2014 everglades challenge

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The Class 4 modified Flying Scot "Frankenscot" / Two Beers has not stopped to sleep and they've have made steady progress to the point of just about being even with Swampmonkee, it looks like.

Frankenscot has a separate tracker.

 

Ec

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Which boat is Swampmonkee-a Tornado?

 

^^^

Yup. Hard to figure what's kept them?

 

The tracker just did a an ALL Boats position (finally working).

SewSew (4.7 kn at 9:28) just turned left into CP3

Swampmonkey (1.8 kn at 9:33) just ahead of CrazyLugan (3.4 kn at 9:35) going into CP2

Frankenscot is at about the same as the above via the spot tracker

Samba Sailor (5.3 kn at 6:57 ????) ahead of the Ridgerunner (4.6 kn at 9:31) and ZTH pair (~75% from CP1 to CP2)

 

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Swampmonkee will come out of the mangroves any moment now, and be able to see SOS ahead of him in Chokoloskee Bay.

Seen from the north, Swampmonkee just came thru the channel on far right. SOS/Mosquito is not yet at the island checkpoint to the left (click to enlarge).




Meanwhile I guess Sewsew will be at CP3 within the hour. What's he going to do then. It might be tempting to rest on his big lead, but he'd then be doing that while the wind is most favorable? My guess is he'll push on.



Here's a snapshot of Flamingo seen from the north, where there happens to be a fuzzy white dot on the right hand side of the bay is about where Sewsew befinds hisself at the moment.

 

Sewsew has just reached checkpoint 3, and may have done so a few minutes before Mosquito/SOS reach checkpoint 2?

That is quite amazing considering that SOS had started in the mangrove channel to Chokoloskee at the same time Sewsew was leaving the bay... and during the 10 hours or so that SOS has dawdled in there, Sewsew has sailed to checkpoint 3.

Well, I suppose worse things could have happened...

 

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Has Sewsew switched off his tracker, again?

He was quickly in and out of checkpoint 3, but then his tracker has stopped for a while in the lee (assuming easterly wind) of Frank Key.

The tide is coming in at the moment there, low tide was at 11:20am, now it's 12:35, high tide will be at 3:59.Tide link

 

I still cant get the WT tracker to work

 

Ec

Video by "Tom Ray"----
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhWENpvJuyI

 

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Here's Sewsew's progress over the sea grass as of 1:10pm, just a little over 30 hrs since the start:



About his recent movements, here are some remarks on the Watertribe forum:

The shortest time Sewsew has sailed the EC was in 2011: 1 day 16 hrs 14 minutes.

The record quickest time was in 2010, Bumpy and MachoMan did it in 1 day 2hrs and 12 minutes.

So Sewsew has about 10 hours to set a new personal record time.

 

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Meanwhile at checkpoint 2, entries on the Watertribe forum:

Soooo, Sewsew didn't just get into CP3 ahead of SOS reaching CP2 - he was there almost half an hour earlier.

Yikes!

 

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Sewsew has gotten to more open water, speed given as 6.6 knots.

He has about 22 nm remaining to the finish.



Soooo, Sewsew can just about do the remainder of the race while sleeping?

 

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As our intrepid tourists sail and paddle from Desoto Park*, around the southwestern tip of Florida and to the delights of the Bay Cove Motel in Key Largo; Consider what life must have been like in this area before anyone could live there comfortably, or only a little more than three generations back.

The stultifying heat and the mosquitos, the shallow water everywhere and the lack of arable land, meant that only a few people were ever desperate enough to try to live in the area. I don't think any Native Americans did so until they were forced to flee southwards, into what became for them a dead end. What appears as a large recreational area now, was not too long ago one of the last places you would imagine wanting to visit.

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* where Hernando De Soto is by some accounts said to have landed with his men and horses in 1539, to then start his long traveling epidemic of smallpox, chicken pox and measles.

 

Ec

Randy should be in by 5:30-I'm relying on you Blackburn for updates! Based on what you said earlier that should be a little over 34 hours 20 minutes(34.3 hrs or 1 day 6 hrs 20 min?) Hope he makes it!

 

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Sewsew has chosen a slightly longer route than I supposed, heading as far as he could toward the keys on port tack before going NE on starboard.

I suppose there's less hassle then with crossing sandbars, but the main reason is perhaps he then can sail in smoother water? His boat looks not so enjoyable to sail in choppy water. Current speed 8.6 knots:

position at 3:20 pm