welp, we're back! What an adventure! A brief run-down:

Randy hit the creeks at CP2 just in time to catch the last bit of the incoming high tide and ride the ebbing tide out. We hit the Chockoloskee creeks at a little after 3am and were met with a ripping tide. We tried to paddle sail through it but we getting killed and every time we gained 50 yards, we would lose 100 or hit bottom (remember it's a new moon so it was pretty darn dark). We finally decided to try and tie up the boat somewhere and get some sleep. After spending an hour trying to get the boat secured (the bottom was really shelly and we couldn't get the anchor to set) we tried to sleep while still in our dry suits but it was pretty useless (shrimp snapping under the trampoline and fish or other things sloshing around in the cove...then the gnats found us). We tried to get going again once the morning light started to appear and struggled to gain anything. The current was ripping through those creeks. After about three hours of that, Alan finally jumped out and walked the boat about 1.5 miles up the sides of the mangrove creeks while I spoted for gators . The bay coming into that checkpoint was long, upwind, and about 1.5 feet deep and it took us the better part of an hour to get across that to the checkpoint. By that time, the tide turned and we had to fight it to get out. We lost about 5 hours trying to get to CP2 and it allowed the guys behind us to catch up.

With it being so tough getting out of CP2, we were betting that the Tornado behind us couldn't get out and that we had some buffer. We figured we could shut down for about 3 hours at the Flamingo checkpoint and get some sleep. I set my sleeping bag and bivy under a tree in the grass at about 1:30am but that too was kinda silly. I could hear the mosquitos swarming at me, landing on the netting that was resting against my face, and the bivy isn't the most comfortable thing in the world - kinda like a body bag. I think I actually got about 45 minutes of sleep. My alarm went off right before Alan woke me up pointing out that Swamp Monkey had just arrived. We quickly got back into our dry suits, packed the boat, and took off.

We debated on the inside or outside route for a long time and finally decided that running aground again and again with a head wind would be a PIA and that if we took the outside route we could rip along and stay ahead of Swamp Monkey. Clearly that didn't work and we ended up doing more upwind work than we expected. Swamp Monkey and Chainsaw beat us to the finish by about an hour and a half. Those guys never stopped to sleep and sailed a great race. I don't feel so bad about getting beat by them.

I have a raging cold and am getting ready to go back to bed. I took a tone of video and will be putting those together over the next couple of weeks. Later!