The 21 of June we joined 105 other boats for a 100.5 mile race from Gulfport, MS to Pensacola FL. I have been planning this trip for months; cleaning the fuel tank, changing filters ,adding jack lines, safety harness, life jackets, lights and whistles too. The weather report the night before called for 10-18 knots out of the East and of course that is the way we were headed. We started at 12:40 on a broad reach past Ship Island and around the MO A . About 5 pm I notice a couple of cruising non-spinnakers headed north there was a low-pressure trof aloft which I had missed and the wind increased. I rolled the roller furling to 110 sizes. (that should have been a hint) I reefed the main at sunset. As we pounded southeast , away from shore, thinking the waves would smooth farther out. That wasn’t the best choice as the port tack was choppy or confused by something else that caused occasional throwing the bow up and dropping it. I bent my bow light back as I buried the bow several times. At 1 am I decided to change the 110. 45 minutes later the sail was changed, but I was battered and dizzy. The next 3 hours the crew took care of me. We had a full moon to help us see what was coming. I later found out the winds were 25 gusting to 30 and one boat reported 41. Once the moon had set; it was chaotic. None of the crew could see the waves coming. I decided its time to tack and head in. The ride became much smoother. My crew handled them selves superbly. I even recovered after a short nap. The Right Stuff finished last June 22, 2002 19:32:32; that is the bad news for me. The good news is crew and The Right Stuff made it to the finish safe taking 2 in the Non-spinnaker cruising fleet. There were105 boats that started and only 51 finished. There were a number of damage reports in the fleet; but no injuries to the racers except some long talks with RALPH. The planned vacation after the race from Gulfport to Pensacola had arrived. The crew departed late Saturday night and my wife and I slept in. The race had been tough on crew and boat. The head stopped working( screw fell of the pull lever) everything was on the floor but the TV (it was roped in), the navigation station top was pulled off when a particularly rouge wave and crewmen got together. The card table leg came undone. That was all easily fixed before noon. Cleaning the saltwater streaks off the inside took longer. With our trusty guidebook to western Florida to Louisiana I headed East toward Destin, Fl. on the ICW. The map indicated all bridges were 50 ft. We had a wonderful motor sail with 3 hours of sailing and then reached the Navarre beach bridge indicating 48 ft. The winds had been building the seas and pushed the water in and up. Our mask is 49 ½ and low tide was expected around midnight. We were in no hurry so we sat back had a nice dinner and just before sunset I took a close look with The Right Stuff at the bottom of the bridge. We cleared everything but the VHF antenna as it pinged against the bottom of the bridge. We angcared near the national shore, white sanddume beautiful scenery it was a wonderful evening, swimming and relaxing. Arriving at Fort Walton Beach Bridge the next day reads 47 ft so we waited for the tide to lower. The guy at the marina said the 50 ft bridge at Destin was lower than the 50 ft mark, enough of this bridge skimming. I wanted to sail so we snuck back under the Navarre Bridge and exited the ICW at Pensacola and headed west. We had full sails with10 knots ,it was wonderful. A cry from down below, water everywhere took the grin off of my face. The bilge pump had quit working during the night. I pulled out the handy manual bilge pump handle and began to pump, nothing happens, that was not on my checked list. Luckily, I had a spare bilge pump. We entered Perdido Pass, this I don’t recommend. Its very narrow, shallow and lots of traffic. We spent the night at the Perdido Key marina with a fantastic Sea Food Restraint. We ended up spending a second night at the Bear Point marina in Perdido area. As I have been putting my wooden doors in the port lazarrette. This caused a fire. It was quickly extinguished but the kill switch was fried and 5 other wires . Losses were 1 life jacket, a seat cushion and burn scars on my doors. We spent the next day cleaning up fire extinguisher powder all the way into the V-berth Bear Point is a very nice marina with wonderful people. They invited us to a slip party that evening.. We left the ICW at Mobile and had a wonderful sail to Gulfport then on to New Orleans. It really was a good trip with enough excitement to give me something to talk about. This was my first extended trip. My question is this. Will they all be this much fun?