Ok, time to get back at it and write the final post on our Everglades Challenge experience.
To recap. We just finished 5 days of sailing and paddling. WaterLily had exceeded my expectations with a great attitude, focus on the task at hand, strong paddling, a willingness to put in long hours, and have fun. It was turning out to be a great trip. We had seen awesome wildlife including a jumping tarpon, American saltwater crocodiles, dolphin next to the boat, manatees and more. We had sailed the coast and paddled the Wilderness Waterway. We were even holding our own with some of the experienced WaterTribers I look up to like KiwiBird, PenquinMan, Pelican & Falcon.
An update on Class 3. We had stayed close to Sawhorse up until Marco Island and CP2 but our paths were diverging. He was headed outside. We were headed for the Wilderness Waterway. He was sailing and we were paddling. This put him a whole day ahead of us. We had sailed through the night on day 2 passing WindwardMark and LewardLauren at Wiggen’s Pass. We arrived at CP2 14 hours ahead of them but by CP3 they arrived 5 hours behind us. Now we arrived at CP3 around 9 PM at night. We were still there 5 hours later. My boat was right next to the the checkpoint log box until around 6 AM. We were essentially tied and didn’t know it. We were resting on the saltwater side and they were on the freshwater side. So as we left CP3 I had assumed wrongly we were in a commanding lead. (If I had known they were there I would have been on the water hours earlier.)
Instead my alarm was set for 4 AM but when I woke up there was a rain shower so I reset it for 5 AM. I fed WaterLily a freeze dried chicken soup meal for breakfast. It was good! As the sun rose a bunch of paddlers, two catamarans, two Hobie AI/TIs and our Kruger Cruiser left. It was Thursday morning and the winds were light. We had heard the weather report that there would be wind out of the south and clock towards southeast until a front would come through around 3 PM. Sounded good enough.
Early on Day 6. Sunrise with paddlers off our bow.
The paddlers took the lead in light winds as we made our way through Tin Can Channel. I could see PenguinMan a little to the south of us. Pelican and Falcon were a little closer and I believe either them or Hollywood on a Hobie AI/TI started talking to a kayak headed west. In the distance the conversation was something like, “Did you leave something at CP3?”. Answer from DeadCat. “No, why?” Hobie Sailor, “Your headed back to CP3″……. Turns out DeadCat had been paddling in that 4 AM storm and somewhere around Dump Keys got turned around and followed here GPS track backwards! Easy to do on day 5 of the Everglades Challenge.
Our new friend KneadingWater just past Tin Can Channel
As we left Jimmy Channel our next pass was Dump Keys. We were on a close reach and had no problems making it through the pass. After Dump Keys the wind clocked a little further east. PenguinMan was in the lead and not really pointing in the direction of Twisty Mile. Sort of confusing but I sailed my course. By now we were pointing as high as we could to make the entrance to Twisty Mile and we missed it. I could see PenguinMan had completely missed it. Pelican and Falcon also missed it! At this point is was a mad paddle to get over to the channel. A little past 1/2 way we were where we need to be and had made up time on PenguinMan. Pelican and Falcon were going now where. (I think they got pulled off by another WaterTriber who was close behind).
Sailing with Pelican and Falcon between Dump Keys and Twisty Mile
Freaked out by missing the entrance to Twisty Mile and the wind continuing to come out of the southeast we now had to point as high as possible to make Jimmy Channel. In order to guarantee I was pointing high enough I paddle sailed at about 5 MPH. This was hard work but it paid off. Only about a 1/4 mile behind PenguinMan we made the cut and could now reach to the finish! Only problem was the winds were still increasing and Florida Bay was beginning to get nasty. Enjoying the easier sailing of being on a reach I was able to get some video. Still not bad but by the time we got to Manatee Channel we had to dive behind a mangroves island and reef our sails. While doing this we watched PenguinMan sail on towards the finish. Since we were not in the same class my feeling were not hurt and reefing was an absolute necessity at this point. Since we had two masts and two sails I even considered taking down the mizzen sail as well but didn’t.
Sailing between Jimmy and Manatee Channels. Before it got really ugly.
Once through Manatee Channel the difficult navigation through Florida Bay is over but you still have 1/2 of the Bay left to sail or paddle before reaching the finish. By this point the winds were in the high teens and felt it couldn’t possibly get worse but I knew there was a front coming. Well, it continued to build and afterwards the wind reports were saying that our last two hours were sailed in 20-25 knot winds. Something I would have told you that I wasn’t going to do in a canoe. Still with ugly short steep chop all around us the Kruger Cruiser with its BSD rig performed extremely well. The boat felt solid. The sprayskirt which I had named patches because of the amount of modifications was not working out well but the big coaming deflected most of the water as Waterlily sat on the windward hiking board to keep us balanced in the strong winds. I was bleed off speed by luffing the mizzen sail and even occasionally the main sail. My biggest concern was breaking the ama and aka rig. There would be times where the boat would be in the trough of the waves but the amas were getting worked over by the crests. It was unnerving. The only choice was to not over sail the boat. Instead of doing 9 or 10 we were doing 6 – 7. Water was getting into the canoe hull but not enough to worry. I could sail and occasionally soak up water with a rag to keep it down to a minimum. WaterLily showed a bit of concern but remained calm knowing that we really had only one option which was to finish. This drill went on for about 2 hours until we finally could point northeast and sail the last couple miles to the finish at the Bay Cove motel.
Now that we were able to sail mostly downwind I decided to heat things up a little and were hitting 8 – 9 MPH. Fun until we surfed down one wave and into the front of the next one. This stuffed the amas and they rotated nose down about 120 degrees. This was only possible because the pin in the center tube of the Kruger Cruiser ripped right through the fiberglass tube. Very very scary moment watching the amas rotate but in hindsight the fiberglass tube giving out was a lucky break. The amas rotated back and I immediately reduced our speed to around 5 MPH. I have to guess that if the tube had not given out something else in the ama and aka rig might have and it could have been catastrophic. At about this time 3 US Coast Guard cutters came screaming past us. Not good. They headed back the way we came and I had the feeling that it meant one of our WaterTribers was in trouble. But with only a couple miles to go we took it easy knowing that we were going to be finishing soon.
Here we are sailing into the finish.
Getting out of the boat at the Bay Cove
Finishing the Everglades Challenge somewhere in the middle to the back of the pack is a special moment. There are a bunch of people on the beach cheering for you. Its at this point you can finally take a deep breath and enjoy the accomplishment. Its one of the best experiences any adventure racer/distance athlete can have. With all of the enjoyment of finishing the race we were still aware of the very serious conditions. We let the others know about the Coast Guard passing us. FeralCat, DeadCat’s husband, was there and asked how it was knowing that DeadCat still had to come in. I said, “You want the truth?” He said, “Yes” and I replied, “Its nasty”. ZeroTheHero congratulated us, let us know that the front was going to be even worse and to get our boat out of the water ASAP. One of our shore support, ChasingTail had arrived just in time to see us finish and he even brought conch fritters from Alabama Jacks!!!! 90 minutes after finishing the boat was torn down and loaded in the truck.
Unloading the boat
Ok so there is probably one more post in all of this. The post race experience and the story of the others I started. So come back in a few days to see if I have got it done.
Thanks for reading my blog.