An open letter to WaterTribe EX 2017 participants from 2017 Class II winners Piglet and Angry Fat Kid (Tie with Iron Bob and the Juice)
We’ve recently been pointed to some discussion on the forum, that at least partially has to do with us (about shore contact). Do not have too much to offer, but just wanted to actually introduce ourselves, tell you a bit about our race, our process, and let you all know that we are open to thoughts on this. So bear with me, as we will touch briefly on what led is to the WaterTribe and EC 2017, what our actual shore contact us was, and our perspective on an amazing and transformative event
Background:
Daniel and I are part of “Team YogaSlackers” - a professional adventure racing team. Ranked consistently in the top 15 in the world, we are not at all strangers to long endurance events with sleep deprivation and navigation. Some races have had paddling legs up to about 100 miles - usually in shitty SOT kayaks or plastic canoes (ouch). We know Iron Bob and Juice from that world, and have seen their race reports over the years about the EC. Always admiring them for their amazing finishes, and for arguably bringing the AR style Sleep deprivation pushes to the EC.
But we never considered doing the EC, it seemed too hard, too much paddling, and always conflicted with big adventure races in Belize, Patagonia or the Florida sea to sea AR. Last may I had hip surgery, and was not sure how long it would take to recover my running, so I convinced Daniel to bite the bullet and sign up for the EC. Plus we are neighbors and good friends with Dana Clark - who has been out to photograph the race and work Cps for a few years. She has so many amazing images from the event.
In the lead up to the event, we contacted our paddle sponsor (Stellar Kayaks) about using a demo boat from the east coast. They moved a ST-21 from NC to florida for us so that we could fly in. It was the same boat we are able to train in periodically in Oregon where we live. Our AR season ended in Fall, as we began to shift to training for the EC. Oregon’s deepest winter yet saw our actual paddle time in sometimes frozen reservoirs limited. Our max paddle leading up was 22 miles. But we spend hours on the Vasa Kayak erg hoping it would be enough.
A month before the race, we’d just received our charts in the mail and realized the immensity of the choices we’d have in the race. We reached out again to Stellar Kayaks, asking if they knew anyone that had done the race that could help us in the planning. This is how we were put into contact with Salli Odonell, and then she brought in her partner Mike Malone.
We realize that there is some rift between Salli and Mike and the Tribe, but they never told us what it was. They always spoke highly of the event, Druce and Bob, and all the other competitors. They simply told us that they’d had a parting of ways with the Tribe. They agreed to help us with pre-race route planning, and we had 2 long phone consults with them in the lead up. Throughout the event, they were nothing but positive toward us, the Finlays, and all the other competitors who they obviously hold in high regard.
The Race/Nav/shore contact: We used and old school GPS with a B/W display and no way to add Routes or waypoints once the event was underway (a computer was necessary for that and we did not bring one on the race). We only created 2 possible routes for each section, with a few crossover points each. Salli and Mike urged us to do much more, but we were limited on time (I have a 6 week old newborn at home), and we did not at all understand the weather and tide ramifications, and how much we’d want so many alternatives.
We started the race at longboat pass with Bob and the Juice. It was no secret to them that we were there to try to beat them. We were very public about it, and I think/hope that they enjoyed the competition. We look up to them a lot, and were there at the race because of their previous reports. Both were so helpful as well in the lead up to the race, making us feel so welcome and we really appreciated it.
Below is a short detail of our shore contacts during the race, and what information we received:
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CP 1. Check in. We were ahead of IB&J by about 1-1.5 hours.
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Tiny community near top of Charlotte harbor. Check in about manatee encounter and our capsize in the bay. We were shaken. Got moral support. Were told that nearly all racers (including IB&J) were going to the east of Pine Island to avoid winds. Discussed that this was not an option for us (we had NO points in our GPS for that route - and from where we were would have to paddle 5 mile straight into the wind/fetch). Briefly discussed going outside, and told our shore contact we’d go that way. We soon aborted, and continued slowly through Pine Island Sound.
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Near Sanibel point (on small island to the north). Food stop. Reported that we were ok. Learned that IB&J had passed us in the night. Got information about water availability on the tip of land by FM beach (at State park?). We’d planned to stop at the light house, or at a hotel on FM beach later. Got weather update, and decided to paddle the outside route (which we had GPS for) in an effort to have windbreak.
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Near Dollar/Doctor’s pass: informed that we were catching the IB&J as they went inside. We informed about our decision to go inside and were advised against it. But went inside anyway. We made some serious Nav errors here, trying to shortcut our way out to the Marco river. IB&J passes us at the mouth when we went up the wrong channel with no outlet (Condos!).
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Goodland. Water stop. Informed that IB&J were ahead, having passed the Goodland Bridge about 30 min before us. Got weather update (still windy!), but forgot to ask about/look at tide Data…which was dumb. Thought we saw IB&J lights camping on Coon Key (was not them)
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Stopped to sleep in Hammock on Panther Key. No service, so abandoned attempt to contact. Slept 90 min or so, ate hot food, continued.
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CP 2 Chokoloskee. After fighting tide into CP 2, we learned IB&J had left over 4 hours ago. We had not enough service for phone, but received a text from contact urging us NOT to sleep and much to CP 2 to make the tides etc like the IB&J were doing. Whoops. Too late. We loved the MUD at CP2 low tide. CP staff suggested going out Rabbit Key Pass instead of Chokoloskee pass, which was our plan anyway, but it was good to have the second opinion.
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From here we knew we were way behind. And we had NO FURTHER shore contact until CP 3! We tried to take a route from Pavilion Key straight to Little Shark river entrance, but conditions forced us to abort and go into Plover key, where we shot along the coastline (further out than IB&J upon looking at their track). Our spot died due to water ingress on Leg 2, and chief replaced it at CP 2, only to have it die again because of spot billing issues! Ha.
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We took Joes River (this was our first choice route that Salli and Mike had helped us prepare prerace if winds were bad because WW bay apparently does not do well in wind!). We got decent tides here. This whole leg, we knew we were behind, and we just put on our music, ignored our blisters and PUSHED.
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CP 3, we were 15 min behind IB&J. They were preparing to sleep when we arrived. We were given wind and weather conditions by our contacts, and told them we too would sleep. We slept right by IB&J/s boat, but they still managed to give us the slip (bravo guys) by 15 minutes out of CP 3.
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Florida Bay decision point. Contacted crew (we’d caught and passes IB&J now) and they recommended the Croc Drag over, based the fact that they thought we were still strong enough to really push into the wind. We had it plugged in already so that was good. IB&J also chose this route, keeping close to us by cutting corners that we thought were too shallow etc. we were basically following dotted lines here.
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The end. We contacted shore crew after we finished. They were not part of our decision to tie with IB&J.
Notes about the finish: It was amazing to be paddling/racing IB&J so late in the race and to an exciting finish. It was obvious that their route/florida bay knowledge was being put to good use. We could push our boat faster, so would move ahead but often have to search for the routes through shallows or the sneaks between keys. We found ourselves close again in the rough long stretch between Pass Key and Shell key. They had a sweet single blade pumping in the back, and were moving very impressively. Someone said - (I think Druce) - “Its gonna be an epic sea battle!”. We were so happy to be out there. 8 miles to go and everyone still pushing. We talked for a bit as we vied for little edges, surely the conversation helped us all stay awake. It was very pleasant, and it just seemed better to celebrate the finish together.
We decided to see just what our boat could to at that point, and proceeded to “sprint” for about 5 min, holding 7 mph (YEP into the wind and chop). We put about 300 meters or more on them in 5 min. But we also knew that they were pushing some serious speed too, putting their hearts and bodies into…and they knew where they were going.
The last thing we really wanted our first time in the EC was to win by sprinting ahead in the last 100 meters to the beach. It just did not seem like the story we wanted to be part of. So we stopped and looked back at them. They stopped paddling too…and we drifted a few hundred meters apart for a few minutes. We paddled back to them, and them to us. And broached the idea of finishing together in way of celebration of all of our amazing efforts (they’s be beating their best time by a few hours, even with the time modification for the 10 miles we missed of the start). It was wonderful to paddle in together. Only later did we find out our spot was not working, so our ground crew had no idea we were with them. Iron Bob and the Juice are legendary competitors who we look up to immensely. Like them, we primarily Nav with Map and compass, and used our GPS primarily as reinforcement.
We did not ever receive GPS points or routes from our ground crew during the race, and only received the whereabouts of IB&J a few times (all before CP 2). After that the info we got was from CP logs (at CP 2 and 3), and visual (the whole last leg).
Based on our knowledge of the rules and “spirit”of the race, we are pretty confident that this is all ok and within the scope intended. As to Bob’s message on the board about the information we got - almost all of it was after the fact, and did not affect our decisions at all - other than realizing we’d made mistakes that could not really be fixed this time.
Our used if technology and shore contacts was far from “over the top” I think. We are hugely thankful for our contacts, however, as they kept our fans and family in the loop through their reports, and kept us motivated during our toughest times (after the manatee and capsize) in day 1. And their help in pre-planning was essential for us to be able to do so well in our first time in this event. I wish we would have listened to them more when we were planning all the potential routes on our charts!
In closing - we want to say THANK YOU to all of the people that made the race possible - Chief and Paula and all the others whose tribe names we forget or confuse. The people that helped us move our boats to the alternate start, CP captains, etc. It was an amazing adventure. We do endeavor to participate and compete with the highest possible ethics, and are happy to continue the conversation so that we may do so.
We also acknowledge that as “newbies” we may have ruffled some feathers in the establishment by showing up and making a run for the title. But rest assured that we are not “newbies” in the endurance racing world - far from it. And I will be honest, I am not sure when we will be back (kids, other races etc), but when we line up on that beach again it will be in an attempt to break Ardie O’s record of 2 days 22 hours 15 min for class II. We believe in moderate conditions that we can break 60 hours. Gotta dream about the impossible right?!? I figure that sort of dreaming is what led Chief into creating this race in the first place.
All the best. And thanks again to Iron Bob and the Juice for being such amazing and inspirational paddlers and athletes and people.
Jason and Daniel