Our Miami-Key Largo story is a bit different than Dick's and started Friday morning on Singer Island loaded with enough gear for three days. I needed to do three things; shake down the boat before the Florida 300, get myself in sailing shape and get the boat to the starting line for the Florida 300. The Miami-Key Largo was a bonus!

I always hear people asking the same question..."How do you get in shape for a distance sailboat race?" My answer has always been get out on the boat and sail! Unfortunately all of the recent sailing I have been doing is "keeping the wife's hair dry" sailing. I haven't raced in seven years and needed to get some miles under my belt.

Mark Herendeen is my teammate for the Florida 300 but unfortunately he couldn't make the run south because his mother's funeral was the same weekend. My prayers go out to Mark and his family. Mark and I have competed against each other since 2003 but we have never been on the same boat together. I am looking forward to racing with Mark but luckily Rob Behrend, my long term teammate, stepped up to the plate with a new crew member, his son, who was celebrating his 17th birthday that Saturday. How could I refuse, it is great bringing youth into the tough sport of endurance sailing and to do 180 miles in two days is a major accomplishment for someone so young. At first I was a bit taken aback when he showed up with fishing pole in hand, then I quickly figured if that was the only inconvenience, so be it...

We left Singer Island at 10am beating south and bucking a strong current. By the time we got to Lake Worth, the wind shifted enough so it was close hauled but the current was still ripping toward the North. We caught one Bonitta near Ft. Lauderdale which we threw back. We were holding out for sushi grade tuna.

We approached government cut as the sun was setting flanked by a homeland security boat. Luckily we had already deployed our nav lights and I had a headlamp I lit the mainsail up with. Once in government cut, the wind was blocked by Fisher Island and we ghosted through till we hit open water again. One of my favorite sights is the Miami skyline as we sailed past. We arrived at Rickenbacker Causeway about 9:30 just in time for a party that lasted until about 4am and culminated with three guys trying to push us offshore as we slept. Luckily Rob was taking watch sleeping on our new forward trampoline and was able to dissuade them with "Hey, get outta here!"

At this point, a special thanks goes out to the Bob and Luis with the Delray crew. Luis had warm hamburgers waiting for us at Rickenbacker and Bob transported our cat trax and camping gear to Key Largo. It is great to see new blood at Delray! I also need to thank Dennis Green for all the help and loaning us his spinnaker.

You would think that by having the boat completely rigged (we left both the mainsail and jib up with tent on the trampoline) and sleeping in your wetsuit (got cold) would make it easy to make the 8am start of the race on time an easy feat...you would be wrong... We had so much gear scattered on the boat from the prior day/night it took us an hour just to reorganize everything and I also had issue with all the electronics. My spot tracker would not sync with either of my phones, my GPS batteries were dead and both of my new helmet camera mounts had issues with being soaked with saltwater on the deck of the boat the prior day.

Being a little late for the start was just a minor detail. Once we started the race, we had issue after issue. Both the main and jib of the old mylar sails were stretched to the point that the downhaul had no effect, the newly installed spinnaker kept trying to come out of the bag and lots of other small items. As we approached Card Sound Bridge, we were able to finally use the spinnaker for the first time ever. We deployed it but had an issue and had to pull it back down, then we made a couple of adjustments on the water and pulled it out again and was able to run it just past Card Sound Bridge. Once we stowed the spinnaker we finally hit a groove and had a nice run to the finish.

Usually the tricky sail up Jewfish Creek and pulling into Gilberts is the perfect way to finish up the day but that was only half the day. Gilberts closed the sailboat launch and we had to back the boat into a powerboat slip before enjoying a nice meal and a few drinks.

Ahead lay the hardest part of the trip, getting back on the boat for the sail to Islamorada. After three hours of relaxing, none of us were looking forward to getting back on the boat. To top it off, we had to get the cat trax and our camping gear from the Delray team and put it on the boat for the final leg.

Surprisingly, the final leg was really easy. Proper planning helped but the nice wind, music and last of the "Dark and Stormy" made the final leg a lot of fun. Instead of going all the way down to Channel 5 bridge we planned on getting a tow through the Snake Creek drawbridge. Our plan worked flawless and were able to get a tow as we entered the creek. We actually had to tell our tow boat to speed it up so we could coordinate with a sportfishing boat that was a bit ahead of us.

We arrived at the Islander Resort greeted by Dick, Ding and their lovely crew. We still had plenty of time to put the boat away, get a shower, catch the sunset at the LoreLei and celebrate Zack's birthday. There are lots of other stories but it will cost you a rummy!

Other than operator error, the boat ran flawlessly. The only mechanical issue we had with the boat was a rudder block that blew out on the last leg. I am looking forward to racing the Florida 300 with Mark Herendeen in a week and a half. We have a new set of Calvert sails on the way for the main event!


craig van eaton
Supercat 20
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