0414: Wake up, put on wicking clothes, windbreakers. Have to fill water jugs, load fresh batteries (lithium) into GPS and SPOT. Fill some ditty bags with snacks, then head off to the start. Boil eggs for later, chow down on some English muffins.

0600: Arrive Ft Desoto, put on drysuits, pose for group Watertribe photo moment, then a few moments with other skippers before setting up boat for the start.

0655: Assemble at your boat, final plans for the start, including who holds the boat and who will pack the rollers into the bowels of the boat for reserve floatation.

0700: Start… put rollers under the bow, shove off, and hopefully, we slide into the water, Hoa holds the bow while I sort out the rollers, inflate them slightly, lock in the oars, and away we go. 15-20 predicted, so will start with two reefs, the storm jib.

Expect SPOT OK transmissions every 4-6 hrs. OK signals with major course changes and a “custom” transmission when we break for naps and downtime.

HERE WE GO!

3 thoughts on “Morning of the start!”

  1. Badger and Hoa are doing quite well! I just checked their progress on the WaterTribe tracker and they are a good distance ahead of two friends – JarHead in a SeaPearl 21 and RidgeRunner in a Core Sound 21. Most impressive!

    They (and the others) had a tough crossing on Tampa Bay with 16-24 kt winds out of the SW . . . essentially on their nose. That’s why you see so many tacks in their path across the Bay. There is another NorseBoat in the event, but he returned to the launch site a few hrs later. Don’t know what happened . . . his course across Tampa Bay made no sense in that he was headed well east of the entrance for the ICW. My guess is he had too much canvass up and was unable to point the boat closer to the wind due to its strength.

    BlackSun

  2. It’s going to be a long and wet night for Badger and Hoa. 50% chance of rain predicted for the night hours. They’ve only gone 20 miles or so (as the crow flies) since 7:00 this a.m. due to the unfavorable winds. Wind direction isn’t predicted to clock till tomorrow morning sometime. I’ve done this event in a sea kayak and we would be down in Venice which is 50 miles from the launch by this time . . . changing into our night clothes on Snake Island at Venice Inlet. Total distance (over the bottom) is 68 miles from the launch to CP1 in Placida. With a little luck and a lot of rowing by Phil tonight they might be able to make it to Venice by tomorrow morning. If the winds clock out of the northwest as predicted . . . they’ll likely not enter the Gulf at Venice Inlet due to the lumpy seas and will continue navigating the ICW down to to Placida (CP1). If they don’t stop to rest tonight and make it to Venice tomorrow morning . . . they could possibly reach CP1 by noon or 1:00 on Sunday. Once they leave CP1 they’ll be in Pine Island Sound (unless they choose to re-enter the Gulf at Boca Grade Pass and it should be a sleigh ride down to the Ft Myers, Naples, Marco Island, the 10,000 Islands and eventually CP2 with winds of the stern for a while.

    BlackSun

  3. Badger and Hoa are in a marina on LongBoat Key and have been for several hours.

    Been a tough day . . . re-charging their batteries is a good thing. However, they still have a long ways to go to reach CP1. Unless things have changed . . . the deadline I think is 6:00 Sunday night.

    BlackSun

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