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Good stuff all! Thanks for the updates. Happy Sailing tomorrow.

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Today the Orlando weather man says East wind at 10-15kts. Hopefully it will be a fast reach instead of a long, slow beat! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

I have been fiddling around with how to use the live tracking screens of the boats that have tracking devices on board. Here is what I am doing: (And it makes more sense if you do this after the start when they have already started transmitting and are moving again. When you first open up the tracking screen before the start, it might show something that looks like a deck of cards all piled up at the checkpoint beach, especially in the case of the Marley teams, where there is more than one boat being tracked on the same screen.)

1.I open up the tracking screen. I immediately go to the “ladder” or “zipper” or whatever you want to call it at the left side of the map. It has a plus sign at the top and a minus sign at the bottom and a bar in the middle. I move the bar up until it is JUST BENEATH THE 7TH RUNG from the top of the ladder. To me, that is the best size to show the reporting points (bubbles) spread out enough and also to have an overview of where the boat is.

2.To find out where the boat currently is on the map, go over to the far left side of the your screen where the message board is. Put your cursor over the top message on the board, which is the last transmission from the boat, and the tracking “bubble” on the map will start showing signals like a horn blaring. If you still don’t see it because it is out of view on the map, LEFT CLICK on that same message, and the map will automatically reposition itself so the boat is on the screen with those blaring signals. (Takes a few seconds.)

3.You can do the same thing if you want to find out where that boat was at an earlier position in the race – just left click on that earlier message, and the map will reposition itself down to where the boat was at that time.

Tip: The blaring horn signal to show where your boat is can also be helpful if your boat is hidden behind another boat on the screen (or if that particular boat has some of its later reports hidden behind an earlier report).

4.VERY IMPORTANT: I found out that even if you keep the tracking screen open all the time, as I do, you do not have to manually refresh the screen to get the latest position updates – it does it automatically. This is a MAJOR bonus, because otherwise you have to re-do your map settings every time. So DO NOT REFRESH the screen.

5.Since we have three different screens for tracking right now, I figured out how to see pretty well how the boats are doing against each other even though they are not all on the same screen. Just open each tracking screen, set each to the same size (with the bar right under the 7th rung), and diminish all three so they are in a row at the bottom of your computer screen. That way you can open them one right after the other and see pretty much how the tracked boats are doing in relation to each other.

6.If you open one of the screens, and you don’t see the boats in their current positions, remember that you just go over to the message board and left click on the top message for that boat, and it will reposition the map to take you to where that boat is.

P.S. I didn't figure this all out by myself -- some of it I learned from the "Help" feature at the bottom of the message board.

And I still can't figure out how to make the tracking line appear. It shows for one of the boats but I can't get it to show on any of the others, although I think I am following the instructions in the "Help" section. If anybody figures that out, let me know, because I think that is pretty neat when it works.

IMPORTANT TIP: When you are looking at how two boats are doing against each other, you also have to look at what time each of them last broadcasted a position report, because that can make a big difference in where they actually are in relation to each other. They all seem to broadcast at different times and at different intervals. You find the time of the report (message) by left-clicking your cursor on the boat's black bubble for that particular position.

ANOTHER TIP: The message board at the left of the screen can be made to disappear or reappear. If you click the arrows at the top right of the message board, it will slide to the left. To open it up again, you click the little arrows up at the top left.

Story made it into the Palm Beach Post with a photo in the local section, can't find a web link though.

Rick posted a pre-start blurb and weather report on our Tybee page for the leg from Cocoa to Daytona. He will put up more after the boats are on their way.

It looks to me like all five of the tracking boats are broadcasting this morning -- the three Marley's boats, Team Tybee, and Cat Fever. We'll see how long that lasts today. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

If you are new to the coverage, remember that to get to our Tybee 500 coverage page, you go to our home page, www.catsailor.com, and the top story on the page has links to click through to our Tybee 500 page. All the archived stories and pictures from preceding days of the race are in the box at the right side of the screen, along with links to the Live Tracking and to Brian Karr's videos.

They are all off and running. Wind was about 15 mph from the east for the start. Nobody had problems getting through the surf, but Rick said there are some good pictures. He will get them up soon at our Tybee page.

He said it will probably be a close reach until they get around Cape Canaveral and then a broad reach.

More in Rick's story. He just got to his computer in the motorhome.

Rick has his pictures posted on our Tybee page of the start through the surf, and they are great. Check them out.

Because the boats are all so close together right now on this reach out to the tip of Cape Canaveral, I have all three of my tracking maps set a bit bigger, with six rungs showing at the top of the ladder instead of seven. As you can probably tell, I am getting addicted to this tracking thing.

It looks like Marley's Orange is not transmitting again today. It only seems to work on the beach. I don't think Jared and Colin want anybody to know where they are. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> I'm calling them the stealth boat.

According to the tracking, the leaders are rounding the tip of Cape Canaveral and should be turning left to head downhill soon.

I just got back to RI last night and had left my computer home so I couldn't upload these sooner.
I took some short videos from the card sound bridge on Sunday of some of the teams passing under it.
I put them on youtube... first time i've posted on there... I am amazed at how much quality is lost when they reduce the size of the file.



Team Seacats and Cat in the Hat Team Marley's Orange & Full Wave Audio (accelerated chaos)

Team Tybee

Thanks, Todd.

Wind report at Cape Canaveral is 13.6 knots gusting to 17.5 knots, out of the east. Daytona Beach forecast for this afternoon is for 10-15 out of the east.

So I guess the question is, with the east winds will they or will they not be able to use their spinnakers? Or will it be a beam reach with main and jib?

The tracking doesn't show you that stuff. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Okay, now on the maps it looks like they are on enough of an angle that they should be using spinnakers.

marley's orange dismasted off Cape Canaveral!- seatow going to get them

I hope they are okay, and that they don't drift into the security zone. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Is that Marleys 1, 2 or 3 ?

I think I found it to be 1.

I can't keep them straight either. Orange is Jarrod Sonnenklar and Colin Page and while I think that's "1", I'm not certain.

I hear that the failure was at deck level on the starboard shroud. Either the chainplate let go or the shroud tang pulled out of the hull. This came from Brian Karr (www.adventureonline.tv) who is on his way with camera in tow.

Mary, on the GPS tracking units, is there no way to get a speed readout too?

I tried doing the Marley boats as 1, 2 and 3 to begin with, but everybody was calling them by their colors, and they are referred to by their colors on the tracking, so I switched.
Marley's 1 is Marley's Orange, Jared and Colin.
Marley's 2 is Marley's Yellow, Steve Lohmayer and Jay Sonnenklar.
Marley's 3 is Marley's White, Dennis Green and Jason Childers.

Not that I know of. And I think these tracking things were designed for slow monohulls or something, because often they don't give readouts for an hour or more at a time. They probably figure they won't have moved very far anyway. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Keep in mind that I don't know anything about these things. And nobody else seems to know anything either, including the teams that put them on their boats.

Marley's orange broke the forestay chainplate. They're packing it up and are done for the race (outside assistance).