KayakingBob wrote:
Keith, there were at least 3 AI-2's in the race as my friend Ray "QuincyBoy" was also riding one.
He was late off the beach by about half an hour, still prepping his gear, this being his first EC race. Once on the water, he spent a lot of time rescuing capsized boat's gear (about 60# worth) and returning it to shore.
He did continued on to CP1, but was so exhausted from all the rescued gear collection and pedaling upwind back to shore to drop it off. Also, at CP1 he was stuck in deep mud 100's of feet from shore coming in. He did say conditions were not bad, compared to normal sailing he has done with me here in Hawaii.
I wonder in a normal EC year if many of the capsized boats might have dropped out or become acclimated enough before conditions got to the levels they saw right at the start. Glad everyone made it through OK!
I don't know about all Islands, but the ones I'm aware of had no problems with the conditions, although it was rough in the shipping channel. The low tide also presented lots of problems for people. If we were talking about FL Bay, people would be saying "the offshore winds blow all the water out of the bay." I think a similar thing happened here (although Tampa Bay has much more water) and the low tides were unusually low. Going inside down the waterway presented many problems for everyone because of sand bars, mud banks, etc. My friend, Henry Ovares, in his tandem went outside on the Gulf and was the 12th boat overall to reach Checkpoint 1. It was his first EC also. The Islands flew down the coast.
1st timers typically drop out--the stress of getting ready and the first 24-30 hrs of the EC, blows them away. Many EC vets are irritated the coast guard got involved. Still, as I have pointed out elsewhere, when you have 12 people rescued the coast guard felt they had to react.
KB, your friend QuincyBoy only got a little taste of the EC.
Keith
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