Race Time

The Cruising Division race start will be at 1100 on 14 May, inside Pensacola Bay near Bayou Chico. We'll be out on the water by 0800 most likely vying for position and getting all the screaming and yelling out of the way. It's a pretty tight start out in front of the bayou and through the bay and out the Pensacola Pass, not hitting the sand bars, the Russian freighter and the USS Massachusetts (BB-2) that just break the water, and a couple of other hazards to navigation. But once we're past that we have the entire GOM at our disposal.

The Race Committee is employing some pretty cool technology this year that will enable anyone to track the location and progress of boats in the race. We mount a transponder to ARGO and it reports our position and speed every 15-30 minutes, all race long, provided that we are not stove in by a kraken or captured by bandidos.

You can watch the whole thing from your computer with graphical internet access, stubby in hand, at www.iboattrack.com . If you follow the links to the racing section, you can look at the results from a race that just finished, the Regata del sol al Sol, not to be confused with our race, the Regata al Sol. Long story. I'll try to post the specific URL when it's made available to us.