So They Said...

"I wasn't going to tell you this," is how it starts on shore after the 2025 Everglades Challenge. ​

"We were going pretty good off East Cape Sable and we took a puff. I mean a PUFF, but the wings saved us." 

​I try muting my facial expression. It's standard procedure in a police interview and I suggest, best practice for marital story-time.

"Yeah, so the boat heeled over—but only until the wing got into the water. It works! We didn't go over!" 
​
Hurrah! I am genuinely happy to know it.

The Spawnsters had a mostly uneventful zip down the left bank of Florida, finishing in 38 hours or so, with I am very happy to report ZERO flips, ZERO negative interactions with powerboats, and absolutely no communication skips from the Garmin InReach personal tracker. 

Unlike so many others this year.

Several pals needed to be plucked from the water by the Coast Guard. Others limped or were towed to shore some leagues shy of the finish line. Everyone seems to have achieved dry land in decent health (knock wood!), though one theme on the beach seemed to be what kinds of hallucinations were had.  

Nearly everyone spotted trees where no trees grow.

​One sailor reported seeing a second thumb poised above the screen of his GPS; knowing that it was not his actual thumb, he still couldn't unsee it.  Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing.

Another saw a stilt castle out in the dark, like a fishing shanty but constructed along royal lines and thought to himself, "Who in the world would want to build that out here?" Nobody would, buddy, nobody.

One nodding skipper found himself haunted by a wall appearing and then reappearing in front of the boat; after the first couple of shouts of alarm, his young crew said something along the lines of, "Okay, Dad, it's not there." ​

Hallucination or no? "Well, I was seeing an island, but I didn't want to say, 'Hey, there's an island.'" TwoBeers said. "But then Jahn goes, 'There should be an island up here,'  so it all worked out." 

Moresailesaid and TwoBeers blazed a trail through the brand-new Milton Pass during daylight before hitting Checkpoint 1, Stump Pass, with extra style points. Not only did they carry a spinnaker in, Moresailesaid signed Spawn in and turned back around in a handful of minutes. Why the hurry? If no other reason than they didn't want to get stuck in traffic.

A screen grab from John Bell's Facebook post of Spawn entering CP1.

Checkpoint 2, Chokoloskee, offered its usual dreary charms on a Sunday morning: foul tide and a strenuous row and a notably long stretch of deep, slippery mud between where Spawn bellies up and where the sign-in box is located. Moresailesaid is in charge of checking in, leaving TwoBeers to hold the boat as he crane-foots through the muck. 

Another Facebook screen grab, this time from Brian Weber of Moresailesaid tiptoeing into Choko.

​Later arrivals to the checkpoint sailed right up to the grassy edge, hopped onto hardpan, and were in and out in mere moments. ​Luck of the draw.

​Spawn reached and left Checkpoint 3, Flamingo, around 6 pm on Sunday, skipping the usual cuppa noodle treat in the ongoing interest of expedience. ​

The breeze was nearly ideal: West North West in the mid-teens, insuring not just good sailing, but sufficient water for navigating Florida Bay. ​

With what they call an "educated send-it," our team ignored most of the traditional routes, using the loom of Miami's light pollution to slalom through the many unlit sticks and rocky limestone bars. They took their furthest Northern route yet along the top of the Bay, passing the famous Crocodile Dragover and Tin Can channels. 

​As a measure of their sleep deficit, after lurching into view, sailing bare poles in a rare on-shore blow at the Pelican Cottage finish line, it took our favorite Spawnsters nearly 40 minutes to secure the boat to the dock.

Photo credit: Ann Tihansky, cheering squad queen!

The heroes were moving at roughly the pace of, oh, inchworms? Some kind of larvae.  

Just barely yanking enough executive function together to stow sails and secure knots, but showing remarkable good cheer when handed their barley beverages and shown to the showers. 

Fast forward a couple of days of big meals, storytelling, and naps. The two had planned to sail Spawn back North. They've hoped for years to have time to poke around and explore some of the natural wonders that they usually speed past, plus maybe bug some fishes. Alas, the weather did not continue to cooperate, and so Spawn folded back up and returned home via trailer. 

The results? This year's Challenge was a fast race for the team, but not their fastest. They were the second boat to finish, after the Tornado catamaran. They were the first monohull.

​Best news: they survived and are scheming next adventures.