DAY 1 - Islamorada to Hollywood Beach

Nobody was designed to hang in a harness for hours on end pulling on sheets and ropes until they had holes in their fingers. Equally it was not designed to do stomach crunches for 6 hours a day while a salt water fire hose blasts into your face. Yes any romantic notions you may have about this race turf them to one side – is about pain and endurance. So how did all this start?

Well for some sadistic reason this race has always appealed to me and when Roberto (my partner for our Antarctica expedition said that he wanted to do it together – I accepted – not quite (and neither he) knowing what we were letting our selves in for.

So started our trip to Miami, buy boat, buy trailer, rent car, book hotels – work like a maniac to prepare the boat – without much help form Nacra the manufacturer( who managed to send at least 4 overnight shipments to complete the order).

Down to Islamorada in the Florida Keys where we are to start our ordeal. More boat work and preparation and today Monday the 10th) we get the starting gun to sail northwards to Hollywood beach - 85 odd miles north.

Its blowing East 15 – with gusts of 20 knots. It’s a long starboard tack. We start averagely and about 10 miles down the road near Tavenier Key we take the lead of the front group. Life is looking pretty – I think – well we just keep going for another 70 miles and we will be ok. Then the stomach starts burning and doesn’t stop for the next 5 hours.

We bear off to a close reach and the rudders and dagger boards are humming – the boat is cooking along – but so are the others. Soon we are back to third and Roberto falls off the boat – hanging on to the trapeze elastic he manages to get back on board – we loose a bit more. Next I let the main sheet slip out of my hands and we both end up drinking a gallon of seawater under pressure. Later – we lift our boards to slide over a sand bank - the water is turquoise blue and we nearly hit a sea lazy sea turtle.

Miami and the high rise buildings loom in the distance – my hands ache and my harness is killing me – nothing to say about the stomach! We keep driving incessantly looking for speed to stay in the match. Everybody is getting tired around us - other boats have their problems – we yo-yo back wards and forwards. Miami passes and we get some uncomfortable swell on the beam – the leaders are out of sight. We battle it out with the yellow boat maybe 50 m in front of us.

Big Bob (Roberto) and I take turns to rest and gulp down a Powerbar Gel or take a glug from our camel backs. Eventually we can see the other boats on the beach. We head down and surf into the beach a few metres behind the yellow boat that has managed to stay ahead of us. 6th position – we are exhausted as we pull the boat up the beach.

Tommorow - a few miles more – not sure if I will have the energy to write but check back for pics in the gallery.

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