August 17: Race to finish after lead team makes tactical error
By Dan Morrison

A member of Team Canterbury of New Zealand

When they arrived at Bramston Beach, PC-28, to begin the final section of the race — a 79-kilometer kayak paddle consisting of a 14-kilometer run out to PC-29 on Russel Island, a 34-kilometer push on to PC-30 at Fitzroy Island, finishing with a 27-kilometer victory leg to Cairns — the tide was running out, the surf was minimal, and there was a following wind.

Everything was going like clockwork for the team, which had made few if any mistakes during the first five days of the race and who consequently held about a four-hour lead over their nearest competitor.

Then things began to fall apart.

It had been a day of disappointments for many teams.

Team Endeavour, who had been running in the pack of the lead teams, fell several positions when one of their horses during the 33-kilometer horseback ride absolutely refused to cooperate, costing them an intolerable delay.

Team SCAR suffered a setback when they lost some bicycle gear and were forced to borrow enough equipment to cobble together their bikes to continue the race, reportedly without brakes.

Eleven teams had either dropped out of the race due to injuries or fatigue, or both. A few simply were so far behind on the course they were disqualified.

But the race had gone on.

Louisa Stieger of Team Peak Sweden on horseback

Coming off the peak, Team Eco-Internet appeared remarkably strong, jogging along dirt roads that took them through sugarcane fields and across rivers via railroad trestles.

After having covered 449 kilometers on foot, mountain bike, raft, canoe, horse, and climbing ropes, and after having slept less in five days then most people sleep each night, Robert Nagle's team joked among themselves and offered soundbites to the camera crews as they entered the beach resort. They were met with cheers from tourists who unwittingly found themselves witnesses to an athletic endurance contest.

As teammates John Howard and Keith and Andrea Murray sorted gear from the third and final drop box, team captain Nagle slipped off to the medical tent to have a nasty cut on his leg, the result of a run-in with a tree limb, attended to.

As the doctor inspected Nagle's wound while cleaning it with disinfectant, he noticed a small black object hidden down in the cut. A leech.

Pouring salt on the cut, no doubt an unwelcome treatment for the wound of a very tired man, the doctor disturbed the leech's meal and the slimey creature wriggled and backed out of Nagle's leg. The doctor plucked it off.

Then a second leech crawled out. The doctor removed it as well.

And finally a third leech appeared from deep inside the competitor's leg and was dispatched. Nagle was now good to go.

Once the gear was sorted, Team Eco-Internet opted to sleep for one hour, their usual respite.

Just after 10 p.m. they stored the required gear in the hatches of the two twin-seat fiberglass kayaks and pushed off into the surf. Their launch, if not perfect, was smooth, and soon all that could be seen of the lead team was the flashing red lamps attached to the back of their heads.

Observers began to place side bets as to when Eco-Internet would claim victory. The general consensus was that they would arrive at the finish line in Cairns before the press boat was scheduled to depart to meet them at sea at 6 a.m.

The race, most people agreed, was all but over.

About an hour later, a radio call was received from the four competitors somewhere out on the ocean in their tiny boats. One set of spray skirts was leaking badly, and the kayak occupied by Keith Murray and his wife Andrea was taking on water. Team Eco-Internet was requesting a new set of spray skirts be sent out to Russell island to replace the faulty ones.

Just after 1 a.m. Sunday morning, the lead team arrived on Russel Island and quickly checked in with the control officials at CP-29 to have their passport stamped allowing them to start the 34-kilometer paddle to Fitzroy Island and on to victory.

Except they couldn't find their passport.

Somewhere between Bramston Beach and the island it had been lost.

In previous years, a lost passport was immediate disqualification. This year the rules have been changed.

"I don't consider the passport required gear this year," explained Mark Burnett, "so if a team loses their passport, they are still in the race. But they can't continue until we get a replacement passport to them. Which we will do as quickly as possible."

On land that would take a matter of minutes, even less. But now, in the middle of the night, it will take at least two hours to arrange a way to get a new passport to Eco-Internet, who sits stranded on a tiny island several miles offshore.

Vivienne Prince of Team Canterbury

No doubt thrilled to discover the race is suddenly within reach due to a critical error, Team Canterbury of New Zealand is led by Steve Gurney, whose teams in the past have taken first place in two Raid Gauloises.

Also on the team roster is Vivienne Prince, who, ironically, was a team member of Eco-Internet last year when they won the Eco-Challenge in British Columbia.

Another team member is Mark "Ox" Foster, who finished second at last year's Eco-Challenge.

Rounding out the team is Richard Brunton, who placed third in the 1997 Kayak Marathon Champs.

As if that weren't enough of a nightmare to Team Eco-Internet as they watch helplessly as their hard-won four-hour lead shrinks, the team now in third place and rapidly approaching the coast is Team Pure Energy Australia. Their roster includes Jane Hall, Ian Adamson, Andrew Hislop, and John Jacoby.

Hall, Hislop, and Jacoby were members of the team that claimed victory in the 1995 Eco-Challenge. Adamson was a member of Robert Nagle's winning team last year in British Columbia.

And perhaps most worrisome of all to the stranded lead team is the fact that Adamson holds the world record in a 24-hour kayak paddle, during which he powered his boat 211.5 miles down the Colorado River, besting the previous record by an astounding 50 miles.

It is now 2:45 a.m. in Queensland, Australia. Most sane people are asleep in their comfortable beds in their homes. Even the majority of the media corps covering this event, not ones to hold much claim on a sane lifestyle, are trying to catch a little precious nap, content in the knowledge that when they went to sleep a couple hours ago, the race was a done deal. A lock.

Team Eco-Internet would win yet again. With hours to spare.

Jane Hall of Pure Energy Australia

But until the sun comes up in three hours, all bets are off.

The official status of the top three teams to reach Bramston Beach and launch their kayaks is as follows:

Team Eco-Internet arrived at 8:08 p.m. on 16 August.
They launched their kayaks at 10:03 p.m.

Team Canterbury of New Zealand arrived at 2:35 am on 17 August.
They launched their kayaks at 4:35 a.m.

Team Pure Energy Australia arrived at 3:59 a.m. on 17 August.
They launched their kayaks at 4:40 a.m.

When you factor in the nearly two-hour delay Team Eco-Internet suffered by losing their passport, there is really such a small margin of time between the top three teams as to be negligible.

Hot damn. We've got a race to the finish.

Dan Morrison covered the Marathon des Sables for Outside Online.