The morning of the race Tom Boussie had a little bit of a panic. Seems the lights on his Pelagic weren't working, which made him realize that NONE of his electronics were working!! Foul language erupted. He got mad. He railed against the electronics gods. Then Brian Boschma waltzed by dockside and calmly asked a question about breakers. Oh! Tom ducked down into JouJou's cabin for a short moment, and poked his head out smiling. All Good Now.

Such were the mini emergencies just before the race.

Minutes before the start Chris Case came by the chase boat with a sheepish look: his handheld vhf radio was at home, fully charged. At home. Not in hand. Someone up on the race deck loaned him one, and away he went, back to start the race on FUGU.

In this tech-ish life, cell phones are important, and integral to communication in this race for lots of reasons. Libra's Gregory Saramite left his phone at home. Fully charged. So, shortly before the race start, someone on his team (probably his pretty wife, Chloe) had to return to Sausalito to retrieve that small piece of equipment.

Dave Morris was there, thank goodness, with his vroom vroom engine and rubber inflatable boat, prepared to nudge and pull boats out of the harbor to the start line. Then he drove people around for photo opportunities, calling out "Photo Op! Smile!" as we zipped around the starting area. Dave has promised to be in Hanalei Bay to meet and greet the racers, maybe making two trips because he has to fly in and out of Indonesia in between. Yup. Just a skip and and a couple of jumps over the Pacific Puddle for Dave. Look for that cowboy hat under the rainbow.