Everglades Challenge Route

Here we go, the route of the Everglades Challenge. We start on Saturday, March 5 at Fort Desoto Park at the mouth of Tampa Bay.

Along the way we have to stop and sign in at three checkpoints. To keep it from being too easy (hah!) the organizers have made it so the checkpoints are placed as diabolically as possible. Oh, and did I mention there is a time limit?

The first CP at Placida is about 68 miles down the course from the start. It's up a narrow creek after you pass under a low fixed bridge that will require me to take down my 24 foot tall mast in order to make it. CP 1 has the most challenging time limit -- we have only 29 hours to sign in or risk disqualification.

CP 2 is at Chokoloskee, another 60-70 miles down the coast. This requires some tricky navigation through some shallow twisty channels through the mangroves. Tides and wind may not cooperate, so be prepared to row.

CP3 down the coast 60-ish miles from Choko is at Flamingo, the southernmost inhabited place on the Florida mainland. It's surrounded by miles of one foot deep flats accessed by a very few irregularly marked narrow channels.

And the finish at Key Largo is only 35 or so miles from Flamingo. But between CP3 and the finish is many more miles of shallow confusing water and narrow passes.

If all goes well, I hope to finish in around five days.

Holy crap, only 33 days more to go!

The realization has come over me there are only 33 more days until I need to be on the beach at Desoto ready to go. What do I have left to do? A lot, I'm afraid.

With this post I'm spurning myself to action. It's supposed to be nice this weekend, so I commit to pulling the boat out and start working on some of the details still undone.

Yet another test of mobile posting to Blogger.

Here we are at Sand Island on last year's FL120. Good times.

Another test

Pardon my testing. Now working on waterproof typing.
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Testing the ability to post from my Blackberry.

Ok this may be cool. I'll have a way to update this blog on the road.
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Test of sms posting to blog.

Committed, or I should be...

OK, I'm now totally committed: I paid the entry fee for the 2011 race. I'll be going solo this year with the intention of running in an ad-hoc team with Lugnut and Plumbcrazy and maybe Root.

Am I excited? Yes. Apprehensive? Not so much about the race as I am about getting everything ready.

I figure I'll get there, though.

Follow me on twitter @mistermoon_EC11

Everglades Challenge 2011

Am I having a mid-life crisis? My wife Lori thinks so. If I am, at least it's not a the typical one one so often seen in these parts. I'm not buying a Corvette, taking on a mistress, or dying the gray out of my hair. Perhaps those things would alleviate my middle-aged angst, but they just aren't for me for numerous moral, legal, and financial reasons. And men with dyed hair aren't fooling anyone.

So what to do then. The answer is obvious: race from St. Petersburg, FL to Key Largo in a 17 foot open sailboat!

Ok, maybe not that obvious.

What I'm talking about is an annual race called the Everglades Challenge ("EC"). The EC starts on the first Saturday of every March from Fort Desoto park at the mouth of Tampa Bay. From there, we race down to three manditory checkpoints along the way. The first is ~68 miles south at Boca Grande, near Placida. The second is another ~80 miles down past Ft. Myers and Marco Island at Chokoloskee. The third is at Flamingo on the southern tip of the FL mainland ~80 miles south along the remote and wild western shore of the vast Everglades. The final leg is only ~35 miles east across Florida Bay to Key Largo. Racers have a total of 8 days to make the 260-300 miles to the finish. Most successful challenges seem take 3-6 days to complete. The course record was set just two weeks ago in an astonishing 26 hours and 12 minutes by a crew of two on a Tornado catamaran.

I've made up my mind to get to the starting line in 2011. I've bought a boat and have started getting her ready to go. Follow along with me on my blog as I get ready for this great adventure.