Dawn and Paul’s Florida UltraMarathon
While chilling out at Lake Eustis Sailing Club during the Midwinters, Richard innocently asked Dawn what our next event would be. She quietly replied, “The UltraMarathon.” Richard’s surprised look was understandable. Anyone who knows us would rightly assume we would have difficulty running the length of a typical Midwinter starting line! Nonetheless, we had indeed signed up for a 63-mile race!
Not surprisingly for us, it was a sailing, not running event called the WaterTribe UltraMarathon (UM), which is the first leg of their Everglades Challenge (EC), a roughly 300-mile small boat adventure race that starts at Ft DeSoto in Tampa Bay and ends at Key Largo. The UM is the first of the EC’s four legs and ends at Cape Haze Marina. If stopping only at the checkpoints, it takes boats like the Wayfarer about four days. We thought the EC sounded like potential fun but decided to dip our toes first with the UM to see if we liked it and whether W971 was up to it.
After spending a bit of time on the internet, it appeared that Wayfarers attempted the EC a few times, but only a modified CL16, sailed singlehanded by Waterstrider (aka Charles Burke – you join the Watertribe with a tribal name – ours are BoatDoc and Dawnzi) completed it in four and a half days in 2020. We were a bit concerned until someone pointed out that cruising down the Florida coast was probably not as dangerous as sailing from Scotland to Iceland, although Frank Dye did not have to avoid crocs and alligators!
We started our prep last spring by downloading the paperwork, which described the required and recommended safety equipment. Some were normal cruising gear, like an anchor, oars, nav light, charts, water, radio, food, cooking kit, and a reefing system. Others highlighted you are isolated, and included a position tracker, satellite transmitter, PLBs, hypothermia kit, drysuits, beach rollers, a boat tent and a solar charger/power bank to recharge electronics.
We then made a few small modifications to W971. When rowing, it was difficult to steer while keeping our weight on centerline due to the long tiller. Removing the tiller and rudder was not a safe option, so the solution was to make a retractable tiller that varies from 16-30 inches long. Combined with a telescopic tiller extension, it allows one person to sit on the forward edge of the aft tank while steering to one side.
Our cruising jib (the small jib, not the genoa) got hanks and a jib downhaul connected to the top hank. We lashed a position light (a small, continuous white LED) to a pig stick and added a burgee halyard that goes to the top of the mast. Two AA batteries last 36 hours. That not only satisfied the navrules but also lit our wind indicator. The old spinnaker pole was replaced with a stronger and stiffer one, and finally, a RAM ball mount was added to the back of the mast under the boom to hold our waterproof tablet/chart plotter.
In January we registered and passed the telephone skills interview. A week before the Midwinters the truck was loaded, the trailer hooked up and the sailing gear packed! While I looked after Tiller, lectured/bored some students in engineering and shoveled snow, Dawn drove through a blizzard to get to sunny Florida! After some fun racing at Lake Eustis, we left the boat at the club, dropped the truck off at long-term airport parking and flew back to CT for some work and more snow shoveling. A month later we flew back down, picked up the truck and W971 and headed to Tampa!
Some logistics proved challenging. The race started on Saturday morning at 0830, but the nearest launch ramp was five miles away and the current was foul. Plus, the boat needed to be on the beach to pass inspection the day before and motor vehicles were not allowed. We pushed the trailer as far as we could, then rolled the boat the rest of the way on beach rollers. The rollers were key components, as one of the requirements is the boat’s crew, with no other help, must launch their boat from above the high-water mark, and you must bring with you whatever you used to launch! After launching, the inflated rollers were tied under the thwarts to provide extra flotation in case of a capsize.
The other challenge was to figure out how to get back to Ft DeSoto from Cape Haze to pick up the truck and trailer after the finish. Our solution was to stage a rental car, which involved two extra 80-mile trips. A hassle, but in the end, it worked out fine.
With W971 on the beach, the next challenge was to carry all her equipment from a couple hundred yards away. Not surprisingly, it took nearly four hours to go from driving in to waving over an inspector! The lugging over part was straight forward but it took a while to figure out where everything should go. Inspection went quickly (and amiably) as our inspector was a former Wayfarer sailor. After a few minor finishing touches, we headed out to an excellent Mexican restaurant for an early dinner, then some last-minute grocery shopping and to the Ft DeSoto campground to pitch our tent and get some much-needed rest.
We were up just before daylight and at the boat by 0730. The tide was low, which meant a push of about 10-boat lengths to the water. The forecast was for 10-knots from astern, so we hoisted the jib hoping for a bit of push down the beach, but raising the main seemed tenuous. It may have helped, but as we decided not to raise the main or mount the rudder until we were in the water, we were one of the last of the 90 boats to leave the beach. We pointed south and looked for the wind that wasn’t there!
The UM and EC were originally paddling events, and the kayaks still make up a large portion. There are no handicaps, only when you finish counts, so the speedier boats usually get there first. When the breeze is good, the sailboats do well. When it is calm, the paddlers win. Monohull sailboats make up Class 4. Although we were the only UM Class 4 boat, those doing the EC included a 20-foot carbon skiff designed for the event, a Highlander, Thistle, a few Oday 17s, a bunch of Core Sound 17s and 20s, some Tanzers, and a highly modified 49er sailed singlehanded! We did have a bunch of Class 5 multihulls in the UM, including a Hobie 16 and a half dozen Hobie trimarans.
The first navigation decision is whether to go the shorter distance inside the barrier islands and sail down the ICW, or head out into the Gulf. Although we could fit under the bridges, the wind was likely better offshore. Not surprisingly, the canoes, kayaks, the SUP and a couple of the Hobie trimarans took the ICW. They reported fickle winds and a lot of boat traffic.
A hundred yards off the beach we set the spinnaker and fourteen hours later we took it down. In between, we saw a slowly building wind from two knots to 12, ranging from a port beam reach to a starboard close reach. We avoided some shallow spots, narrowly missed a nudist beach, battled the incoming current at Ana Maria Island, were startled by dolphins jumping close alongside, got the oars out three times and finally arrived at the dreaded Stump Pass around 11 PM. A very pleasant sail. Both of us even had short naps.
Stump Pass takes you through the barrier islands to the ICW, but the deepwater channel and the bar keep changing. With a 10-knot wind coming out of the NW, 2-foot breakers covered the bar, so we hugged the right side of the channel. That was not the best decision as the chart plotter did not agree with reality and the right side was also the leeward side. While we were focused on the breakers, the sudden sounds of the centerboard and rudder grounding caught our immediate attention! Both indicated we were in less than a foot of water, and with the wind and waves pushing us further aground, our adrenaline started pumping! A spirited turn on the oars got us back out into deep water and after threading part of the ICW, thirty minutes later we tied up to the dock at Cape Haze Marina as the first UM finisher of 2025!
As an aside, I casually pointed out to Dawn that our finish at 1153 PM was just seven minutes from my estimate the day before! She mumbled something about my impressive nav skills, but I burst her bubble by saying I had read in the Wayfarer Book that using an average speed of 3.5 knots was pretty good for an estimate!
The checkpoint team was fantastic, feeding us hot soup and hot dogs, water, providing a fire to warm up by, and most importantly, the key to the heads! Half an hour later we were curled up in W971 for some shut eye.
Sunday morning was bright and sunny and while Dawn took the rental car to get our truck and trailer, I started packing and chatting with other UM and EC competitors as they checked in and hauled out, or headed back out towards Checkpoint 2 of the EC. The camaraderie was impressive.
By early afternoon we had changed a herniated trailer tire, loaded W971 and were headed north!
Will we do the EC in ’26? We’re seriously thinking about it! W971 will need a few more minor modifications, but we think she will do just fine! But will we?
