2025 Zerothehero and Mightycondor race report

[ZeroTheHero]

After a very disappointing 2024 EC where I logged my first DNF due to the mast falling over the side, I set up for the 2025 event with far less confidence. The shroud failure felt like a betrayal. It was only 2 years old and held for the 2023 event. Would this be the new norm? Was my luck over? Would my lack of confidence doom 2025? Lots of doubt, never helpful.

This year my Crew would be MightyCondor, aka Justin Shay. Justin and I work together at the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center. He is an accomplished sailor and has sailed from Lake Champlain to Norfolk, VA in his Ericson 29, Condor. The boat was equipped with an Atomic 4 inboard engine, famous for crushing the will to live of many a sailor. Since his experiences with Condor had not dampened his spirit he seemed like a good choice when he expressed interest in the 2025 EC last summer.

For this year's race I needed to drive to Florida alone since my wife and crew needed to fly later in the week due to work. I was actually excited for the drive. It was a chance to get into the EC mindset of living in the moment and rolling with the challenges. I did lots of prep work on the trailer and truck so I would minimize issues. It paid off, the trip was a success with no major issues. Except tolls, good grief! With Amber and Justin flying in I needed to modify my usual pre race activities. Usually we set up the boat and go for a test sail on Thursday. Since everyone was flying in later in the day on Thursday, that wasn’t possible. I would have to trust I had everything we needed. More doubts…..

Set up day was largely uneventful but I did notice that my Dyneema jib halyard that is also essentially the forestay (keeps the mast up) had a chafe issue I had previously overlooked. It made it through 1 ½ challenges but was that enough? The Dyneema line was fine but the shackle had a slight sharp edge and now that I had seen it, it was all I could think about. Would it fail? We kept setting up the boat but it annoyed me constantly, always on my mind. Amber pointed out that if it was this much of an issue now, what would be like out on the water? After an hour or so I found a better, smoother shackle in my kit. A quick conference with TwoBeers affirming my choice and we lowered the mast to swap shackles. I felt a little better but I still had more doubts…..

We decided on a slow launch for the start, not my usual, two rollers and push hard and fast to brute force the launch. We slowly moved the boat forward and moved rollers as we went. The post hurricane beach had a small uphill section and the slow method seemed more sound. It all worked out so I guess that was a wise call. We were soon underway.

Our exit from Tampa Bay was much slower than we would have liked. First there was the tanker which we went well astern of. Then there was the dying, East, NE breeze that just didn’t get us out quickly against the building flood current. There was also my tactical error. We jibed west off the beach and sailed close to the east side of Egmont Key thinking the current would be mostly West to East and we would find relief. However, when we jibed to head south the first crab pot showed us the current was actually moving South to North. Directly against us, and strong! We did eventually get out and stayed off shore a bit farther than the pack around us. At one point I dove into the aft locker with some 5200 to stop the brand new stern plug and fitting from leaking. I actually glued my rubber glove to the hull trying to give the glue more support against the water pushing in. It seemed to work. Eventually the W-NW breeze filled in and we spent much of the day switching between the symmetrical, running spinnaker, and the asymmetrical reaching genoa. I think we switched four times. It was some great sailing and we were projected to be at Stump Pass around midnight. This is when things started to go a bit off plan…..

At some point late in the day Justin commented that he was hearing something rolling around in the port seat. I had filled much of the empty space in the seats with capped, 1 liter bottles to boost the reserve buoyancy and I assured him it was fine, he was hearing the bottles rolling around. I had left a little space I guess. Several hours later and with about 8 miles to go till Stump Pass I focussed on the sound more carefully and realized we had a real problem. The gentle rolling sound was now louder and you could tell the bottles were moving much more rapidly. They were being pushed! I unscrewed the inspection port cover in the wall of the seat and water immediately started pouring out! The seat was at least half full. Obviously alarmed I left Justin to sail the boat while I focused on bailing. In two previous events with this boat we had not encountered this issue so I did not have an immediate way to deal with this particular problem. What I did have was a bucket and a sponge. So that was how I bailed out eight to ten buckets of water, about 35-40 gallons. Once reasonably empty I went to work looking for the leak. I moved all our gear out of the various compartments trying to find the source. I found it only after moving just about every bin or bag of stuff. When I had installed the centerboard I had sealed up the whole area around the pivot bolt with 5200. I missed a spot unfortunately. Right on top of the bolt there was a hole about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. It wasn’t quite squirting like an artery, but it was a constant flow. We needed to haul the boat! A panicked call to GreenMountainGal and Mistermoon at CP1 didn’t get me the answer I was hoping for, a haul out at the CP. However, MisterMoon had a far more sensible proposal. Haul out on the beach and Stump and fix it ourselves. Smart CP captains are very valuable indeed! We kedged the boat up as high on the beach as we could and got to work while watching boat after boat sail or peddle past us. I dried the area with a bit of toilet paper, then set a small battery operated fan blowing on it while we off loaded gear and set up camp. Justin was great, fully embracing the “challenge” aspect of our situation and he remained very positive as my patience with the boat wore thin. After an hour or so I put on gloves and got out the tube of 5200. I slathered up the area and put the fan on it for the night. I think it was around 1:30, Sunday morning when we finally crashed. Too exhausted to haul the mattresses to the tent and too sandy to get into our sleeping bags, we slept on the tent floor with sleeping bags as blankets. We woke up about four hours later, cold and stiff but, at the beginning of the flood tide. We checked the Devil’s Toothpaste (5200) and it seemed pretty solid where the hole was while other areas were still tacky. Good enough. We made coffee and enjoyed it on the beach as dawn broke. Justin was right, it’s an adventure and there are worse places to watch dawn change the sky. We arrived at CP 1 around eight am Sunday morning.

We didn’t stay long and headed south on a nice run down the ditch headed for Pine Island Sound. Just south of the Boca Grande Causeway conditions intensified rapidly. The genoa, which we had just set, came down and we put a reef in the main. The trip down Pine Island Sound was largely uneventful except for all the giant powerboats and their wake! We snacked and took turns napping. Our plan was to exit the C span of the Sanibel Causeway but as we approached the wind dramatically increased. I got cold feet about going out into the Gulf so we doubled back to Picnic Island where several Tribers were. GuitarMan and Reader, TangoWhiskey and Roamer were there as well as some TIs that I didn’t get names from. They were all done for the day and were setting up to rest. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but Justin was keen to keep going. After forty five minutes or so of debate we pushed on south. We exited through the A span of the causeway. Jarhead and another boat were to our west, maybe a mile or two. As we got more and more exposed to the northwest winds the conditions got worse. More wind, bigger waves. With a single reef in the main we were regularly surfing well in excess of nine knots. We eventually hit 10.9 knots. Justin and I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t a great idea to try and do this all night and we headed for New Pass. We surfed our way in fighting a strong ebb current and anchored at last light. It's a lovely spot and the channel markers are lit, a nice bonus when leaving in the dark. We were amazed that Jarhead and the other boat kept going. It must have been a wild night.

We woke at 2:45 am Monday morning and the predicted NE shift had in fact occurred while we slept. We got underway as fast as we could. No coffee. By 3:45 we were clear of the channel and headed south. For a while it was lovely. Conditions were manageable and the sea state was ok. At some point things escalated. The sea state became confused with the old swell out of the NW and the new chop out of the NE making diamond waves that were hard to read in the dark. It was wet and scary. The only light was from the highrises ashore. We adjusted course to get closer to shore and after a while, things calmed down. As dawn broke we were off Gordon Pass and ran the breakers to the north of the channel. After that the wind started to calm down more and we had a nice sail to Marco.

At the Cliffs of Marco (my term for the massive condos at the corner) we turned into Caxambas Pass a little behind LRock and Limstrong. They had passed us an hour or so earlier sailing well outside of us. We saw Jarhead's boat on the beach. There were people around and it didn't look like an emergency so we sailed on. We heard later he had reportedly been taken to the hospital by local authorities after beaching the boat. I can not confirm that 100%. We took Snook Channel and popped out around the same time as FloridaMan. He was to our East having taken the true Caxambas Pass or Big Marco, I never found out which. We were kinda excited to race him to Indian Key but he seemed to be struggling a little. We found out later that at some point along that stretch he capsized and briefly lost contact with the boat. Terrifying. My worst case scenario. We were really glad to learn it was a brief separation and he continued on.

The breeze died all afternoon and we were really concerned we would miss the tide at Indian Key. Some creative gennaker wing on wing sailing near the mouth of the channel sealed the deal for us and we got absolutely sucked into CP2. We arrived around 2:30 at what would be the normal high tide mark, but the tide went up an additional 6-8 inches! I even saw a Saw Fish swimming near the boat, which was just really cool.It was also Horseshoe Crab mating season, with action on the beach! An amazing lunch at Havana Cafe refueled our bodies and spirits. A quick water purchase at the motel store and we were back underway around 4:30.

The trip back out to the gulf was made in light winds and a ripping ebb current. We enjoyed a calm,light wind sunset out on the gulf and awaited the predicted easterly shift. It wasted no time. By Pavillion Key we were reefed and tacking for shore to gain relief from the wind and waves. It was a windy but pleasant run to Cape Sable. We took shifts sleeping, listening to some Pink Floyd and had a fast night making miles south. We rounded the first two capes in the dark but had a little light passing East Cape. The trip from East Cape to CP 3 was incredibly frustrating. Adverse current and a dying easterly made for poor tacking angles and low speed through the water. I think it took four hours to cover it. As we made our way a flotilla of boats left CP3 headed south through Murray/Clive channels. We intended to follow them.

We arrived at the CP, greeted by GreenMountainGal and went about all the usual tasks one does at CP 3. Check in, pithy comment, restrooms, look for a microwave burger, check for crocs, watch manatees and plan for the final leg. No burgers were available so I settled for an awful turkey sandwich. As I mentioned, we were planning on going south but I kept hoping we could just go east. In hindsight we spent too much time sorting that out and we delayed our departure too long. We made it over to the Murray Channel entrance and started in. We were close hauled on port and barely able to stay in the channel. The wind was really whipping with some small rain cells passing by to our east. As the channel bent slightly east we needed to make a few tacks to stay in the channel. It was marginal, but we were making progress. When we got the Clive Channel, our luck ran out half way across. The channel angle was tighter to the wind and we could not make it in one tack. The channel was too shallow and both the centerboard and rudder were dragging. We tried three times but failed all three times. I hatched a plan to try and get the boat upwind in the deep water to the north of the island and then try to run across the shallows boards up. Justin and I debated this plan and he wisely pointed out that the water was getting shallower by the minute. Chances of success were not good. I had to admit he was right and we turned around to head back to CP3. We spent the rest of the day and night there, about twenty hours. We seriously debated dropping out. The forecast might give us a chance on Wednesday but we would have to commit to a route early the next morning. If the wind did clock south, we might get across the Twisty Channel route. If not, the far west route would be our only other option for Wednesday. Or we could stay an additional day, anticipating the westerly shift forecast for Thursday. We decided to make the final call Wednesday morning. We spent the time as productively as we could. We cleaned out the boat, got the water out, dried gear and poured over charts and forecasts. Around 6pm we headed to dinner at the new restaurant that's just past the visitor center.. After ordering, we sat at a table that had a Florida Bay chart under the glass for decoration. Perfect! More planning! We went back to the boat and crashed for the night. We slept for about 10 ½ hours!

The next morning we woke to a really high tide and a much more southeast wind than the night before. The door across the bay was open, if only a crack. Time to go! We packed up fast and headed out. Reenergized from sleep and food we felt much more confident about the Twisty Channel route. I was concerned with the southern swings in Twisty but decided to worry about it when we got there. Tin Can through Buoy Key was tight but we made it without too much effort. Dump Keys Channel required a couple of tacks to get up to but was again ok. Before getting to Twisty we put in the second reef in the shelter of a small key. It was really blowing hard now and we wanted better control for Twisty. As we approached Twisty Channel I got really worried. The angle was very close. As a precaution I put on my shoes. The first part of the channel was fine but when the turns began it was indeed razor thin for us. Justin could just barely make the southern swings. At the third southern turn we ran out of luck again. We couldn’t make it so we tried tacking and immediately tacking back. With the high winds it didn’t get us any higher up on the wind to clear the post. We tried again and got the same result. There was only one way forward, we just needed to get past this one post!

I jumped out of the boat. I have walked in Twistry before, in 2017. That was at the Eastern end of the Channel where it is sandy on the bottom. In the middle it is fine silt. I sank to mid calf. I had to keep switching my weight from foot to foot so I wouldn’t sink any further than that. Walking was hard but not impossible. I dragged the boat to the southeast as far as I could. At this point Justin and I realized we had a problem. I could not get aboard the boat! The bottom was too soft for me to jump and it was too windy for me to go aft to the reboarding ladder. If I did, the boat would fall off and we would be right back where we started. Justin and I are both sailing instructors, we pull kids out of the water all the time with their life jackets. That was the plan, he would pull me out. He rushed forward, grabbed the shoulders and pulled me up. It was going great till the oar handle which was stored on the side deck, stabbed in between my back and the lifejacket. “Stop, Stop, Stop! Stop! Stop!!” I yelled. By this point my right leg was on deck and my upper body was above the gunwale and I was gripping the edge of the cabin. I could finish the job, I just needed to move toward the bow a little to get the oar out. As I did this Justin jumped back on the tiller. I hear him say, “We are not going to make it”. I looked forward. The pole was just 3-5 feet in front of us, but the bow had fallen off too much while we struggled to get me aboard. We were moving forward too fast to do anything about it, the only option was to go on the wrong side of it. A quick Public Service Announcement, that post is out in deep water. You can go either side of it as long as you are close. All that for nothing! We proceeded east through the channel without further incident. Jimy Channel was fine but it has been moved North from where I had it programmed in the GPS. Justin’s far superior eyesight figured it out long before I did. Manatee Key Pass was a run, no issues at all. I knew this was the end of the hard stuff, but I kept it quiet, I didn’t want to jinx it.

There was one last incident though. Running East in the ICW I lost control for a second and we rounded up right in front of a large sailboat motoring the other way. It wasn’t very far away. Justin’s quick reflexes kept us upright and I quickly regained control. As we passed the sailboat I gave a sheepish wave. The skipper did not wave back, only his crew waved. After sailing all that way, I was “that guy” to the skipper.

Around 2:10, Wednesday afternoon we sailed the boat onto the beach. For a little while the doubts went away. They will be back.

[RedFive]

Love the write up! The video of you climbing back in is also a trip nicely done! Great to meet you and looking forward to the next time.

Jake-

[mistermoon]

Good story, great finish.

I wish more people would post these, especially here where they are hopefully less ephemeral than social media.

It was reports like these that fueled my urge to do this in the first place and also helped me prepare materially, physically, and most importantly mentally for my first EC.