Team Seacats

I’ve just heard a report that two of the boats did not honor one of the buoys and opted to sail to port. I don’t yet know if it was intentional, but it does not seem that they have been apprehended. It remains to be seen whether or not there will be unfortunate consequences for them tonight.

All the teams got away clear in a light air spinnaker start off the beach this morning in Cocoa Beach. SailMax I seemed to have a little more trouble than SailMax II getting out to the deeper water required to reach the three mile clearance course set up by NASA. We were lucky to be allowed within that range, as Chuck said it had been discussed that the teams were to be held to a five mile clearance. Shortly after the start, one boat flipped over on its side and remained in that position for about five minutes. I’m certain that the trouble was due to having so much water in the spinnaker. I can’t be sure, but it looked like Team St. Louis Cats. Speaking of lengthy capsizes: Team Velocity is fine after theirs yesterday. There was nothing broken and they still made it in with a great time, considering.

Nothing yet to report yet today, but I wanted to mention a few things. First, we really appreciated seeing our good friend Brian Karr last night here at the Cocoa Beach finish. He has put together a video of yesterday evening’s events. He also has an incredible video available of last year’s Tybee500 for sale. Check out all of his work at Adventure Online and the link to yesterday’s video plus some other great catamaran footage can be found on this page: Adventure Sailing Catamaran Videos The second item on the agenda this morning is that I’m finally getting around to posting the individual and combined weights of the teams at the bottom of the page with the team information, courtesy of Lisa Herendeen with Team Space Coast. Some people like to know this kind of stuff. I’m one of them; but alas, alack, I wasn’t writing it down during the weigh-in. Third, and lastly, for those of you who want to be ultimately, intimately, in tha know, I’m going to post the GPS coordinates for the clearance course for Cape Canaveral below, too. It may come in handy when you’re sailing around here someday, who knows?

After the skipper’s meeting, Mike Krantz pointed out the one of the first buoys cuts a corner into the restricted area and JC of Team Tybee generously offered to follow them through there on the start today. I’ve always said what a sportsmanlike and kind man he is! Chuck said that it would be fine if the fleet does indeed have to cut that one particular corner as NASA is aware of our presence. There is also a dredge with a pipe offshore, marked by a yellow buoy, of which the sailors were made aware. That’s all for now from this, as yet, un-caffeinated woman.

Some of us are planning a nighttime swim. Some of us are going to bed. I don’t yet know which one I am. Dinner was good and the guys are stoked and looking forward to tomorrow. SailMax I are keeping their goal to improving their position among the frontrunners in the fleet while SailMax II are working on stepping up their game and maximizing opportunities on the water as well as during starts. Everyone think good thoughts for us at around 10am EST tomorrow for the start and I’ll let you know something as soon as I hear anything noteworthy about any of the teams. Let’s hope that everyone has a safe passage around the Cape tomorrow! Also, be sure to check out Mary Wells’ Tybee500 Hotline thread over at Catsailor for updates too. I’m not just going to cut and paste, lifting updates off of her sources, y’know! Speaking of which, Kirk Newkirk of Key Sailing did a most excellent and helpful job of posting updates for us as he traveled up A1A today. We took the Interstate and couldn’t see anything cool. Okay, swim or bed? See you guys tomorrow…

It was a close finish between the top three boats today with Tybee taking top honors, Pirates of the Tybeean coming in second, followed hotly by our own SailMax I. Rounding out the top five were Morada and Coconut Grove. SailMax II came in seventh today, losing some ground to the initial pack of boats; but I believe it’s still good enough to maintain their overall seventh place position. There’s still time for them to gain some ground…if their spinnaker holds, that is! It’s time for another repair session after dinner tonight. I heard some third hand information from a race official that our good friends at Team Velocity capsized some seventy miles out and had trouble righting the boat. I don’t know the full story from their lips, but I’ll try to get it later on tonight. I’ve just gotten a call from Jake at 7:19 saying that Trey and Tad are coming in now. I’m certainly glad they’re alright. There’s a yummy rib dinner tonight that’s being sponsored by Team Morada. We did finally get the word about the crossing of Cape Canaveral tomorrow. Apparently there is assault training in progress and if anyone sails closer than three miles then the sailors may face arrest and their boat could be confiscated. Oh yeah, and disqualification from the race. Ouch! Our guys are going to set a three mile waypoint on their GPS and make certain that they treat it as a buoy.