The start, which was delayed until 10:40 this morning due to the high surf and the low winds saw our Tommy Bahama boat starting off in the third position.  Because of the way Key Sailing left the beach, there is a rumor going around that Kirk has some sort of hidden inboard motor.

The light breeze gave Tommy a little trouble at the very start but Nigel and Alex were still able to clear the beach at least five minutes ahead of the Alexander's boat.  The team is confident that with the new Tommy Bahama sail and a little retuning of the rig, they have figured out at least some of the problems of not being able to point as high as a couple of other boats in yesterday's light air.

When one of the boat crews was asked how they were getting away with having four men getting their boat started out into the surf this morning, their immediate replay was that they were just trying to be "Equal to the Tommy Bahama Team"....Go Dan!

...........Mr.Ernie

     Friday Evening

Team Tommy Bahama has finished in forth for Leg 6 right on the heels of Alexander's on the Bay.

More to come when we hear from the team on the beach.

............Here's Johnny
 

Hi Folks -

It was a little rough getting off the beach in Jacksonville on Friday morning - the 6 knot breeze was directly out of the east, and although the surf had lain down to a less-intimidating 3 feet, light air made it difficult to power out of the surf.  The RC had postponed the start twice during the sequence, hoping for the wind to go south a little.  Once again, it was Dano the Mano who got Nigel and Alex out of a bad situation.

We unveiled a surprise for Julia this morning - since we'd lost our Tommy Bahama mainsail in the Jensen Beach Massacre, we'd called in a couple of favors and gotten a new main delivered to North Graphics where new logos were being feverishly prepared.  In addition to the logos we'd had on the original sail, we felt like we needed a little extra luck.  Recognizing that the number "88" has special significance with our friends at Tommy Bahama, we had it put on the sail in blazing red and yellow.  Julia seemed pleased with the effect.

We started in the number three position today, with Guidant and Alexanders above us.  At some point during the start, there was contact between these two boats, and Alexanders was driven up.  We'd gotten off the beach well, and Dan was motoring the guys out through the chop.  Dan was meeting wave after wave pretty squarely, but one big one got us pointed down a little too far at the same moment Alexanders was driven up - the result was a broadside bump.  Dan kept the boat moving, though, and there was no damage on either boat.  Four waves later, our guys were out of the surf and moving, just as the second tier of starters was entering the surf line.  We'd gotten clear, but Alexanders had not - they were stuck in a shore break and couldn't seem to get free.  They took waves broadside, bouncing rudders on the bottom for a good 100 yards.

We were out of the surf in third - Guidant had the first spot, and Key Sailing had leapfrogged us from the number four spot during our bump with Brian.  The guys were pretty much reaching down the beach after tacking about 100 yards offshore, but we expected the south wind to finally assert itself at some point in the early afternoon.  We weren't disappointed - we dispatched part of the team to Jeckyl Island to see if they could catch sight of the fleet.  At around 2 PM, there were several spinnakers sighted quite a ways off shore - I didn't like them being that far from the coastline, but was glad to hear that the 'chutes were up.  Downwind runs take much less time than beating to weather.

Just before sunset, our guys came roaring into the beach, dropping the spinnaker a few yards outside the surf line and flying a hull right onto the sand in a solid fourth place.  Nigel and Alex are in great shape and the boat is holding up beautifully.

More after our start at 6 PM on Saturday - the first of the two night legs!

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