Weather: So far, the weather forecast for Saturday, September 28 is marginal at best. But, the long term forecast is predicting a high pressure system building next week, so the chances of finding a calm wind day at some point between Sept 28 and Oct 5th is pretty good I think.

Here is the site that I am using to check the wind forecast:

Critical Power 2: I think she’s good. I fixed my gear box issues by having Manny take apart the gear box and machine a new output shaft that is about 3 inches longer than the old one. WIth a new longer coupler, the grub screws and the coupler have something to grab onto – and it seems to work fine. Shane at Innovative Wings did an awesome job painting and making her look pretty and sealing up all the small leaks. CP2 is totally water tight now, and looking fit to set a new world record!

The course, Official Observers and posting live results: I’ve been discussing the issue of the course with both Carter and Skip – my race organizer man in Whitefish. We have decided the best way to do this is to make the course an oval with the minimum turning radius at both ends and place it as close to the west shore as possible. From observations from Skips house, when winds are from the south (90% of the time), there is a glassy calm lane running very close to the west shore because of sheltering from the mountain. So – the course will look like this:

It is 4.75 km in length. We will both go the same direction, but we will start at opposite ends. We should be averaging about 1 lap every 26 minutes (1 turnaround every 13 minutes), or 2.3 laps per hour. I will have 2 observers stationed in Skips house with a view of both the North turn around and the South turn around through telescopes. I wrote some software that will make logging the turns pretty straight forward. My software will also post live updates to the PvP web site

If you are interested in following the race, then you will be able to see live statistics, and commentary at the pedalvspaddle.com web site. We will also be posting the results periodically with comments to my FaceBook page, and I look forward to following your comments and feedback while out on the water with my iPhone.

From experience, I think it is important to get feedback from the observers with a lap count. All it takes is for one single lap (or half-lap) to get missed, and that will be enough to spoil any record attempt. So what I want to do is make a radio call to the observers each time I approach a turn around. This would be approximately every 13 minutes. When I let them know I there, they can take a scope observation, then log the turn, then report back to me with the distance covered at that point. I can check this against my own GPS data to make sure that nothing was missed.

One issue with the radio notification is Carter can’t use his hands because of the paddle. So – I did some research today and found some Motorola radios that have a voice activated transmit. Perfect!

I spent a some time today inflating 17 water ski marker buoys that we will use to mark the course. At night, key buoys will have flashing LED’s taped to the top so we can see them. From experience, the most efficient way I have found to navigate at night is by using the GPS map with a backlight. In 2008 that worked perfect. I just stayed on my course line – like a video game.

Sponsors: Hammer has agreed to provide Carter and I with all of our nutritional requirements in exchange for a logo on the PvP web site. This is great because I am a long time user of Hammer gels, bars and electrolytes.

Fund Raising: I am happy to say that we have reached 30% of our goal in raising money for MitoCanada!! But.. we still have a long way to go. If I have ever helped you in some small way, taught you something, motivated you, or even inspired you, then you can thank me now by making a small donation to my friend Blaine Penny’s charity MitoCanada. Click here. It is EASY!

I met Blaine Penny while running the Sinister Seven ultramarathon in 2009 and was immediately touched by his story. A year previous, Blaine’s 3 year old son Evan went into the hospital for an appendicitis operation. Just before the surgery, Blaine recalls his son looking him in the eye and asking: “Daddy, can we play together again sometime?” Evan seemed to sense that something life altering was about to happen. Those are the last words Evan has spoken since 2008. Evan was eventually diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, and in 2009 Blaine Penny, along with a group of mitochondrial disease patients formed MitoCanada. When I met him, and heard his story, I told myself that I would run an event someday to raise money for his cause.

Thanks so much for following!

Greg