Spawn of Frankenscot Lurches Out Once More

O Spawn! It's getting to be that time of year again!* 


My favorite skipper took a couple of days to locate all the pieces and parts of his Everglades Challenge adventure boat.

He picked a Saturday and made a few phone calls to drum up other WaterTribesfolk.

And if the weather wasn't exactly cooperative, Spawn DID get to shake off the cobwebs and skitter about Tampa Bay last weekend. 
 
They put in maybe 7 hours of sailing, finishing under a lovely full moon. 
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It was a decent warm-up, as the team remembered (when prompted by text by an alert ground control) to turn on their dang SPOT tracker when they were already halfway down the Bay.

Which is why their track looks like a point-to-point sail rather than the actual circle route that it was. 

Fans of the team will be surprised to know that zero major innovations are planned for the 2021 event (starts the first Saturday in March at dawn at Fort Desoto Beach! Bring bagpipes!).  Of course three months does leave room for all sorts of shenanigans. We'll see.

Thanks to Dave Helmick, Dave Clement, Andy Hayward, and Nate Villardebo, most excellent WaterTribesmen, who offered help, companionship, and a place to park. Good luck in the most challenging part of the Challenge: getting to the beach.
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*Time of year coming up...when armchair adventurers and make-it-real dreamers to prepare to participate in (or just watch) adventure: human powered watercraft (from kayaks to SUPs to catamarans, etc.) take an unsupported 300-mile-long voyage south along Florida's west coast. 

​The event offers both genuine danger (the waiver spells it out: "You could die") and possibilities within a budget's reach (a couple hundred bucks worth of required equipment, a little boat, ten days of vacation...). 

The starting line –– the high tide line on the beach –– offers an astonishing vision of people living their dreams. And alarming, of course.