Everglades Challenge time again

[Designer]

Alan pulled out this evening for Florida with the mostly put back together after repainting, Dawn Patrol.

 

The event starts at 7:00 am on Saturday morning.

 

There are three other B&B boats in the event. Phil Garland is sailing the CS17 LaPerla, Matt Pinkley is sailing a CS17 and Michael Collins is sailing a new CS17 mk3.

 

Here is a link to the tracking map that will be recording everyone's track in real time http://www.watertribe.com/Events/ChallengeGMapper.aspx The site used to get bogged down at peak times in the past. Hopefully it has been fixed.

 

If anyone wants to learn more they can log into watertribe.org where they can dig around the site for more information.

 

 

[Steve W]

Thanks Graham. I assume you aren't taking Carlita?

 

My wife always says "Are you watching those dots again? I don't get it!"

[Mike Vacanti]

There is a 5th entry, Swimboy in a Core Sound 17. He's signed up for the Florida Coastal Challenge

[Oyster]

Has anyone heard from Mister Moon? If anyone sees him, get him to check on and give us an update.

[Designer]

Steve, I am sitting this one out. I goofed off a lot last year and I have some stuff that I need to catch up on. I will get to look at the little dots too.

 

Mike, I did not see swimboy on the FCC roster, I hope tat he does well.

 

Oyster, I saw Mister Moon posting on the Watertribe forum recently.

[Designer]

Here is the Stewart family at the SC welcome center earlier today.

[Ken_Potts]

Wow! Somebody painted their van grey at the border!

[Designer]

I have already started staring at the dots. I see that Swimboy is out in the gulf NW of Cedar key and doing almost 6 knots. It looks like he might miss the group at Fort Desoto.

 

If I recall correctly, I think that he has the CS17 that Lennie built.

 

 

[alexscott]

I think I remember that Mister Moon sold his Core Sound

[Docpal]

Ken,

 They put new wheels on it too ! What NICE people....!

[Designer]

I was pleased that they honoured Meade Gougeon at the beach today. His tribal name was Sawhorse, so they set up a sawhorse and V carved one of his popular quotes.

[Designer]

After a weather delay they were off at 9:00 am. The tracking map is a fair bit behind, Alan's position at 9:41 was shown as still on the beach whereas his personal track shows him well across the bay.

 

Here is Alan's tracker https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0FC5PhdSOiOyGgJsaGUSRcytU5pqZjOtL

[alexscott]

What was the quote on the sawhorse? I could not read it

[smccormick]

"The wind is coming up.  Tell the boys they can commence with the race"

Meade Gougeon(1938-2017)

[Alan Stewart]

We're going as fast as we can

[Alan Stewart]

*

[alexscott]

From Simon Lew's post on Watertribe FB page:

"Tribute to Meade Gougeon at the EC start. Engraving by JF Bedard" (LowRider)

That's Meade's last boat in the background

 

[Paul356]

Been doing some checking.  Alan and Dad are in second place in the Class 4 monohull racers.  Alan and Dad have cleared Checkpoint 2, but first place is held by a really speedy "Tampa Bay Express 22," apparently a boat custom-built for this race.  That boat has already cleared CP3.  No other Class 4 boats have reached CP2, but two CS17s were 3rd and 4th at CP1 and are close to CP2, and the Mk3 was 7th at CP1 and is also nearing CP2.  At this point, progress may be slowed somewhat by skippers' decisions to take a sleep break, especially solo skippers.  Also of note:  Alan's mom, a kayaker, was the first woman paddler to reach CP1 (7th overall) and continues to make good progress.  Go team!   CP1 is 62 miles into the 300 mile race, CP2 is 174 miles in, and CP3 is at mile 273 as the rumb line flies.  The race started at 9 a.m. Eastern on Saturday after a 2 hour weather hold, so it's been underway for just about 37 hrs now.  Alan and Dad and other hardcore duos just sail straight on thru.

[Paul356]

 

Alan and dad (SOS and DancesWithSandyBottom) sailing into Checkpoint 2

 

[alexscott]

The first boat Spawn of Frankenscot http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?/topic/169350-new-ec-monster-boat/

set the all time class 4 record of 1d 12:46 in 2016 with 3 crew. She finished in 1d 17:31

Alan & dad got to CP3 at 1d 20:03 and are roughly 2/3 across Florida bay between CP3 and the finish.

Halfbaked (Dovekie) is abreast of the nightmare on the way to CP3

PinkDog (CS 17) and GreyBeard (CS 17 Mk3) are out of CP2

Wizard (9' Elusion) is off Cape Romano

LowRider (RoG), SambaSailor (CS 17) and OffTheCharts (Scamp) are west of Marco Island (anchored?)

Edited March 5, 2018 by alexscott
correct south to west of