The team is all fired up from yesterday's race.  Those results, posted on the Worrell1000 web site, had Tommy's boat coming in in third place only a minute and a half behind the team Alexander's' boat. 

WOW!  Look out here we come.......

They still had some heavy seas to contend with this morning but it looks like Alex and Nigel are quick learners and maybe the Wave Gods, having proven who's boss, are eager to see this turn into a great race after all.  Again this morning, Big Dan's size and strength, made a critical difference in their ability to get off the beach at just the right moment.

The rest of the team is following as closely as possible going up route A1A in order to occasionally see how the race is shaping up.  At Ormond by the Sea, Alex and Nigel were only about 20 seconds behind Alexander's.

The Tommy Bahama Tent is also proving its worth as it seems to attract both the local and national media to it to conduct many of their interviews.

The lighter winds and the longer distances will probably result in the team being out on the water for 8 to 10 hours.  That's a long time to be hang out on the trapeze in the hot sun in one position.

Over the last couple of days, I'm sure that I could easily list 100 more valid reasons why any sailor should avoid this race.  After reviewing the list, there is really only one good one for doing it:

                                                                                "Life is one long weekend" ------- Go for it!

--------------Mr.Ernie
 

WOW, WHAT A START!!!

Dan gave our guys a perfect start this morning - he knows Daytona Beach well, and continued to get the boat through breaker after breaker long after the other pushers had given up and turned into mere spectators.  With a Herculean final shove, he sent the boys up the face on the second break with such authority that I'll bet Nigel got whiplash.  They had perfect form - Alex was lain out on the windward hull, lunging forward for momentum at each wave crest, and Nigel (who lost the toss) was low in the middle of the boat, steering in perfect rhythm with the breaking waves.  There was a beautiful flat spot through the second break that our guys shot straight through, and they were out on the wire and rolling almost immediately.  Honestly, it was the best beach start I'd ever seen.  Several other teams had problems immediately - skippers were screaming for rudders and castings as crippled boats fought to turn and surf back in.  Brian and Jamie were hit by a particularly big wave that washed Brian over the back beam, and he had to scramble to get back onto the boat before the next one hit - he and Jamie made it out, though, and tacked about a quarter-mile off shore.  Nigel and Alex tacked soon after in a solid second place.  We packed up quickly and started north - A1A affords a beautiful view of the race all along this section of the coast, and we stopped several places to take pictures and yell encouragement to the teams.  They probably couldn't hear us, but we yelled anyway.  Three hours into the race, Brian and Jamie were leading, our boys were about 20 seconds behind them, Kirk and Glenn a mere 10 seconds behind us, and Rod on Team Guidant was snapping at Kirk's heels.

The teams are staying in close, taking short 100 yard tacks out when they get too close to the surf line - beachgoers are getting a great show today!  The wind has lightened to 10-12, and the surf has lain down considerably.  The boys look fast, single trapped and smooth.

New blocks from Harken and a new main sail await us in Jacksonville - we petitioned the RC to allow us to replace the logos on the sails to continue showing off our Sponsor's colors, and everything is approved pending a new measuring session tonight.  The spinnaker was sent back to Skip Elliot's shop for repair, and we hope it will catch up with us at Tybee.

We had quite a scare this afternoon - Patsy's phone rang shortly after the lunch stop, and the caller ID showed that it was Alex.  Everyone's heart stopped, expecting to have to rush to some lonely beach where our boys were broken down and losing time.  It WAS Alex, but, since they were having such a pleasant sail, he was calling to ask what team was sailing in the fifth place position since he couldn't quite make out the sail!!  Big relief when we realized there was no emergency!  Alex reported they were having a tight race between Guidant, Key Sailing and Alexander's for the top four spots - he said they were all having a great time, laughing and talking between teams as they continued to short tack near the shore, fighting for position.

More after the finish today!

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

............At the Finish

We duked it out for miles today with Brian and Jamie, Rod and Katie, and Kirk and Glenn... we just couldn't seem to pull away from these other three teams.  At the finish, as the wind went really light and started to shift, we all finished less than 15 minutes apart.  Everyone reported having a nice sail, nearly boring in comparison to the survival conditions of the past few days.  There were a lot of complaints of jellyfish kicking rudders up, so we've got some tuning to do tomorrow, but for the most part, the boat is holding up beautifully.

Our re-logoed main is in, and will be back on the boat for tomorrow's start - everyone's still feeling pretty good and looking forward to the change in beach character as we get into Georgia and South Carolina.  Julia has joined us again for the next couple of days and made her inspection of the portable Island Paradise this afternoon.  She gave us a thumbs up on "style", but we fell well short of the "sass" mark.  We'll try to be better (worse?).

More tomorrow -

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