Nauti Gear Once Again Ekes Out Line Honors for Leg 2
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By only a few minutes Steve Piche and Aaron McCulley managed to finish just minutes ahead of Ruff Rider. Here are the results after the 2nd leg:

Leg 2 and Overall Results

Latest Update -- Ruff Rider and Nauti Gear Battling it Out

We received an update from Team Chums. They were flying their
spinnaker under 8 knts winds, racing in 4th place. They could see that
Team Ruff Rider was in 1st, followed by Nauti Gear. There were three
other boats sailing close to them: Poison Girl, Tybok and Corpus
Christi. As they passed the jetties, around 12:45, all boats seemed to
be within one mile from each other.
If the winds don't pick up, they anticipate another long day on the
water.

Easy Start for Everyone on a Beautiful Day

The racers were off to a great start today with conditions very
similar to yesterday. Bright clear skis, a moderate 5 to 8 knot wind
and mild 2 foot surf. Under the light Southeasterly wind the boats
were tacking quickly after the start as they worked their way up the
course on their 90 nautical mile run to Matagorda.

Steve Piche of Team Nauti Gear, in the first gate position appeared to
be off to an early lead with Team Sofa King close behind. John Tomko
of Team Ruff Riders was the first to tack as their signature red
spinnaker came flying (apparently the nights repairs worked well).

The ground teams stopped for a quick shower and have now made it
across the ferry at Port A and up to Port Lavaca where most ground
crews will stop to provision.

Pictures by Sean Stevens:

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Great Day Coming, but Not Much Communication
Stand by for the start of Day Two from Mustang to Matagorda Island. For more coverage check the website at www.gt300.com

This report from Steve Piche:

What a beautiful day on the beach this morning. The wind is blowing
from the south at about 10. The sun is shining and the surf is small.

We spent a very pleasant evening sleeping on the beach. The sunrise
was gorgeous. Right now, I am sitting on top of a sand dune with a
computer with broadband looking over a great beach scene.
Well on to racing. We start at 10 am once again this morning with a
93 nautical mile run to Matagorda Island. The forecast is for wind in
the 10-15 range from the south east. I expect a spinnaker run into
Matagorda today. We will be sailing to the north east today. We
expect to arrive some where between 3:30 to 5:30 depending on wind
conditions.

We hope that we can hang on to our lead today. We know that Team Ruff
Rider in second place is going to be back sailing hard today. Also,
we need to keep an eye on Team Sailboat Shop. They won the race in
2003 and are fully capable of putting on a good show. I want to thank all of the web reporters and everyone else for working
so diligently to bring you the reports. It is difficult and slow
communicating from these remote beach. I doubt that we will have an opportunity to report from the water
today. Also, there are no roads so we probably will not have any
updates from the race until the boats start to arrive.

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