the race is on

The race started this morning at 7 with 15 knot winds out of the ESE.  Pretty nice conditions I would think.  Much of fleet is now crossing Tampa Bay.  You can see Dawn Patrol and Sandybottom are not to far away from each, shown above on the Watertribe tracking map.   That is the tip of Fort de Soto state park, where the race began in the photo above.

Zooming in a little bit shows Dawn and Kristen paddling together.  I think it is pretty common for the two, along with a couple of other paddlers, to stay close together for a good portion of the race.  The sailboats tend to spread out from each other as they look for the best wind.

I don't expect I'll hear from Paul or Dawn until this afternoon at the earliest and maybe not until late this evening.

steve