Chaos finished and all are in!

The picture I have of Chaos under jury rig inching their way to the finish line - abot 1/2 mile to go now!

We can barely see them from the beach - the sun is going down but they could be here before daylight is completely gone.

Chaos called and they just hit 11 knots of boat speed under jury rig w/ spin pole and jib headed to the finish!!!! I question whether or not they can maintain the high angle for the finish or if they’re going to just target Tybee Island - they’re only 6.5 miles out now and they said they’re comin’ home.

Cat in the hat is in and Larry is losing his “jesus” hair tomorrow morning as part of his pledge to his completion of the Tybee 500.

Cat in the Hat visible on the horizon.

No word yet from chaos but we know they have cell phone (with poor reception) and EPIRB. Earlier in their phone call they said their VHF radio wasn’t working (had water in it). We’re running through ideas to fetch them but the south winds should blow them to us on Tybee Island so we’re being as patient as possible.

Catfever in - tried to reach Chaos on phone but got voicemail.

It’s Cat Fever.

Velocity in 2nd just a few min ago. Marley’s Yellow and then Orange. Just heard from Chaos and they’ve lost their mast about 11 miles out…they want to try and rig something up with the spin pole and the jib to get them home. I was asking them if they wanted time or a tow…they lost cell phone reception before they could answer me…we’re going to give them 10 minutes or so to rig something up before we try to call them again.

A blue spinnaker is visible on the horizon - it’s either Cat Fever or Velocity.

Team Tybee just finished and wins the Tybee 500! We’ve got a light drizzle here with heavy overcast skies. No other boats in sight.

We’re on the beach waiting … we’re tentatively expecting the leaders shortly after 4pm. The weather cleared up a bit and it looks like the heavy weather is not moving as fast as predicted. They’ve got a good chance getting here before it gets bad.

It looks like Tybee might be in as early as 4pm. I’m signing off here and will be mobile on my blackberry for the rest of the afternoon. There are some spotty lightening storms coming through the area but a big one headed this way around 4 to 5pm. Hopefully all the guys will get in before the bad thunder storms arrive.

Looking at the tracking information for Team Tybee and Cat Fever, the guys are moving pretty well. It looks like they’ve got some southerly in the west wind we had expected and they are either jib reaching or have their spinnakers up. After 5 hours, they appear to have traversed 2/3 the leg so I’m guessing they have 2.5 hours to go - and it’s almost 2 o’clock. The weather forecasts we’ve been watching are calling for the storm front to reach Tybee Island around 4pm. That’s pretty close. Hopefully the leading edge of the weather won’t be bad or be delayed slightly. Looks like some great sailing weather thusfar!