Ben and I have returned from the North Carolina Challenge. It was a great priviledge to be able to do this with Ben and I even kept up with him most of the time. We finished in 1 day 10 hours, 55 minutes and had a great paddle and sail. The first day we only sailed a few miles and then had to paddle into a headwind for most of the afternoon.
Ben's skin on frame kayak did great as well as my Sping Run. Around 10 p.m. on Friday evening a tremendous thunderstorm came with drenching rain, thunder and lighting for about an hour.We were fortunate to be able to take cover in a shed and continue on to Phillips Island where we spent the night. We arrived just after midnight and slept until 6 am. when we broke camp and caught the wind across to Beaufort and the first checkpoint. "Scareman", the checkpoint host had prepared hot water for us to make coffee which was great. A cold front had blown in during the night and the temperature had dropped.
When we left Beaufort we caught the tide out of Taylor creed and the wind and had our sails up for the next 30 miles. It was an amazing day of sailing up the Core Sound with the west wind pushing us along at 4 -5 mph ( along with some paddling). See the video below. When we finally got to the Back Bay and the last 5 miles there was a 20 knot wind in our face. It was a tough paddle but we couldn't complain after such an amazing day.
When we got to the cut from the back bay into the Core Sound some of the wild horses of Cedar Island were wading along the shore. We hit the sound with breaking waves and made for the finish line. We concluded with a breakfast buffett banquet Sunday morning and awards ceremony. We rejoiced that everyone returned safely. The 1st place kayaker was GhostYak with a time of 20 hours 16 minutes. There were about 40 boats that raced with 11 that did not finish for a variety of reason. Here's the Watertribe gang for a final picture.
When we left Beaufort we caught the tide out of Taylor creed and the wind and had our sails up for the next 30 miles. It was an amazing day of sailing up the Core Sound with the west wind pushing us along at 4 -5 mph ( along with some paddling). See the video below. When we finally got to the Back Bay and the last 5 miles there was a 20 knot wind in our face. It was a tough paddle but we couldn't complain after such an amazing day.
When we got to the cut from the back bay into the Core Sound some of the wild horses of Cedar Island were wading along the shore. We hit the sound with breaking waves and made for the finish line. We concluded with a breakfast buffett banquet Sunday morning and awards ceremony. We rejoiced that everyone returned safely. The 1st place kayaker was GhostYak with a time of 20 hours 16 minutes. There were about 40 boats that raced with 11 that did not finish for a variety of reason. Here's the Watertribe gang for a final picture.
Ben produced a short Youtube video of the trip that you can see by clicking on NCC2011
