With 75 miles to go, Team Castrol decided to stay on the rhumb line and
Team Tybee went closer to the shore. Castrol had done their homework and knew the
tides and the winds were being driven more from a weak front moving in,
rather than an ordinary sea breeze. Castrol was really reconsidering their
decision to stay further out as the winds subsided to 10 to 12 mph. At 1:30, the sailors
decided to call the ground team (only the second time in five years,)
sending alarms through "Team Mom".(Laurel Sonnenklar, Jay's wife.)They gave us an estimated time of
arrival and got a quick weather update. With about twenty miles to go, the lead boats came closer together
and watched an approaching storm come rolling in turning the sky a discomforting color. Getting a big boost in winds the whole
fleet was back up to 20 to 24mph. First to the beach was Toshiba, then
Team Oz, then Tybee. Would Castrol get to the finish in time to save their
small lead of just over 6 minutes? Castrol had a little trouble finding
the finish line, they spotted three orange flags and weren't sure where
to go until they got within a hundred yards. After a quick jibe, they
where lined up with the correct flags and headed to shore. Trying to
pinch up to stay within the flags tradgedy struck. As landed teams and ground crews stared at their watches counting down the time Castrol had left. Castrol hit the surf and found no water
under the starboard hull. They pitch polled and fell on the starboard
side of the boat. The "Boat Guy", Chris was immediately on the boat
pulling it to the finish line with only minutes to spare. The sailors
were trying to regain their wits after the violent flip as they to
helped drag the boat to the finish. Finally the bow that was ten feet in
the air passaes the finish line as the horn signalling the finish goes
off. Evan and Terry can only now help pull the boat out of the surf.
Team Castrol wins the second Tybee 500 by 3 minutes and 41 seconds after
sailing over five hundred miles.

WE DROVE HARD WON

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