Hi Everyone - Just heard from the team down on the beach and Alex and Nigel or Nigel and Alex brought Tommy Bahama right in on the sterns of Guidant and Alexander's.  They finished just under two minutes behind Alexander's and only 38 seconds behind Guident.

This third place finish now positions them about thirty minutes ahead of Sail for Sight and about one hour and quarter in front of Tybee Island. 

Team Alexander's is following sailboat racing 101 to the letter.  Setting records is not the name of the game ----Winning is and to win they they are staying between their closest competitors and the finish line.

I want to apologize to all of you who are faithfully following this site for not posting any starting information this morning.  When Dr.Tim called me from the beach to say that they had another good start, I could stand it no longer.  I loaded the sails, life jacket, cell phone, and a little water on to my brand spanking new Hobie Get-a-way and spent the next couple of hours in 15-18 knot winds, flying a hull most of the time over the whitecaps that covered the lake.  My first impression; it's a lot faster than I thought it would be and seems to jump forward on the puffs as opposed to feeling like your on the edge of going swimming like some other multihulls I know.

I will be out of town tomorrow until early evening but will post everything I receive from the beach at that time.

We found ourselves in a less than desirable location for this morning's start from Wrightsville Beach - a disappointing ninth.  When the race committee drove the stakes that indicate starting positions, we groaned when we saw that we were in the leeward position with the whole first tier above us.  That meant eight boats-worth of dirty air dumping down on us as we tried to get out through the light 3-foot breakers.  Dan saw the narrowed eyes of Nigel and Alex as they looked at the teams sitting on top of us, and he seemed to steel his resolve.  Dan slowly waded into the water, carefully checking the bottom for footing and any irregularities.  He spent a little extra time there, wading and seemingly lost in thought for a few moments.  When he emerged from the ocean, he told the boys, "I'm gonna get you guys out of there."

At the gun, the motor fired and Dan's push had them off the beach and into clear air immediately - he'd fulfilled his promise, and Tommy Bahama began the arduous task of working our way up the fleet.  It became apparent immediately that with the wind on the nose, we had a long, tough day ahead of us as the boys beat to weather... and beat... and beat.   We dispatched the most mobile part of our convoy to Topsail Beach to check on the boys' progress - at around 2PM, they'd cleared the first island and were running in second place, slugging it out with Guidant and Alexander's in a very tight pack.  At the Atlantic Beach checkpoint, the ground crews established a beachhead and were coordinating distribution of parts and material for the ferry crossing to Ocracoke Island.  We plan to send the motorhome ahead to meet the guys if we're unable to make the first ferry after the start.  In the mean time, we continued to receive updates on the fleet's position and revisions to the ETA.  Tim was very good about keeping the ETA as accurate as he could while working on fixing another team's GPS unit at the same time.

As the wind slowly clocked right, the coastline did also, which kept our guys beating into the wind for almost the whole day.  They threw over 80 tacks while fighting for position at the front of the line.  It seemed to Nigel and Alex that they were forever seeking the weather mark in an endless beat.

Finally, at half past seven in the evening, the first three boats reached the checkpoint less than three minutes apart after 60 miles and over 9 hours of tacking.  Tommy Bahama again picked up time on the fourth and fifth place teams, solidifying our overall position.  Nigel and Alex are in great spirits and health - Dr. Tim continues to pronounce them fit for the next leg.  After a great dinner and a certified Patsy Shafer rub-down, our heroes bedded down.  Tomorrow we face the infamous Cape Hatteras leg, where the surf and winds have claimed many ships and sailors' dreams.  Keep your fingers crossed for good weather and favorable winds.

More tomorrow -

...........John