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They\'re Off

Jon Brooke / 26.05.2004

It’s been a very long day here in Croatia even though the race is only three hours old. The reason is that the start time for Terra Incognita was 7 p.m. - or more precisely 7.43 p.m. following a few delays in getting the kayaks delivered to the beach near the old walled part of the town of Zadar. This meant two things to the teams, firstly that they would have to spend a day waiting, with the tension and the urge to get going building, but secondly that they would be starting a 35 km paddling leg around offshore islands just as it was dropping dark - something of a novelty in an adventure race, where dark zones often keep teams off the water at night.

Even before darkness fell though, at around 9 p.m., the teams were making differing decisions about which way to go. There was a small island in between the start and the first checkpoint and about 6 of the teams chose to pass it on the opposite side to the others, including eVent Endure, one of the favourites, but it seemed from the comfort of one of the support boats to have been the slightly slower choice. Still, very little separated the teams at the first checkpoint with many of them landing or leaving the beach at the same time, getting in each others way, as they left their boats to be present together to get their passports stamped by the marshal.

Shortly after the first checkpoint eVent were in fifth place after, Adria Lada from Croatia in first place, Issy Aventure – Raidlight 1 from France, The North Face from the UK and Gatorade Finland. Although Adria Lada looked to be pulling away from the others, the word is that they are very much specialist paddlers and will need to make as much headway as they can on the water as they are unlikely to match the better teams on the run/trek sections.

As we left the teams they were just starting across a long stretch of open water between several islands with the potential for confusion in the dark. It will take good navigation and a strong sense of conviction to do it in the optimal time. Then there is a short 7 k.m. run to the first “dark zone�. It looks certain that many of the teams will get there long before they are allowed to proceed at 4.30 a.m. but in this race time spent held at dark zones is banked to be taken off the overall race time, so it is worthwhile going flat out to get there. To find out which team makes it there first watch out for the next posting tomorrow.

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