Everglades Challenge 2013

This years Everglades Challenge starts March 2nd at dawn, on the beach at Fort Desoto Park, Tampa Bay, Florida. It's billed as a 300 mile ultra-marathon. Most contestants take it very seriously, others are content to simply finish. Some years, finishing has not been simple.

Good Luck to all contestants! Here are some photos of preparations on the beach Friday, courtesy of Dave Lucas. Dave tells me he will not be up at dawn to see the participants off...
Additional photos, videos and links will be added throughout the event and can be found at the end of this post.

If you have access to facebook, more photos and information can be found on a page maintained by
Chuck Leinweber of Duckworks.

The Saturday Morning Start:



More coverage can be found on Aqua Lifestyle.

Here's a fun video from Runs with Beers and Excitable Boy on their Sea Pearl, Allez

03/04/2013
The winners of he 2013 Everglades Challenge and a close second are two Core Sound 20's:
This from Sailing Anarchy:

"The surprise of the event so far has been the dominating performances by the team of Paul and Alan Stewart (tribal names DanceswithSandyBottom and SOS) and the team of Phil Garland and Dan Neri (SambaSailor and Sailsalot) on their plywood Core Sound cat ketches."

" They arrived at the final checkpoint last night neck and neck, but it was the Stewarts who used their vast experience to it’s greatest advantage when they departed Flamingo to cross the treacherous and shallow Florida Bay at midnight while Garland and Neri waited for daylight. DWSB/SOS arrived at the finish at 7:02 AM this morning, which was nearly nine hours faster than the previous monohull record and one of the top five fastest finishes of all time."
                                                         by John Bell

Congratulations, Paul and Alan. 300 miles in 48 hours, quite an achievement.

Kite-cam photo courtesy of Planing Around