Transpac––Modern Technology

When Spawn takes to the water and swims to Key Largo, I –– and some others we know –– feverishly tap the "refresh" button again and again to track the boat's progress.

After a couple of days of this kind of behavior, shore-crew feels as worn-out and raspy as the boys look at the end of the Everglades Challenge.

But that's only a couple of hundred miles ("only"! Listen to me, cool as a cucumber! Ha ha ha.) while the Transpac race runs for a couple of thousand miles. So with the 68-foot Merlin setting sail this afternoon...

Interested parties need to pace themselves. Seven days, ten days?  Jeesh. That's a lot of click-click-clicking. That's potentially a lot of sleep-deprived calendar days –– even days set near Hollywood or  Waikiki. 

But I am happy to say there's a super-cool tracking site that shows all the boats in the several fleets.
Okay, super-cool –– but with a 4-hour delay, and the updates seem to come only every hour or so. So perhaps medium-cool.  

Anyway. It allows those of us watching the race to follow the track and to guess at the weather. Plus, the class leaders get a little crown over their name. Which is nice.

Here's the link.