Gear- to much or not enough? Only 12 days to the start

Only 12 days until the start of the Everglades Challenge, an expedition style small boat race down the west coast of Florida. The race starts at Ft. Desoto near the mouth of Tampa Bay and ends about 300 miles south at Key Largo. I will the only one to enter the race on a windsurfer, the Expedition Windsurfer®. You can follow the action in real time by logging onto the www.watertribe.com web site, and clicking the link "map" that corresponds to the Everglades Challenge. My tribal name is WindWalker. Post a message to help keep me motivated, my shore team will relay the message to me as I check in.




It's time to pull all the gear together and toss out what I don’t really need. Trying to keep the weight down and still get all the required safety gear, food and water is going to be tough. I can refill my water along the way and at the check points along the race rout. The only unknown in regards to the amount of water I will need to store on the board will be from Everglades City, checkpoint two, down to Flamingo. There are no stores along that part of the trip to restock if needed so I will need to be sure I have enough before leaving Everglades City.

The photo is of my gear that I would carry on a normal trip of a few days. I will need to go through it and eliminate some of the extra items to reduce weight and to improve the organization. When I am tired and have been on the water for a few days I don’t want to have to try to remember where I packed my tooth brush or which dry bag the tent is in. Sleep deprivation can make the simplest tasks seem like rocket science.

Hi Peggy thanks for the question about water- yes I have to carry water, but I will not be using a purification process on this trip.