Looks like they stopped for a 6 hour rest (or waiting for a tide change) but started moving around 11 PM. Navigation looks to be a bit challenging down that way.
I’ve met them slightly but know a number of the Kruger paddlers around here.
The WT results show Greg has finished. 4 Days, 4 Hours, 4 Min. Much respect!
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Very Much respect!
Yes, very impressive.
4 Days, 4 Hours, 3 Minutes would have been much less impressive. Or perhaps my OCD is showing…
Looks like they finished at 11:03 this morning - Just under 5 days I think.
Just saw that on the WT site. Great boat powered by two great engines.
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Unfortunately they called off the search yesterday.
A tragedy with so many unanswered questions. RIP.
Updated info on Sailorman, the WT participant who was lost at sea. The USCG found his sailboat upright.
Condolences to his family
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Thanks all, for following the Everglades Challenge this year! It was a somber event, with the loss of “Sailorman”. I didn’t know him, but admired his colorful Core Sound sailboat at the start. There was a moment of silence for him, during the awards. He died doing something he loved.
Winds were howling 20-30 with higher gusts, making for slow and technical progress, plus the start was delayed for three hours in order for the conditions to fall below a Small Craft Advisory. This meant any pre-planned schedules (tides, etc.) had to be thrown out, and new plans had to be worked out from the cockpit. There’s a lot of strategy about where to sleep, how hard to push, in order to make the tidal currents work for you, rather than fighting them.
I was in the Class 1 lead for much of the race, but started slowing due to stomach shutdown, and also hallucinations, and finished in second place this year. Congratulatons to Bobby Johnson on a strong performance. I had some bad luck with sleep, where well-meaning onlookers in powerboats woke me up to ask if I was OK (I envisioned making a sign, “Leave me alone, I’m sleeping, not dead”). Due to pushing hard I had only 4 hours of sleep going into the final effort for the finish. I was seeing vertical streaks in the sky, and also hearing voices, and even more irritating (probably from the constant howl of the wind), I was hearing chainsaw/leaf blowers every time a paddle blade entered the water! I was also slowly losing the mental ability to use my GPS so I chose to get a few hours of sleep at the last checkpoint rather than pushing directly to the finish (and battling for the win).
Congratulations to all who participated and especially those who finished. There were some crazy strong wind against tide situations this year where passes where blown out and resembled boiling cauldrons, and where your kayak launched and slammed so hard you feared the hull would split (I actually had to make an effort to land slightly on edge, rather than flat, to take stress off the hull).
Living in the moment, for those days, it was surreal to come back to a world gone crazy, with talk of social distancing, event cancellations and so on. While I’m used to having the feeling of “culture shock” when I return from the wilderness, it was difficult this time. This time it wasn’t just me who had changed, but the entire world had changed.
A few of us felt that we should have just turned around and gone back the way we came! Looking forward to the next one.
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Thanks for the write-up, Greg. Deep respect for your skills, judgment, and endurance under horrendous conditions, especially as you opted to start at Fort DeSoto and completed the entire challenge under your own power and inner strength.
Yes, sadly the world changed in just a few days. Don’t blame you a bit for wanting to return to the sanctity (and sanity) of the wild. Stay safe.
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Yes, thank you for the report. An admirable effort.
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Wonderfully written insights from Greg recapping his EC2020 experience.
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Thanks Rookie!
Thank YOU for sharing your experience. Always amazing.
Interesting article on long distance runners.
Though this study is on ‘runners’, I think the races the ‘Tribers’ participate in would compare to ‘Ultramarathon runners’.
from the article:
“There was one measure on which ultrarunners scored lower, however — affiliative extraversion”
I think maybe this might be a slight difference in the groups (kayaker vs runner), at least from reading the Tribers forum. They seem quite sociable.
So, coming more down to the level of us ‘mere mortals’, I wonder what the equivalent in ‘kayak miles’ a running marathon (26 miles) would be.
Good read.
The author noted It would be interesting to further explore how ultrarunners motivate themselves through many hours of pain and effort. Because even though most of us will never run 100 kilometres in one go (and may have no desire to, either), understanding how to tolerate pain, and cope with physical and mental fatigue, is a lesson we all could benefit from.
She should interview Greg.