EC Practice to Thimble Shoal Light

With the Watertribe Everglades Challenge getting near I went out today to put on some practice miles. The weather was warm with very little wind.

My destination was the Thimble Shoals Light House. The total distance was 26nM.

2012 EC - A Hobie Adventure Island Race

The #3, #4 and #8 boats to finish the Watertribe Everglades Challenge were all Hobie Adventure Islands. Tells something about the capability of this design...

Watertribe Everglades Challenge Damage List

1) Garmin Colorado GPS: Thumb Wheel circuit board shorted out. Unusable;
2) Garmin GPSMam 78 SC: Water got into the Battery Compartment, Dead;
3) Sanyo VPC-CA9 Video Camera: Lost in Chokoloskee Mud;
4) Mirage Drive: Bent Rods & V2 Drums worn on shaft causing Pedal wobble;
5) Sail Tell Tails: deformed into spirals from the high winds;
6) Main Hull: White plug in front of Mirage well torn off. What is the purpose of the Plug??? Bottom Oyster scratches;

7) Left Click and Go Assembly spring broke: This was a pain because drive kept on popping and jamming;
8) Mirage Cassette Plug: Lost at sea when broken Click & Go launched it over the side;

Camera LOST at Chokoloskii, NEED HELP

During this years EC on February 6th I arrived at the Check Point at Chokoloskii , Florida. across from the Outdoor Resorts boat docks. It was extreme low tide and I was deep in the mud.

Leaving the check point I had to drag my boat through the mud. At one point I removed my life jacket because I was getting overheated. My video camera with all the great shots was in my jacket pocket not snapped in. I believe at this point the camera slipped out of the jacket and fell through the open Mirage well. The boat would have been pulled over it.

The data on this Camera is valuable to me. It has many great shots of my EC trip.

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I am offering a $100 reward for the Camera Data.
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You can keep the camera. The camera was a Green SANYO waterproof Camera. It can stay down at this depth for a while.

1: LAT: 25.81866
   LON: 81.36023

2: LAT: 25.81833 ~Jacket Removed
   LON: 81.36093

3: LAT: 25.81561
   LON: 81.36343

Morning in the mangrove

Last night it was cold and extremely windy. Oysters messed my rudder lines up. I will need to repair that first. Then down to civilization to get a new GPS.

Venice

Watertribe Everglades Challenge

The Watertribe Everglades Challenge starts Saturday, March 3 @ 0700.


This year there will be 8 AI/TI boats in the three races, UM, EC and UF. Pelican will be doing the Ultimate Florida Race in a AI. The UF is a race around the entire state of Florida that lasts ~ a month and includes pulling the boat ~40miles down a road.


You can follow all the Challengers on the Watertribe Mapper:
http://www.watertribe.com/Events/ChallengeMapper.aspx


The mapper can be slow to load with lot of a traffic during the race. My personal SPOT page is:
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=05oPen9XT2MHPvVYQaF9sfFv0AshAsq81 


Do not expect me to be the front runner. After putting my self into a Hospital last year I have set my sites much lower. I am aiming to finish and enjoy the ride.


I will post some pictures during the race to this BLOGGER site as long as I have cell phone coverage.