south throughout the day. Staying warm was a challenge. The high temperature for the day was 65F. At CP1, the arriving challengers enjoyed the campfire that the Grand Tours facility offers.
SB reported that she was camping for the night at CP1 with plans to launch from CP1 at 6:00 am Sunday.
Conditions were windy and rough. SB reported that there were two rescues today. One of them was DaveOnCudjoe who is a veteran EC sailor. SB reported that she believes Dave's capsized Sea Pearl 21 ("Maggie") remains to be recovered. One disadvantage of the Sea Pearl: they are difficult to right after a capsize.
Video: The Start at Mullet Key
3 comments:
Great video and music.
Thanks, Paul. It's great to put faces to handles!
Paul, as always, your commentary is the best of the bunch! Maybe you should consider a career change?
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