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Month-long trek to circumnavigate the state of Florida

By Susan Cocking, McClatchy Newspapers, Source: MCT News Service

MIAMI _ Think Iditarod minus dogs and sleds and you get the Ultimate Florida Challenge that begins Saturday on Tampa Bay.

Competing for a top prize of a shark-tooth necklace, eight men will mount a month-long, 1,200-mile, counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the Sunshine State by canoe, kayak or small sailboat.

"It's tough, it's expedition-style. It's definitely as if you were planning an expedition to the Antarctic or something," organizer Steve Isaac of Clearwater said.

The rules are simple: no motors, no tows, no rides. Whoever gets back to Tampa Bay first wins.

Unlike some long-distance ocean races, the Challenge _ in its second running _ provides a unique twist. Competitors must drag their boats overland _ or pull them by bicycle _ at the start on the beach at Fort DeSoto State Park and again in North Florida, where they face a 40-mile portage between the St. Marys River and the Suwannee River.

In the inaugural Challenge in 2006, seven of the 10 entrants finished. The winner was Warren Richey, a Washington transplant from Florida who completed the race in 19 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes in a kayak.

Richey wrote a book about the experience, which is expected to be out in June. The second-place finisher, Mark Przedwojewski of Iron, Mich., crossed the finish line less than an hour later aboard a sailing canoe.

The event is put on by WaterTribe, a 278-member paddling group founded by Isaac in 2000. Isaac, a 61-year-old computer programming consultant whose club name is "Chief," was looking for inexpensive ways to fulfill his dream of completing a long-distance adventure race. WaterTribe held its first event in 2001 with 40 competitors. This year, the Ultimate Florida Challenge will coincide with two other shorter races _ the 300-mile Everglades Challenge from Tampa Bay to Key Largo and a 67-mile "marathon" from Tampa Bay to Placida. More than 50 paddlers and sailors are expected to launch their craft for the simultaneous start.

Although the Ultimate Challenge is just that, it is not unnecessarily dangerous, according to Isaac.

There are checkpoints scattered along the course, and each competitor must carry a cellphone, a SPOT personal locator beacon and an EPIRB, which emits a distress signal that can be picked up by aircraft and ships in the region. The tracking equipment allows race organizers, racer support crews and those surfing the Internet to follow it in real time at www.WaterTribe.com.

Racers have to be back at Fort DeSoto within 30 days or be disqualified.

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