I was also watching the weather closely as much as I could before going to the race and as far as I could tell it was going to be a normal year. It was not until the day before the race after the boat was already rigged and ready to go did I discover what we were gonna be in for. I had very little experience in the ocean and my fiance had none at all. We talked about several different options including seeing if anyone who was gonna go solo wanted to team up with me. In the end I decided that hopefully we would be out of the ocean by noon before the conditions got worse.

The weather was great at the start. Although we really lost a lot of time in poor planning on our route to the pass plus a blown tack or 2 to start the day off. By the time we made it to the ocean, the rest of the spin fleet was all but out of sight except for the F16. I initially had lots of trouble with the ocean keeping a good VMG and figuring out just how far deep to drive. After I got a chance to look at the GPS we decided to work a little farther offshore than most of the boats and seemed to be able to skip many of the weeds. Eventually we were able to keep a broad reach nearly pointing straight at the first buoy in the Pensacola pass. The swells were pretty fun to blast over as they were tall but really far apart, we did most of this 8-10 miles off the beach. With the P-cola pier in sight we worked our way in closer to the beach and that is when we started running into problems.

At some point my spin sheet came untied and we had to stop and fix it on the water which was easier said than done. I was able to correct this but after getting back into the foot straps on the back I noticed the main had come uncleated. In a mis-communication Jordonna reached to cleat it again but I failed to take over steering and we dumped it. We were much closer to the beach now and righting it proved difficult as the waves were big and much closer together. Exhausted after righting we were on our way again when in a flash we were pointy side down again after less than a half mile. We were able to get the boat righted again but the spin was caught under the boat. We could not back up and get the spin out and any forward movement it acted as an anchor and bent the pole like a banana. I ended up having to cut the tack and halyard and pull it aboard, of course it was nice and light being full of water. I should also mention that I do get sea sick and while normally I can fend it off actively doing something such as driving, it had caught up to me in a flash trying to untie the sheets off the spin.

We were now 5.5 mile from the pass and started making our way to it sans spin. The Nacra 6.0 had caught up to us at this time and after a thumbs up they continued to fly through the surf, there is no doubt about it. I was impressed by the speed they managed. At this time I also saw the other spin boats on the other side of the island roughly 10-12 miles ahead. Even without a spin heading dead down wind we were able to keep more than 10knots boat speed and soon made it to the pass thinking the major obstacle was behind us.

Once we got into the pass we realized the fun had just begun. The wind was ever increasing and now just on our nose, and the chop felt like we were slamming into each wave as we slowly progressed upwind. About this time our jib halyard failed and our jib dropped and just about flogged itself to death before I was able to make it to a beach to fix it. At this time the first 2 trimarans had passed us and I figured we were now dead last having not seen either of the Hobie 18's start. We got back on the water after fixing the jib and stuffing the spin back into the snuffer and stowing all of the loose spin controls. Eventually we made it to the first bridge about 2 hours after pulling into the pass. Knowing that we were hours behind the fleet at this point we decided to quickly pull into Key Sailing for a bathroom break and some water.

I had never been to Key Sailing before and nosed up to the end of the dock and parked the boat. Seeing that the beach was full and their was no where to beach I decided that we would continue on, I was going to let the boat go and back up and pull out into the bay. There were piers in the water behind us so we had little room for this maneuver. Upon letting the boat go the rudders were useless as the boat quickly turned the wrong way at the crowded beach, I looked up to realize that the jib was on the wrong side and had pushed us over to that direction, but there was no time to do a thing but aim for a small open spot on the beach with 30 kids and swimmers on either side. We hit the beach full speed in only 3-4 seconds with daggers mostly down. Thankfully we had managed to run over no one by an act of God. Our race was over at that point, I was not at all willing to try and pull back off of that beach amidst the swimmers and piers. 45 minutes or so later I did what I could to help Damon pull safely on the beach and started the process of breaking the boat apart.

Jordonna and I both learned a lot on this race, It was her first time driving as my weight was better used on the wire. We learned just how much more abuse the boat will take in a race such as this and definitely have a few better ideas on a layout for the boat. Next year we will be a little better prepared and give it a shot again.

Major props to Bill Stovall for finishing!