ITERA Expedition Race
From the Mountains of Mull to the Mainland on day 2
Rob Howard / 15.08.2022
Castle Duart is the setting for TA2 at ITERA and it has been busy since the early hours of the morning with teams completing the stage two trek across Mull and setting off on the second sea paddle of the race.
Even by Scotland's very high standards the setting is magnificent. The castle sits on a promontory overlooking the Sound of Mull and there are sweeping vistas across the water, framed by the mountains of Morven and Arnamurchan on the horizon. It's a setting used many times in movies, but today's action wasn't too fast paced after a long and tough stage in the mountains of Mull. The rough and steep terrain, added to the night navigation with few features to use, was challenging and there was a long walk down a tarmac track to get to the castle.
The first teams to arrive were on the fastest expected time of around 12 hours and it was a close race between SWECO and the two Endurancelife teams, with Gan Canny and Racing Denmark not far behind. A few short course teams had arrived ahead of them, and they had to wait for the leaders, before they were allowed to continue. (This is the same at any transition.)
So, it was quite a pack of teams who set off in the early morning to paddle up the Sound to Lochaline, not that they could see where they were headed. They couldn't see 50m in the dense sea fog and the fog horns were sounding, so they had to be escorted by the safety boat to avoid the ferries and other sea traffic. The fog soon lifted and most the teams passing through this morning could see across to Ardnamurchan and their destination.
Leaving TA1 UK Adventurers had been in the lead, but that changed overnight and they didn't arrive until mid-morning, now in 8th place. Helen Chapman said, "I was struggling and don't know what's wrong, but I wasn't able to keep the pace of the others in team." They were still very focussed and transitioned quickly, not even stopping at the castle cafe which was serving up some amazing bacon rolls! (Put on especially for the racers.)
The kayaks had to be taken down to the shore and luckily the track down through the gorse was grassy, so they could be dragged to the small beach below. This was covered in thousands of small blue jellyfish which the boats had to be carried across to get to the water.
Several other teams were in transition at the same time. Type 1 Fun had arrived before them and were taking their time. They were probably at the Castle for more than an hour. The team are all new to expedition racing and were on a short course route, as were many others overnight. (On the race tracker these are the blue dots, those on the full course are red. At the time of writing 13 of the 32 starters were still on the full course.)
Laura Evans of Type 1 Fun said, "We managed to sleep for a little while in a bothy, which was nice, but I still feel more tired than I thought I would! I work nights but this is worse." Jon Peatman apologised for a navigational error which slowed them down a bit when they ended up in the wrong forest break and Evans added, "We also took a short cut that wasn't short. It was very boggy, more like a river really!" (A lot of teams commented on the boggy and wet terrain, especially on the lower short course routes.) Tom Kingston from Type 1 Fun took about 15 ticks out of his legs while waiting for the bacon rolls, and this is something which all the teams have been told to check for.
Their team name is partly down to Helen Mercer, who has Type 1 diabetes and said, "It's a challenge to keep my sugar and insulin levels right in the race, but so far so good! I have a pump and a monitor and its set for endurance activity, but as I've not done anything like this before I have to keep a watch on my levels carefully." (She has special permission to carry her phone in the race for this.) The team were all quite relaxed and looking after themselves and each other well.
Another later arrival doing the same were Rebel Talent. "We stopped on some high ground and slept for about 3 hours," said Carrick Armer, "and that meant we had daylight for the descent which made it so much easier. And we've arrived here for lunch, which is what we'd planned for!"
Among the full course teams were the RAF team, racing with Gloria Sabrero of Spain for the first time, and all getting on well. She said it was a 9.5 out of 10 race so far! Rootstock Racing too are racing full course and were happy with the course and the weather. "It's been near perfect weather so far," said Mark Lattanzi, "and the navigation by Brent has been good so we are happy enough." They were even happier when the food arrived!
Teams will continue to arrive at the castle throughout the day and so far the weather is holding, though there is some rain forecast for later. For now, the clouds are high and teams can enjoy the views and the coastal scenery of these island stages of the race.
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