Can you write a note for my boss? I've only got one good arm these days

Dear Boss,
Due to Mikes recent loss of an arm, can you please excuse him from work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He will be rehabbing his one good arm through constant adjustments to his mainsheet. I'm sure that by Monday you will have a better employee.

The new main looks good, not too flat, lots o' power.... If we are reaching on Saturday with 15 we'll be on the edge all the way down. Could be a chute run if it keeps clocking south.

Thanks for note hogitz!

I still have the damn thing but it rrrrrrnt worth a hoot. Had the MRI today so I hope they fix me soon. Craig and Eric have one for me! Craig take care of that new paint job!

Ok, crew bailed due to work and all of my other options failed. It looks like I might make the run solo.

I have a webcast set up for the trip using a Spot Satelite Messenger and TopoFusion.com software specially developed for racing. We are going to webcast the Keys 100 with anyone that has a spot unit and are testing it with my run to the starting line in Islamorada. My route is outlined in red. It shows my latest position and if you click on my Avatar below in the "Individual Map/History" section, you can see my track. It is still being developed. Hope to push off early tomorrow.

West Palm Beach to Key West Webcast

Anyone doing the Keys 100 can be added to the webcast. Just send me your SPOT Shared page.

Made it to the Miami Yacht Club by 9pm. Missed the meeting but plenty of people still there. I had a late start 10:34 and did the first 30 miles solo and picked up Bruce McKeever at Delray for the rest of the journey.

It started with very light NW winds at my back jibing down wind. Right off the bat, I had a mexican stand off with the Palm Beach Pricess coming out of the inlet. I had plenty of room to cross in front but they started veering course to match mine and slowed. I had to turn upwind and head straight East until they finally powered up and continued out.

I spent much of the first five miles sorting out my gear on deck and figuring out the SPOT tracker which I just got the day before. I though I had turned on the tracking after I sent an OK to mark the start but I messed it up somehow.

The wind started picking up a little at the Lake Worth Pier but was still NW so I had to stay out pretty far to get clean wind. Around Dog Beach (Briny Breezes) the wind direction shifted NE.

I stopped at Delray Beach where I picked up Bruce and talked with a couple of the Delray Beach Sailors. We tried rigging the screecher that I has stowed on board but the sheet I had for it would not fit for some reason and we stowed it back.

Besides good company, Bruce brought good wind. Wind had shifted more out of the east and picked up ablut 8 mph. Now we were able to run straight up the coast at a good clip.

At Pompano we saw a small inflatable approaching and sure enough it was Hogitz and company. It was a great surprise but they were extremely skeptical that we would make it to the Yacht Club.

The sun dropped just as we were approaching Government cut and I installed the red, green and white glow sticks. It was awesome going through the port and seeing downtown Miami at night. We went in the main inlet but we veered left after Fisher Island to avoid going through the cruise ship lane. I had a Homeland Security escort the last time I did that.

The trickiest part of the trip was navigating the two bridges leading to the Miami Yacht Club and pulling into the Yacht Club without hitting other boats. The wind had picked up conciderably and they had a small craft advisory out. The wind was also doing 40 degree shifts that made it very intesting.

Marcus, our ground crew, was waiting on shore to help and slowly many other sailors came by to check out the boat and talk about our trip and the upcoming race.

A big thanks goes out to Mike Shappell (www.TheManShed.net)who painted the boat and helped with building the cooler in the hull and fixing 30 years of abuse. There were many compliments on how great the boat looked.

Eric, thanks for getting my packet for me. hogitz, thanks for meeting us out on the water and back at the club. What a way to meet on the water. Glad we were able prove you wrong by getting in at a decent time.

Looking forward to the Miami Key Largo Race tomorrow and the Keys 100 next weekend.

Had a good run yesterday. Did the 43 mile race in 2 hours 47 minutes. Today is calling for 20 - 30 mph winds from the South East. Should be a great run to Islamorada. We have a couple of boat issues to sort out next week so we are going to be doing more of a pleasure cruise and not pushing for speed especially with the high winds.

Team Cyberspeed Course Page

Will hopefully have a full race report on the way home.

Glad you made it down It was a great run

Nice to meet you at the Skippers Meeting Hogitz, and hope to see you on the water. The race was Super fantisticafrgilistica!(Don King)
Craig apprecited your support.
E

Wow Hogitz, what a great photo. Thanks for capturing that moment for me. Bruce and I had a lot of fun on that run. How did you end up?

Arbo06, still pissed you passed me at the end...Just Kidding. It was also great hanging out at Gilberts after the race.

Sunday, we had a bit of wrong information and unfortunately it was backed up by someone else. We ended up doing almost 50 miles but had perfect weather conditions. We had another couple with us that forgot to bring their wetsuits so we had to put it in cruise mode and still made good time. Just glad the forcast was wrong and we had about 15 mph from the SE which put us on a beam reach the whole way.

Just have to get the tramp fixed and fix some steering issues before the last leg Saturday. Almost the entire port side of the tramp seam is split near the bolt rope. We had to jury rig it before the run on Sunday.

TopoFusion is preparing for the race and removed the course I did and removed a lot of the waypoints in the middle. You can still see most of my track on the team page though right now.

You need a restored by themanshed decal on there or [color:#FF6600]Beer Hull by themanshed[/color]

I sure do. We need to finalize a logo for you. Do you like the origional one we did?

It was a great race and even a better party at Gilerts! What a great ride. It was good to see you on the water, the boat looks awesome!

Eric,
Can you measure your steering crossbar outer diameter. I forgot to take mine off at Islamorada. Thanks.

Tony Keller has his bridge photos up at http://www.tonykellerphotography.com/
click on the clients tab then enter mkl2009 and wait for the photos to load.

Thanks for the link. I talked to him and thought he was going to wait till the awards party. He always has great stuff.

The last leg to Key West is tomorrow weather permitting. We have the tramp repaired and parts to fix the steering issues. Rob Behrend is heading already on his way down to work on the boat and my wife and I are heading down around noon. Rob and I also plan on doing some fun cruising with the wives on Sunday.