Energy On an Overnight Race

Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by Molly in News

I’m the navigator on my team’s annual sailing race down the Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis to Solomon’s, Maryland. This means that while everyone else is on deck trimming the sails and keeping the boat flat and the sails full, I’m down below, looking at charts and the GPS by the glow of a red-tinted cabin light. My job is to suggest when to head up, when to tack, how to hug the shallows and not run aground, and also to avoid the shipping lanes. Unlike longer races, there is no watch system. This race is short enough that everyone “sprints”—stays up all night til the finish. In past years, especially in long races, I’ve been known to nod off—briefly, of course. I was usually woken up pretty quickly by a call from the cockpit.
I haven’t intentionally had caffeine since 1994 when I almost got an ulcer. At first, I would sometimes order decaf coffee, but mistakes were made and I’d get a cup of high test, and I’d be jittery and nauseous, with headaches, fevers and chills. After that I avoided decaf like the plague, and used my type-A energy to get me through the day.
But here I was, doing the Solomons Race, and I’d started distributing Enlyten. I was a bit nervous and a bit excited about taking my first Energy strips. The race was the perfect opportunity—to test the Energy and to be a better navigator! As someone who hadn’t had caffeine in over ten years, I was very sensitive to it’s effects, and a perfect candidate to try out the strips.
I took a strip at a time throughout the night, whenever I started to feel a little tired or blurry. They kept me alert and awake, and I didn’t have any of the side effects of coffee—no jitters, no crash, no buzz, no headaches, fevers, chills or nausea. Just good old alertness. We finished at 3:30 AM, and I was a happy camper throughout the entire race.
I’m a convert. Wish we could do this race more than once a year!

Tags: Add new tag, Annapolis, bi-layer technology, enlyten, J105, keelboat, sailboats