Tybee 500 Coverage from Gale's Shore Crew

Latest Tybee 500 News - Wednesday, May 14, 2003 - Day 5
Jensen Beach to Cocoa Beach

Turtles, Tools, and Tillers

At each day's end, when boats come to the finish, a new list of things to be done starts all over again. And each morning, there's another list, along with a skippers' meeting, which sometimes adds to it.

This morning Dave and Bill were busy putting some rake in the mast (angling it back toward the stern of the boat) to gain some speed. David went on to replace yesterday's damaged tiller handle and fiberglassed the bite out of the daggerboard. Meanwhile Bill was dutifully getting the day's briefing from race officials at the skippers' meeting.

Today, as every day, there is a brief talk on Loggerhead turtle egg nests. "That's my turtle lecture for today," is how the race manager always ends each spiel. Chuck, the race organizer and Tybee Island resident, well familiar with turtle-land, knows also the implications of messing with a nest. "You're better off robbing a bank, raping the teller, and getting away without putting money in the meter," he said.

We're reminded that random safety checks take place at each start. If something's missing it's a no-go until it's fixed, which could cost the team a lot of time. Also at the meeting a plaque is presented to the team who finished first the previous leg. This morning it was to Australian Rod Waterhouse, many-time winner of the lost Worrell-1000 series—an annual race until this year—and his co-skipper Kirk Newkirk of Key Sailing. All agree that the committee's doing a great job with this first-ever event. And talk is that another separate race might join up with the Tybee, back-to-back, to make it a full 1000 miles. And twice the fun?

As for teamwork, it's interesting being Antieau Art's fifth wheel, seeing what the other wheels all must do to keep everything moving along. Each beach landing is the waterborne version of a Nascar pit stop. There are lulls in the activity for racer and crew from time to time, but not for long.

This day started with some good news: Gale's two weather reports actually agreed. Will there be any wind out there? "Well," she said, "you just gotta find it." We were having breakfast on the top floor of the Marriott with a great view of the Atlantic. Looking out, we could clearly see the windline on the water to the east. But here along the shore it was pretty light.

When we got to the beach, Bill and Dave were finishing a swap-out of the snuffer pole to the rigger pole for the spinnaker, hoping to reduce windage and gain more speed. They were tying the pole off to the bows with hi-tech Spectra line. Before we knew it Gale and Carl were each in position for the start of leg 3, with the essential fresh PB&J also again in its position on the boom.

But "off and crawling," was the way Catamaran Sailor Magazine's Rick White put it. His play-by-play's are terrific (www.catsailor.com).

They got a pretty good start, tacked slowly east just past our hotel, ending up in the front third of the pack, hoping air would fill in. We watched awhile, then checked out of this beautiful spot, turning onto A1A again. Shortly afterward, about noon, Bill's cell phone rang. It was David. (He drives Carl's van while Bill and I travel in Bill's suburban.) He'd pulled over at a beach access—the loneliest place we'd seen since the Keys—and spotting the fleet, dug out the binoculars. "They're in third place," Dave said.

It turned out to be a fast leg—a little shorter at 77.8 miles and mostly downwind—with a spectacular finish. The clear horizon filled with colorful spinnakers. Clumps of boats started hitting the beach, quickly dousing chutes. I was videoing and suddenly realized that one of the two boats I was shooting was Gale and Carl. The first arrived at 4:50 p.m., and the next two bests-of-the-bests close behind, in this order his time: 1. Team Tommy Bahama, 2. Key Sailing, 3. Team Tybee.

Then Team Antieau Art arrived at 5:00 in 7th place. An incredible performance when you tally up the credentials of those in the top half. Pile-ups and minor mishaps ensued during the exciting but chaotic finish until the 27th boat arrived at 6:25. Must have been a timer's nightmare, with mere seconds separating some of them.

"We had a good day," Gale said. "We had a good start on the second tier, farther north than most, and kept a good position." Carl added, "We were even in first for a while. That was fun, leading the pack."

A nice day for the sailors but a heavy workload for Dave and Bill. When the boat came in relatively early, the ace shore crew gave it a full going-over. Carl decided the mast needed to be raked back more. Problem was the only fittings they had to work with needed more modifications than expected, which could only be done with a Dremel tool. And the closest electrical outlet was in our room at the Holiday Inn. It's not directly on the beach but a couple hundred yards away. Bill made three long roundtrips from the start/finish point (where all the boats are kept overnight) to our room, each time bent over and whirring away on the stainless gear to make it just right.

The shrouds were once again shortened to get the mast to where Carl and Dave thought it would work best. Then the Spectra line used on the spinnaker pole yesterday was replaced with stainless wire to keep the pre-bend in the pole's shape, which also helps keep the shape of the spinnaker sail. It's all about speed.

Dave and Bill's work didn't get done til 9 p.m. Meanwhile Gale and Carl attended a BBQ dinner hosted by one of the other teams. Later in our room, reviewing charts again for tomorrow, Gale yawned a bit as Bill read off lats and lons and they coordinated the two GPSs they take with them, double-checking everything.

She then did her daily check of the weather forecast on the Internet provided by iwindsurf.com, studying wind strength and direction. In the morning she'll again check with Commander's weather service by phone. But now it was after 11, and time for everyone to get some sleep.

--Diana Prentice

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