The Everglades Challenge is a race from Fort Desoto, @St Petersburg Floirda to Key Largo in the Keys. Is human or wind powered boats hand launched off the beach, racing 300 miles in 8 days. My friend and fellow kayak club member intends to do it in 5 days, by kayak. Me? I’m going to watch his progress on the tracking map. Here is the web site for your enlightenment.
I’ve been following the EC via trackers plus the WT forum and SA. They’ve been under a small craft advisory with wind speeds of 20 TO 33 kts since Saturday. What’s mind blowing is the performance of Team Kayak Lake Mead (Robert Finlay and his son, Druce, known as IronBob and TheJuice). The tracker shows they started the event around 50 miles north of the official (moved) start at Cape Haze.
In spite of that self-imposed handicap, they’ve passed all the other paddlers (and many sailboats) and are now not far behind Class 1 leaders KayakVagabond (Greg Stamer) and MosquitoMagnet (Wayne Albert) - another pair of amazing paddlers who are approaching Flamingo and Florida Bay, the last leg of the trip. http://www.watertribe.com/Events/ChallengeGMapper.aspx
I know I’ll remember their determination should the going get tough on the water this summer and I need some inspiration.