Now that I have had 9 hours of sleep after the 4 hour grind in Hawaii, after loading the trailer, after flying the red eye home..time to reflect and re live what was by far the hardest Molokai.
I have done 4 channel crossings, Sunday made 5, the 3rd one in double. I thought I had it down, even giving advice to new comer and training partner Sean. Do this,don’t do that..escort boat wash messes you up, the wall is a defining moment, the water changes, and blah blah blah. Well here is my story….I don’t have any advice anymore except I guess you have to do this race to understand….and even then you don’t get it and you come back again and again.
Ok, all smiles the day before the race.
We prepared well, had the right juice mixed, the water chilling in the tripper, the hammer gell in squeeze bottles. Wind was prediced at 6 knots on wind guru. Patrick and I kept looking at other web sites and news broadcasts to find the prediction we wanted more. 15-20 knots. We (I) was convinced that if the wind was blowing we would beat Carter and Robin in the other double. There were 2 other double crews..both from Italy that we knew would be fast, probably not skilled in the waves.
Race morning was uneventful until the Island Air flight starting leaking fluid and instead of flying toward Molokai we were in the airport wondering if the next flight would leave us just on the beach as the race went without us. I should learn to handle adversity like late flights better..but intead I paced the airport in my bright orange paddling shirt and lycra shorts (all our stuff was on Noahs escort boat..on Molokai). Since there is no cell phone reception on Molokai we never knew that race organizer Shelley Oates-Wilding was going to hold the race for us…. Sean Lupton-Smith, Kala Judd, Bill Mehula and a few other escort crews. So anxious and pacing, using precious engery that I most defintely needed later, we made it with time to spare..wheeew.