Memo from Mary:
This year let's try to keep all the Tybee 500 input, questions, answers, blogging, etc. on this thread instead of people starting new threads all over the place, because then it is hard to keep track of what is going on. I am making this thread "sticky," so it will always be there at the top of the threads. I think it will be neat for people to be able to read down through everything that happens in the race and on shore in flat mode on this one thread and save it for future reference in your favorite threads.

For all the information about the race, go to the www.catsailor.com home page. There is a lead-in story about the Tybee. Click through on the link and that will take you to our Tybee 500 page, which has the full stories and all the information about the checkpoints and the teams, including links to their team web sites. And Rick will be posting stories and pictures every day and then placing them in the specific “Legs” of the course.

All that, including the video produced by Brian Karr and the GPS tracking of some of the boats is all accessed from our Tybee 500 page in the box at the right side of the page.

Thanks. The race is about to begin!

The race is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. from the north end of Jewfish Creek in Barnes Sound, Key Largo, FL. Rick is on his way north to the Card Sound Bridge to get pictures of the boats as they pass under.

After that it will be up to each team to decide where they will transition to the ocean side from the Biscayne Bay side. Rick's lead-in story lists the various options.

More on this thread when Rick gets back from the bridge.

Weather forecast is for south-southwest winds at 10 knots. Sounds like a spinnaker run to the first checkpoint at Hollywood.

I don't know how accurate this is, because it was rattled off to me third-person. Under the bridge at Card Sound in this order:
Marley Yellow (I think that is Lohmayer)
Team Tybee (Not on the registration list, but it is Kenny Pierce/Jamie Livingston)
Marley Orange (I don't know which that is of the 3 Marleys)
Cat Fever
Sea Cats
Cat in a Hat
Team Moose-Burd
Team Velocity (had a spinnaker problem, but have got it working again)

Rick has a bunch of pictures up now at our Tybee 500 page.

I really like the live tracking thing. Does everybody have one, or is it just one boat? Great pictures!

Thanks RAM!

This is a really interesting perspective to be on the shore crew and hanging out with Rick this morning. We had a great view of the boats as they came under card sound bridge and a bunch of drama with the two teams with spinnaker problems. This is pretty exciting!

As far as I know, it is only the three Marley boats that have the tracking devices. Only two of them seem to be working. Don't know whether the third boat is not racing or the device just not working.

It would be great if all the boats had them. Anyway, I'm keeping my eye on Steve Lohmayer, who is the one out front, even though we don't know where he is in relation to all the other boats. He is a veteran of this race and the Worrell 1000 and lives down here and knows the waters very well, so I can usually count on him being in front or near the front.

I don't know how those tracking things work, but it would be nice if the old spots would go away when a new spot is reported, so you just see where they are right now. The way it is, it looks like a whole herd of boats, when it is actually just two.

The live tracking is cool, is there anywhere that shows their speed? I can't find it. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

More new pictures (boats going under the Card Sound Bridge). Go to our Tybee 500 page and in the box at the right, click on "Leg 1."

On the tracking thingy, I LOVE the satellite view.

Yeh, if you zoom in enough it clears up to single track, sorta.

I finally found out who is who of the three boats with the tracking devices:

Marley's Bayside Grille 1 -- Jared Sonnenklar/Mike Siao.
They are designated as "orange" for the tracking, but apparently their tracking device is not working.

Marley's Bayside Grille 2 -- Steve Lohmayer/Jay Sonnenklar.
They are designated as "yellow" for the tracking.

Marley's Bayside Grille 3 -- Dennis Green/Jason Childers.
They are designated as "white" for the tracking.

Report from Warren Green is that Marley's white capsized twice between the start and Card Sound Bridge, so they are back a ways.

Marley's Yellow was first under Card Sound, and Marley's Orange was third under the bridge, so too bad orange's tracking device is not working. They will check it out when they get to Hollywood.

I have been told that Kenny and Jamie have a tracking device on their boat, too, but I don't know where to see it. I'll try to find out. If somebody knows, post it here.

Report as of 1:30 p.m. is that the boats are at least 45 minutes to an hour away because the wind has died.

How to watch the "tracking." I was asked to explain it for the benefit of people like myself who have a hard time figuring this stuff out. So bear with me if I don't use the proper technical terminology.

When you go to our Tybee 500 page, click on "Tracking" in the box at the right side. It will show you a sort of map with a bunch of little bubble things all kind of clumped together. They are in groups of two -- a black round thing with a little orange pointer on the bottom and an associated, colored circle with a number in it.

The orange pointer on the bottom of the black thing tells you where the boat was at the last report, and they seem to be changing positions about every 10 minutes. Point your mouse hand finger on the black bubble, and it will tell you the time when that position was posted.

The color in the attached circle tells you which boat is reporting, and the number in the colored circle tells you the number of the report, the highest number being the most current.

The legend on the left side of the page beside the map tells you which color is which. Unfortunately, to add to confusion, the one designated as "yellow" shows up as green on my map. And the one designated as "white" shows up as light blue on my map. And orange, of course, is not there at all because of some malfunction, apparently.

Important: In order to better see what is going on, you need to spread out the gaggle of bubbles. So over to the left side is a ladder-type thing with a little bar on it. You can move that bar up on the "ladder" a rung or two at a time to expand the map and spread out the "bubbles."

And if you want to see what the shoreline really looks like, click on "Satellite," and it will give you a google view, which is sometimes more interesting.

Remember, though, that all those bubbles are only representing TWO boats, so we only know what is happening with those two boats, Marley's 2 (yellow, which displays as green), and Marley's 3 (white, which displays as light blue).

If you keep the tracking page open, refresh the page whenever you think about it, because it updates the positions about every 10 minutes.

Oh, yes, and you can use your "hand" pointer to move the map up and down by holding down your left mouse button.

According to Beach Captain Neil Wilson, the wind at Hollywood has died to 2-5 mph out of the southeast. I don't think they are allowed to paddle in this race; are they?

It's still blowing really nice here in Key Largo. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I'm beginning to suspect that my information might be wrong as to who is white and yellow and orange for the Marley boats. We will find out when they get to the beach.

The first boat is almost there. I'll be back soon.

First boat just arrived at Hollywood. It's Team Tybee skippered by Kenny Pierce and crewed by Jamie Livingston. Next boat is about 5 minutes away.

Second boat in is Marley's 1, Jared Sonnenklar & Colin Page.

All the boats are in:
1. Team Tybee
2. Marley's 1
3. Velocity
4. Marley's 2
5. Cat Fever
6. Sea Cats
7. Cat in a Hat
8. Accelerated Chaos
9. Marley's 3
10. Team Moose-Burd