Dean was leading it off for our team, Jean Claudde and the Van Dammits. This year it was a beach start for the relays. So he jumped in off our boat and swam to shore. We were all yelling... look our for that Jellyfish, one to your left, 3 to your right, you are swimming right into one!!!. After about 30 seconds it became more than apparent that it was like navigating a mine field blind and we gave up. Lets get the stinging festival started.

Dean decides to go for a merry little walk down to the beach and we have to keep going in and out of all the other boats to try and find him. Dummy. It starts and we are off. He finally reaches the boat and we are off. The jelly fish are bad. So bad any description I give would undermine the actuality of the situation. Really, you have to see it for yourself to believe it. For the first minute or so his head would shoot out of the ware and he would yell some obscenity. After a minute he must have gotten used to it because he stopped. After 20 minutes he was done and Johnny bay-watch dove in off the side to get it started... the obscenity yelling that is.

Dean climbed out and we gasped. It was bad. It looked like he was allergic to cats and someone threw him into a pit full of hungry kitties with big claws. Red slashes all over his whole body and face. We sprayed him down with vinegar listening to the first hand account of what we were about to jump into.

Laura was next. She jumps in and goes. Johnny gets out and gives his account. Spray him with vinegar. I put my wetsuit on and get ready to go. Lauras time in the water flies by, to me at least. I get up on the side of the boat and the countdown starts... 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. GO DAN!

I dive off the side of the boat like Hasslehoff stage diving into a sea of insane German fans. I surface. The water is perfect. I start swimming right away and it is nice. For the first 30 seconds I have no contact and I start to think... maybe I'll luck out and we will go through a barren patch sporting zero jelly fish. This ends abruptly. I don't get the luxury of easing into sting city. I look up to site the boat and put my head back in the water and look up a little and BAM! I get a human brain size jellyfish right in the face. He decided he didn't want to just smear off like most do but he wanted to take me for a little ride and stuck to my entire face. I had to peel it off like a mask. I was waiting for the pain. I didn't have to wait long. It was like some one pulled a lamp cord out and jammed it into my cheek and I was getting electrocuted through my whole face. My lips stung and then went numb. Next it was the arms. I was grabbing them left and right. Soon all of my arms, neck, face, and feet were stinging like crazy. Once it all stun it was just getting spooked about the jellies that was the worst part. They could keep stinging you and it didn't get THAT much worse but it was the idea you never knew when they were coming that was the worse part. It was like jellyfish russian roulette. Finally my time was up. I get out and get sprayed down with vinegar. It doesn't help. I stand there and burn and have a peanut butter and jelly and some gatorade. That sucked.

The rotations ensued and I was dreading my next leg. We all looked over and there was a huge storm brewing. The sky was black. Then we saw the lightning. This storm was going to be bad. Then over the radio we hear it. The race is cancelled. Get to the nearest port NOW! Our boat is fast! We finally get to port and sit there drinking BUD reds watching what looks like a hurricane. Lightning strikes were landing 30 meters from out boat. We sat there drinking beer and margaritas until it passed. We then headed over to captains cove and started in on the party... which lasted from noon until 2am. An interesting night followed an interesting day.

Throw peanut butter and bread at the jellys.

Drink Drink Drink


Jellys Jellys Jellys