Tidewater Traverse race report.

By Dima Kaganovich team Calleva/JacksBoatHouse

First place in this race must go to the team Odyssey: I'm on Point. We worked together for 3/4 of the race and they definitely would beat me on paddling. Unfortunately they lost passport at the end of the biking leg. By staying close to this team I was able to see amazing tandem navigation work. Very impressive and efficient. Thanks guys for great experience!
The race started 8 pm (already dark) from fast plotting of first 11 CPs of the course. I was plotting alone, but left the start area within first 5 teams (out of 27 total). First leg was road biking with easy navigation to CP1,2 and TA1. At TA1 we started first and the most difficult O-course of the race. Many teams punched CP4 instead of CP3 (both CPs were in creek). We did the same mistake at the beginning, but Ronny figured it out. Second O-course was longer, but easier to navigate. All CPs had reflectors and my laser-light helped a lot. Long biking section through paddling transition area and night single track took us to 1 mile portage.
From here I moved alone and used my disposable portage wheels (<2 lb, <$3) to take kayak through town of West Point. I started paddling at sun rise behind 2 teams with almost 1 hour gap. First 10 miles of paddling were against tide flow and with strong side wind. Thanks to Anna and to Jack's Boat House for Andromeda. In first 9 miles of the paddling I gained 30 minutes and on transition to the last O-course I was only 30 minutes behind the leading teams.
This O-course was simple, with one funny catch: you have to use Google earth image together with topo map to find all CPs. For me it was easy, but both leading teams missed one CP each and gave me 30 minutes advantage. I gained another 15 minutes on the last 6 miles of paddling and finished the race first overall and the only racer that cleared the entire course.
The race was perfectly organized, the course was very interesting and fast. Chris did amazing job by putting on this amazing race. Race results are here. Photos are coming...