CaptnChaos attempt in the 2013 Everglades Challenge
This is the account of CaptnChaos attempting the Watertribe 2013 Everglades Challenge. Only made it 100 of the 300 miles but still thankful for the opportunity to be part of this great group.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
This all started on January 7th,
2013. I was at Starbucks with Chief who is the man responsible for
creating and managing all the Watertribe events. We were discussing the
mobile mapper app I was developing for mobile phones. One that would
allow someone to use their mobile phones and google maps to track the
participants.
Eventually the topic came up about me
doing the Everglades challenge this year. I mumbled something along
the lines that I wouldn't be participating this year. I was a
volunteer in the 2012 Watertribe which made me eligible to
participate in the Everglades challenge for free. He looked up at me
and said “The free challenge doesn't roll over, you have to use it
this year”. I said that's ok. He then asked me why I wasn't doing
it. I had many excuses and after awkwardly blurting each excuse, Chief always had a valid
reasonable response that I just couldn't disagree with. “I like going to bed
at 10:00 every night” - “it's only for a week”, “I have to
figure out how to navigate all those waterways with my GPS” - “That
only takes a few nights of inputting the waypoints into your gps”
and so it went ....
That night I thought about our
conversation and it was apparent that what Chief said made sense. I
could push myself out of my comfort zone for a week. What's the big
deal anyway? I'll just kick it into high gear and start planning
this thing. It'll be fun. Plus it will be another excuse for me
to get back into designing an efficient jib system for my AI.
Fast forward to race day. It's 4:30 am
and my wife and I are driving to Ft. Desoto which is about an hour
from where we live. My mind is spinning with all the details, hoping
I didn't forget anything. About half way to Ft. Desoto on a main
road I look up and see a drunk driver in a jacked up pickup truck in
my lane coming at us. He's swaying all over the place occasionally
hitting the barrier between our side of the road and the side of the
road he should be on. Sparks are coming from his vehicle which has
me thinking he's driving on a flat. So this is how it ends??? He
squeezes around us scraping against the wall and we escape without a
scratch. My first adrenaline rush of the day. One of many.
Being at the start of the Everglades
Challenge is one of the most exciting moments you can experience. So
many interesting people and their boats. Seeing the sun just poking
up from the other side of the Sunshine Skyway over beautiful Tampa
Bay. This year my mindset was so preoccupied that I didn't have the
opportunity to savor that whole experience. I was busy changing the
boat for the millionth time. I decided to remove the stays from the
jib system and remove the dodger which is nice but somewhat
restrictive. Our son and his girlfriend show up at the last minute
to surprise us. They work late and stayed up all night just to come out …
complete with “Team Chaos” shirts they had made. I was glad that
they were able to see what this watertribe thing I kept talking about
was all about.
When the race started, boats started
sliding into the water and making their way across Tampa Bay. I
looked at my son and said “I only wanted to modify the boat for the
race, I really didn't want to actually do this ….” and we both
started laughing. So it's time to head out. As I started dragging
my heavy boat toward the water I realize I'm about to mow down a
couple ladies so I hollered “look out” and they scrambled out of
the way just in time (and not very happy according to my wife). Once underway my
mirage drive was all out of whack on very wrong settings and they felt
broken until I realized the problem. About 30 yards out, I started
getting organized on the boat but thought I could hear my wife. Sure enough I looked back and she was wildly waving and I heard
something about GPS. I looked over and I had my gps. So I turned
back and headed to the beach “I have my GPS I said” What kind is
it? She said Garmin 76 which coincidentally was the same as my
backup gps. Oops …. And sure enough as I pulled up to the beach,
DogsLife had camera rolling to document the beginnings of Chaos on my
trip. He said something about how some people will do anything for
an extra photo opportunity. My wife tossed me my GPS and I was once
again on my way slightly red faced. While packing my boat, the
backup GPS somehow was overlooked and I think fell out of the mirage
drive hole because of the scratches on the GPS were probably from the
boat sliding over it.
Once underway I felt pretty good and
was just relieved to be underway after months of preparation. While
crossing Tampa Bay I was following Jim from Hobie with his giant red
spinnaker. I was keeping up with him pretty good until this Army
corp freighter cut in front of me which had me diverting in an
unfavorable direction. Traveling around Anna Marie island the wind
was very calm as we were in a sheltered area. I was prepared for
ridiculous winds and this wasn't at all what was expected. Shortly
after, the crazy weather would start.
On the beach the previous night my
friend Bob from Sarasota was coaching me to not take the outside in
bad weather and he told me how to avoid the perilous areas of
Sarasota Bay. I took his advice to go on the inside instead of the
Gulf but I didn't take his advice to avoid going straight across
Sarasota bay in high wind. He was right. Sarasota Bay and the winds
were intense. You had to keep one hand on the mainsheet and be ready
to release it when your bow started diving towards the bottom. Many
times I had to release the main to spill the wind to keep from
pitching. It was very rough out there and a wild ride. All sorts of
different watertribe boats were all around me all having the same experience.
Fortunately the wind was behind us and didn't have us tacking or
fighting upwind.
Police boats, Coast Guard boats and planes were everywhere today. Once a sheriff boat pulled up to
me and asked if I saw a blue canoe. Someone called 911 and reported
one in distress in my area. A little while later he was good enough
to stop by and give me an update – they found the guy (a Watertriber) and he said
he was ok. It was just people on the shore watching him battle large
waves in his canoe and they were sure he was a goner. Turns out, one of
the Watertribe boats capsized with a sailor(Puma) in the water and the coast guard was summoned. I
could see the Coast Guard plane circling not far from me and watched
as the many law enforcement boats with sirens and lights sped by. It was
an exciting day.
While going around Venice Airport the
wind was blocked somewhat so sailing was pretty pleasant. My jib
system was really working nice and flying wing on wing with the main.
Half way through, my rudder stopped working and I was pushed into
the mangroves and muck. I couldn't figure it out at first until I
looked back and saw a bobber hanging off my rudder and a lot of
fishing line wrapped around the rudder. I got out of the boat and
was sinking in muck to get at the rudder. It took awhile to get the
line off and sure enough I found the hook. The barb snagged my left
glove so I was lucky it didn't cut me. It took some time to work it
free but I finally got the mess untangled.
As darkness fell, I readied my nav
lights and dug out my headlamp. My eyes are not good and reading the
charts and gps require reading glasses which I have hanging around my
neck. As it cooled off, the eyesight is even worse for some reason.
I had a backup set of reading glasses but if my primary set fell
overboard I'd be like Mr. Magoo. I guess I could just holler
“Roadhog” out to other passing boats I heard but that's probably not a good plan.
As I was fiddling with something I
noticed I had just passed Check Point #1 so I had to turn around. Not far
though … Oh and I see a light from another Watertriber over there. I'll head that way
to get into the Marina. I hear him saying something but I
couldn't hear him. As I get closer I holler “I can't hear you.”
He says something again and I still can't hear him. All of a sudden my
boat lurches to a halt and is grounded. He's closer now and hollers once again “Very
shallow here.” Now I hear him.
For some reason I cannot budge my boat.
I know I brought a lot of stuff but …So I think the hull is full
of water. Now I can see the poles that mark the small channel entrance to the
marina. Maybe 40 feet away. But when I yank on my boat I can only
pull it 6 inches at a time. And that's using all my strength. Can't
tell what's holding it. Rudder up, drive strapped so it won't open and dagger
board still down but tilted. No matter what I do, it takes
superhuman strength to move the boat a few inches at a time. I pull so hard
that the hull pull cord in the front snaps and that's VERY strong.
So I use my aluminum jib bow and attach a flat strap to it so I can
pull on that. After 40 minutes struggling I was completely exhausted
and my back was very sore but the boat was finally floating again.
In the marina I tied up to a dock. My
wife made me a couple of delicious sandwiches but I noticed they sat in a bag of salt water as the container went over the side once
and was being dragged. I'm way too tired to make anything to eat so
I skipped dinner for now. Never did eat anything that night.
Being tied up to a dock meant you had
to climb around the boat like a tired monkey with a sore back to find
gear. Not fun. My gear was not organized and I spent over an hour
looking for stuff climbing around the boat.
After signing in, I went over to the
campfire and there was Josh (Tidetraveler) sitting there stirring the
fire. Josh is a fireman and every time I camped with him he was in
charge of making fires and makes a great campfire. I asked a guy standing
there if they sold beers at the store and he said no but here you go
and pulled one out of his cooler. So I sat by the fire with Josh for
a few and contemplated the day.
Now I went to fill up my spare water
bladder for the next leg of the trip. Couldn't find water bladder so
emptied the boat while climbing on it against the dock. Very hard on
the already sore back. Pulled all my gear from the boat. Quite a
bit of of water in the hull so I get my pump and pump it out.
Spoke with another AI Sailor (Windblown)
and he said he thought he might have broke a rib out in the Gulf when he fell
on his water bottle. He said that he would be camping at marina. Eventually I decided to camp at the marina after talking with him since my gear was already on the dock. My phone was dying so I plugged it into a charger while I
slept. That meant I wouldn't have an alarm clock so I would
just listen for others breaking camp in the morning.
It rained quite a bit in the night.
Heard someone in the night taking down camp. Must be time to get up.
It felt like I slept some so I got up, got dressed and ready to
go. Turns out it was only 3:30 AM which was a bit earlier than I planned
but thought I'd get an early start. Back is really hurting now.
Back to loading the boat while doing the balancing act. Marina looks
like a refugee camp. People sleeping in chairs outside and on the floor in the
marina, One guy covered completely sitting in a chair looked scary.
A few people were up and about. Josh was looking at weather and planning
his day.
Used the marina bathroom and then
headed out. It was nice traveling in the early morning darkness. Very
beautiful and peaceful. One thing I noticed was my marine radio was
having problems. When I go to the Placido Swing Bridge, I could not
raise the operator. A switch on the radio also was broken so I
decided to just demast and pedal under the low bridge. Fortunately
there was a beach close. I organized a few things and took the mast
down. I set it up so I could put the mast back up without having to
go to the shore … without the jib. I could put that up later.
Once through bridge I put the mast back
up without the jib. Plenty of wind. Passed an island as another AI
like mine was just pulling out. Traveled with him through Pine
Island sound. Was originally planning to go through Matlacha pass
but decided to travel with him through the western route instead. In
the heavy seas I broke my mast topper windvane which was sitting
on my hakas. Very disappointed as I loved using this windvane.
All day only 50' boats or larger were seen. With winds picking up I
decided to see if I could rig the jib at sea with big waves. The
other AI sails off while I decide to try this out at sea. I've done
it before but with a completely different setup. First I had to take
the mainsail mast down and reattach the mast topper and halard line. Another
balancing act in big seas. The one thing that could be a disaster
would be tangled lines. So I was careful .. Success. Then attach
the halard to the jib and up it goes. Wing on wing all the way. It
was around this time I realized I cannnot get my gloves on. Turns out
my hands are completely swollen. My hands look like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man. Using my backup gloves are somewhat better but they
also take 10 minutes to get on. Very strange.
I keep dozing off on the boat all day
long. Took a lot to stay awake so I decided to listen to music. Removed gloves and it took a lot of
time to get headsets under my hat, buff and dive hat. Finally got the
mp3 player working but I couldn't read it in the sunlight. Once saw the words "child
lock on". What the heck was this? Can't take the gloves off again.
They don't fit any more. Finally after pressing buttons for awhile, I
have some music ! Well for 15 minutes anyway then silence. I reach
for the music player and it fell off my lifejacket into the wet boat and won't turn
back on.
Pretty soon I catch up to the other AI
as I see him heading straight to an island. I figured something
could be wrong so I decided to check up on him to make sure as it was
pretty remote. Turns out he had a broken rudder pin but said he was
ok and waved me off.
My chart bible is a book of laminated
pages with the waterways and gps routes I have programmed in my gps.
It's a condensed version of charts that tells me “most” of what I
need. It's very important to my navigation. So that's why I almost
had a heart attack when the wind caught it and flipped it off my boat
while flying under sail. I quickly doused the sail and turned the
boat around thinking there is no way this will be retrieved. My heart
sank and I turned and headed in the direction of where it went
overboard. It was a miracle but I was able to find the chart
starting to sink and I was able to grab it in time. Whew ! That
would have really hurt losing that critical piece of equipment.
The dozing off was happening more often
so I decided to pull off and make dinner early and rest for a bit for
a big push later tonight because it was too early to stop now. I
needed to lay down and stretch out the back too. Very sore.
Once on the island I look out and see an AI
flying a large red spinnaker pass by. That's Jim from Hobie (Penguinman) now
passing me. I toy with the idea of staying the night but it's way
too early to camp … still...
Leather lungs pulls up to join me on the island and
make dinner. He's a big leave no trace advocate and packs out stuff
that most people leave in a little cat hole. He's a real good guy
and I enjoyed talking with him. As it starts to rain he says his
goodbye's and takes off. I make dinner in my tent with the MRE's my
son gave me and they were delicious. Made up for no dinner last
night. I ate a lot and got re hydrated. Plus I stretched out my
back. I was considering the possibilities for
the night. I want to stay on the island but being in a race I need
to get going and make more miles. So I make a thermos of hot coffee
to take with me on a night run.
After dinner I get suited up and take
down camp. Just before I'm ready to leave, Phoenix 1 and Phoenix 2
pull in. They're done for the day and said the weather was too much
for them. When I was having dinner it was blowing pretty good but as
they were talking to me, it didn't seem too bad and the water looked
manageable. So I sat in my boat for a few minutes thinking I really
should stay until morning. But I was dressed and ready so off into
the darkness I went. How bad could it be? At this point I had
already made several major mistakes. First being I didn't examine my
route as thoroughly as I should have. In particular, I should have
checked the bridge clearances at Sanibel Causeway. A month earlier
when planning all this I planned on going through Matlacha pass and under the big bridge.
Tonight all I knew was I was heading for the western little bridge but I
could not for the life of me remember if it had enough clearance for
my mast. Usually in a case like this, I can pull up and eyeball it
or see the bridge markings to determine if I will fit. But not
tonight.
Once out in open water, it was apparent
that the wind was stronger than I anticipated. My weather radio
didn't work so I used my cell to check the weather but it didn't give
me any indication of problems. That was another mistake. In the
darkness, I decided to just fly only the jib which gave me plenty of
power and I could watch for channel markers easier with my headlamp.
Plus the mainsail was whipping around back and forth so much it
almost tore the headlamp off my head. The wind kept getting stronger
and stronger and the waves were huge. I think the winds may have
built to around 35 mph I thought about going back but by this time I
was several miles from where I came from and to tack back against
this wind would have taken many hellish hours. It turned into a gale
and I decided to completely pull in all sails. What freaked me out
was I was still flying and reaching speeds of more than 4 knots with
no sails at all deployed. That's almost 5mph.
Now I couldn't stop thinking about the
bridge coming up. With my boat out of control having no way to slow down. The
thought of hitting a bridge in this weather was unsettling to say the
least. I kept thinking about it and getting madder and madder at
myself for not checking this before leaving. It was too crazy to
pull out a chart and my reading glasses in this weather. I had to be
vigilant for staying in the channel and watching for markers.
Hitting one of those at 4 knots would have been disasterous and could
collapse one side of my amas. So my headlamp was used to watch for the
markers as I navigated with the GPS. I kept grabbing the mainsheet
which is what I do when I want to stop the boat … and then I kept
remembering I actually had no way to slow the boat down since the mainsail and jib were already completely rolled up.
It was a wild ride and I will be honest. As I started thinking of
all the bridge scenarios, I really got scared and did not relish
hitting a bridge in a gale. I felt out of control and foolish for
being out in this kind of weather. Time to head for land and find
any place to tie up. I also realized this adventure had lost all
it's appeal and I was done. Some people are made for this type of
experience but not me.
There were two houses on Sanibel all
lit up. I started heading for land hoping I could beat the wind and
make it there and find a dock or something to tie up to. As I
approached this giant house all glass on the water side, I noticed
the people watching a movie. I moved my headlamp back and forth
until I saw the guy look up and peer out the window my way. Then he
jumped up and ran outside as I was coming up on his seawall. He told
me how to get to a sheltered area behind his house where I could tie
up. They were surprised to see such a small boat out on a night like
this and offered to put me up for the night which was nice. I
declined but asked if I could put my tent up in the vacant field next
to their house. I was very happy to be out of the crazy conditions
and back on land.
Watertribe rules say you cannot take (only) a
down sleeping bag. So what I did was bring a non down bag and also
my beloved 20 degree down bag in case of the predicted cold nights. Tonight was
one of those cold nights. Despite using my 20 degree bag, I was
still chilled in the night so I pulled out my second sleeping bag and
doubled them up which was toasty. The strong winds rocked the tent
all night long but I slept good and was very thankful everything
turned out ok.
The next morning I contacted Paddle
dancer who is the race official and told her I was going to DNF (did
not finish). I met my wife a few miles away at a boat ramp and
after loading up we stopped at waffle house for breakfast. During
breakfast my son called and asked if mom gave me the message. I
asked her and she laughed and said she forgot. The message was Jeff
(son) was cutting up his Team Chaos shirts and changing his last name
to Jones. After laughing pretty good I got back on the phone and
said “Good morning Mr. Jones, I'm sorry to disappoint Team chaos”
and we both had a good laugh.
I'm not sorry I tried and am very
grateful I was healthy enough to at least try this. One thing I do
know is there won't be a second try. I'll follow the races from our
comfortable home and root for my favorites.
Shining stars on the boat.
Furling Jib system I designed worked
wonderful. Wing on Wing was amazing and easy to use. The aluminum
frame saved the day when I had to pull the boat out of the muck.
My wooden “racing” hakas were
super. Don't leave home without them
My DIY high back seat was very
comfortable and kept me out of the hobie wet seat puddle (Thanks
again Halibu77)
Problems with gear
The boat's hull leaked even with a new
seal I put on. Pumped a lot of water. Unfortunately 2 dry bags
failed also. My camp clothes bag which was double bagged failed.
Clothes were damp but not soaked. Spare battery waterproof bag
completely failed. Battery soup very gross. They were in ziplocks
in the waterproof bag but those also filled with water.
One railblaza mount on the hakas got
tore out. The GPS holder I fabricated failed.
My power source phone charger did not
work
Marine radio failed and switch broken.
Gloves didn't fit when hands swelled
up. Gloves are critical in the cold wet weather.
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