I don’t know if any of you following this blog have gone to the Watertribe website. For those who haven’t, there are a couple of interesting items. One, they have a “tracking map.” Somewhat similar to the SPOT, this tracking map has the pictures of the racers and their locations. When you put your cursor over the picture, it will tell you, amongst other things, their speed. The boxes with green check marks are the checkpoints and this tells you distance between checkpoints. Two, there is a tab labeled “Discussion.” LOTS of discussions going on about various things race and racer related. That being said, feel free to check it out if you wish. However, whether you go to the website or not, I had to copy the following discussion entry from Chief, the race director. He always does a phenomenal job of keeping everything running smoothly (at least from my perspective) and when we shore contacts and team members can’t be there, gives us priceless information….
The 40-mile portage continues to wreck feet.
I found MosquitoMagnet about 4 miles from Fargo limping along. We sat together for a couple of hours while he let is sox and shoes dry out and rebandaged his feet. When I first saw his feet I was a bit concerned. They were extremely wrinkled and very white. Almost all toes were bandaged along with heals and soles. Some of the white color was from powder, but not on the bottom.
His feet looked much better after drying out. New bandages were applied and by then his sox and shoes where dry enough to continue. But when he arrived at Fargo, I could tell he was in a lot of pain. But no complaints or whining. He just went about his business of getting ready for the next section.
The next day I found Whale towing both his Kruger and RiverSlayer’s boat. RiverSlayer was limping along a bit further back. He had “blisters on top of blisters.” When I asked him if he wanted a ride into Fargo, he said, “Hell no! I’d crawl into Fargo before taking a ride.”
It turns out that Whale had towed two fully loaded boats 11 miles. He said he was returning the favor since he had drafted RiverSlayer in the paddling sections.
There are two lessons to be learned here. Take real good care of your feet and if that doesn’t work have a great paddling partner.
I have not had any communication with Bill since yesterday morning. He is quickly approaching Big Shoals and this is where the rapids are. I don’t know if he will portage around them. I don’t know if his boat could handle them. What I do know is that just when I thought I couldn’t be more proud of my husband, I was proven wrong.
UFC 2012 
What a great guy. Tell him how proud all of us are.
I read tthe above message on the watertribe forum. My first thoughts when I read it were that I wasn’t surprised at all by Whale and Riverslayers commitment, perseverence and looking out for each other. If I ever compete in a challenge like this, I think it would be even more special to share the grind and the highs and lows with at least one other during the journey.
I’m awed by Mosquits Magnets ability to persevere alone. I’m not sure what drives him at his incessant pace. My guess is that what works best for him, doesn’t match up with directly with any one else still in the challenge,
I don’t doubt for a minute that Whale and Riverslayer wouldn’t persevere on their own if they had to. I simply thinks it’s great that they’re ending up sharing the adventure together.
SailorBob
Go Bill!!
JungleJim
Way to go, Bill!
Lisa, thank you for the updates.