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I drove over to Naples that morning in a fog, literally! Normally, I would like to head over the night before but the events that weekend came on too fast for me to get my act together in time. The fog cleared about the time I made the left coast. The car was confused thinking I wanted to go to Marco instead of Naples. I think Icelandic cart horses have more horse sense about direction than my Nissan or perhaps myself? So, hit the beach eventually and strolled down to say hello to Enrique and others.

I had been expecting gnat sneeze breeze for a dead downwind run to the finish and was excited when the forecast reverted to 10 to 15 kts. south early that morning. I went home over lunch the day before and put two patches to join a third made the day before on my 16 m. Left it pumped up and came back to find that I hadn't caught all the leaks?! Never had that many perforations on a leading edge in over nine years. That left me with a new 13 m. I had it out in 10 kts. or less the night before so felt it would do the job on a downwinder, slowly. So, walking to the launch with my largest twin tip, a whopping 150 cm FL-XXXL. The wind was slowly freshening but was side off out of the SSE. Some early wind dummies launched and rode out powered providing encouragement to the guys on shore. Unlike Jupiter, I actually was early enough to rig up and go out for a test run to checkout conditions. Getting off the beach took a bit of care with frequent lulls from the wind shadow but the wind filled in nicely not far from shore. Decided, the 150 cm TT was too large, beached and ran to the car to change it out for my normal board. Got back, headed out still had time for some tacks before the green flag went up.

Guys headed out on a NNW to NW tack initially, so I followed suit. The wind was around 9 to 13 kts. SSE with small smooth waves around 1 to 2 ft. following from the south. Didn't want to edge very hard, wanting to run almost dead downwind. So, for the next hour worked on creative kite placement to maximize travel downwind while minimizing travel off the wind. Stacey coined an intriguing "Loop-Loop" technique that describes one approach. I would figure eight port and starboard myself or do a modified "half-sine" depending on conditions. It was easy to fall over the nose of the board in this, particularly a twin tip. Think a directional is definitely the way to go on these dead downwind runs particularly in fairly calm water. Near the end of the run the wind clocked further to the west and the coast turned to the NNW creating more side onshore conditions and making things a lot simpler, "lock and go."

I came on to a pod of three or more dolphin and hoped they would stay on the surface long enough for me to video them. No joy on that, must be into windsurfers or something cause they slipped away in no time. Didn't see any of the famous SW Fla. Tiburon's but wasn't excessively disappointed to miss out.

Didn't have time to do my normal google earth tour of landmarks, wasn't all that familiar with the seaward appearance of the shore in this area. So, kept wondering every time I saw kites near or on the shore, "is that it???" Still, it didn't seem far enough. Eventually, I saw a fuzzy land mass way to the NW thinking, that has to be Sanibel Island. Shortly after that the causeway bridge came into view clenching it. The finish has to be before the bridge. Saw it soon after and landed. Stood around for a few minutes, looking off to the NW and Sanibel and wondering about heading over for a look. Hadn't kited that area in probably seven years. Did a trial run to see how much tacking would be needed to return, didn't look like any would be required. Asked Enrique about getting back to Naples, mentioned I was thinking of heading over to the lighthouse and then headed out. It wasn't that far, less than ten miles to the lighthouse R/T as the crow flies and I was there in no time. Shot some video coming in, turned around and shot more video heading back to Ft. Myers. About a third of the way back the wind started to ebb. Tacked about five times over several miles and wasn't making upwind anymore. Whoops, someone screwed up, bigtime, me! Figured, better land and walk. A brisk walk two miles down the coast, thinking I was going to have a hefty taxi fare back to Naples. I found most of the folks cleared out but Enrique waiting. What a guy, he thinks of everything! I interviewed him about the race on video on the drive south. The wrap party followed with great food, company and awards ceremony.

So, long story short, it was a fun, very well organized and executed first time event. Huge thanks to Enrigue, his troops and all the kiters that participated. Looking forward to his next event already!