Not much contact unless there is a problem. With the wind like it is now, I doubt we'll hear anything as they're undoubtedly too busy to pick up a phone (they probably don't have a signal out there anyway. We had a short but strong line of rain and strong lightening come through Tybee just now ... from the looks of the sky, we're on the north end of it. It's going to be interesting.

What motivates a sailor more -- trying to catch the leader or trying to outrun a storm?
I picture this kind of like a skier trying to outrun an avalanche. A little extra adrenaline there.

Definitely a storm. Senses are extremely heightened and you are pushing as hard as possible without flipping. Every thunderboom is another jolt of adrenaline. It's not like you weren't already sailing as fast as you could, but there's a new urgency to your sailing.

Jake, what is the stress like for ground crews on a leg like this where there is no way for the ground crews to get to their teams if there is a problem?

I can say from being there that you live on a different level for that time. If the weather is just "normal" weather for this race you only think of the storm in an abstract way. Where do we want to be when it hits.

Once it gets crazy you go into survival mode. I don't know how to explain it. If you find yourself questioning if you should go out. Don't. It requires you operating on a level mentally that some people just don't have.

Looks like Team Tybee finished or is close to finishing from looking at their tracking.

Unfortunately I cannot get the Marley's tracking page to work. All I get is the following error message:

"Error happened. Exceed the maximum view count for this shared page"

Rick says; tybee in at 4:30, -t's 5:00 now and still now boats in sight. Storms holding off for now.

Post deleted by Mary

I guess I don't get out much, because I just found out that the Tybee 500 website has daily pictures. Good ones, too. Who is the photographer?

According to the Tybee 500 official race web site, the finishers so far are Tybee, Velocity, Marley's Yellow, Marley's Orange and Cat Fever.

Sorry, but I don't have anybody at the finish beach right now.

The race web site is also saying that Accelerated Chaos has dismasted about 11 miles south of the finish and are attempting to jury rig something so they can finish.

Cat in the Hat is also now in, per the race web site.

Check this out:

Chaos sailed the last 11 miles with this rig:

that is awesome. I bet they had fun setting that up!

necessity is the mother of invention. We limped across the finish line, but we made it. The last 11.2 miles were some of the funnest sailing I have ever done. We were surfing down waves, running the kite off of the spin pole mast, and enjoying every moment thinking... 'This is what the tybee500 is all about, finish at all costs'. Will post more later, but for now, its hit the town and get the drink on!
Chris

Chris, great job! I'm glad someone got a picture, nice looking rig, good thing the wind was from the back not the front!

What was the fastest speeds you guys (all you guys) saw on the entire race, from the Keys all the way up? The GPS plotters were great but didn't show speeds. Nobody gave total distances either so I couldn't figure the averages.

That is going to be one famous photo!

Episode 3 - Hollywood Start video is posted!

http://www.catsailor.com/VideoPlayer.html

Also on MySpace:
http://www.MySpace.com/adventureonlinetv (click on video page link)

Be sure to add Adventure Online as a friend on MySpace and you will be instantly notified when new videos are posted.

Alan's GPS read 28 knots for a max the whole race. With some of the wind they had on the last two days, I can believe it.

As for elapsed time/distance, the Jupiter to Cocoa leg the guys sailed abour 125, 130 miles.

They did it in 10.5 hours on the nose the whole time.

BK great third episode, awesome footage of the guys on Marleys Orange.

Speeds: Jackson's GPS had a max of 36 but I don't believe it, but there were long stretches where we would average 19-20 sustained. Day six toward the end we were flying like dolphins at seaworld, up until we stuffed the whole boat in a wave and wreckaged when the wind kicked up to 40 sustained. Great day of sailing the last third of the leg!

Happy epilogue: At the end of day 5 when we went a little long on a gybe and wiped out in the surf, we lost the whole rudder assembly as well as the mast breakage. Today, on the way home from Tybee, we went back to Fernandina, I put on a wet suit and swim goggles, and dredged our landing zone hoping to trip over the rudder assembly (and not a shark!). With the goggles on however I couldn't even see a foot in front of me, despite an offshore wind with low tide and minimal surf. Finally giving up, we then reached the lifeguards who were posted at the beach where the race finished. There were 5 of them there, and one of them, Cindy, said she saw a rudder 2 miles north sticking up in the sand. I asked her if she would drive me down there on the beach and she agreed. A mile in, there on the left, was my other rudder, crossbar and tiller extension completely intact. A mile further we came upon the rudder she saw. All told all that was broken was one lower bracket and one rubber connector doohickey. I was completely psyched. Pam said the rudders were trying to catch up with the boat in Tybee, but just couldn't make it.

All and all a great race this year with generally excellent wind, 3.5 days of spin runs, 1 day on the nose with a fast close reach finish and one day of screaming beam reaching in difficult variable winds.

Our goal is to get 20 boats to the start line next year, so if you've done the race before but have been sitting out lately, or if you want to take a run at the best race we have going, please sign up at tybee500.com. I'm happy to answer any new teams questions either here, or through a pm, or over at 1design.net.

may the four winds blow you safely home...