Ultimate Florida Challenge: Day 3

Ongoing –– not to say endless –– coverage of the human-powered adventure race in which my favorite skipper (AKA TwoBeers) and Moresailesed (Jahn Tihansky) are endeavoring to circumnavigate Florida... 

Sunday was a sleeping night for both sides of the Spawn coin: our heroes camped on gorgeous Cape Sable last night while I cozied into fresh hotel sheets.  

​They probably slept better, wind and mosquitoes  notwithstanding.

As Jarhead advised the team a few weeks ago: if you don't go to sleep when you put your head down, you aren't tired enough.

My drive to Key Largo via state-maintained roads was longish but uneventful, and after an assist from Jim Signor (Hi Jim!) to obtain more nautical scavenger-hunt items (80 feet of 1/4 inch Yale Lite line -- any color! one pair of men's 9.5 regular boating shoes -- Musto or Sperry if possible!), I arrived at what is the finish line for nearly every other WaterTribe racer, The Pelican Resort.  

It's a bit confusing that while Moresailesed and TwoBeers started with a gang of boats, and are speeding down the left coast of Florida among that  fleet, they are in fact not racing in the Everglades Challenge. So they are not –– technically –– part of the Everglades Challenge... I'm not sure why, but dems da rules.  

If sailboat racing tells you nothing else, it shows you that rules are both random and the only thing standing between ourselves and screaming chaos.  ​ 

First to finish overall, winners of the EC double-handed catamaran division: Gamera and Chainsaw. Sunday evening at around 2200.

Showered and rested the next morning, the first two boats to finish share some yarning...SemperReady and AlwaysParatus got in around midnight.

Despite its glitches, we stuck with SPOT as the personal locator device. In for a penny, in for a couple hundred clams...but it's hard on the watchers of this kind of event to have three-hour gaps in coverage. The SPOT tracker is supposed to "ping" every half hour.  

As brother Paulie texted, "SPOT is on a smoking break."  Or I think it was Paulie. SOMEbody texted it. 

So our intrepid Spawonauts came ashore at 3:15 –– or 15:15 military style. They proclaimed it the worst conditions they've seen in their six years of making this trip. Fierce wind, pounding waves.  BUT, they did get some sleep, not just camping out in their tent, but taking watches and sleeping on deck in their cool sleeping bags.


They even at an actual meal while camping (a MRE chili, which evidently packed a bit of a kick. I pat myself on my provisioning back for that!).

After hosing off the boat and all their gear, changing batteries and whatnot, they were ready for a meal and a good night's sleep in a non-rocking bed.   

We're off to  Mrs. Mac's  for a burger, and to Jim and Sheryl Signor's to avail ourselves of the laundry, and then crash for a bit... ​​