She's off!

KiwiBird departed for Florida and the Everglades Challenge about 0500 this morning. Sorry, no photographs to post, as I was still at home and fast asleep.

Unfortunately, FliesWithKiwiBird and the (not so) Wee One stayed behind. In the end, it seemed wiser to keep him near Duke and medical care, despite his great progress toward recovery from PSGN.

It's about a 1,100-kilometer (700-mile) drive, so she should arrive at Fort DeSoto before dark, including a stop for fried chicken in Georgia. Tonight will be spent in reunions and introductions to new WaterTribers. Tomorrow is for boat loading, inspections (from which she is exempt) and the competitors' meeting. A trip to West Marine is also pretty standard, so maybe she'll shag parts for SandyBottom, SOS and DancesWithSandyBottom, who are still working on Mosquito, their SOS-designed and team-built trimaran. My hunch is that Mosquito will feel right at home.

I'll post here as I have news, but I also encourage you to visit the new WaterTribe web site, where racer logs and and position maps are housed.

Floatsome