The Crossing keeps moving forward! The Crossing of 2008 seems readily prepared to maintain the epic status of it’s predecessors. With a course of 18-24 miles, it readily outdistances any other comparable events. And for a little frosting on the cake, we have added the category of biathlon, or Windathlon. It will involve windsurfing the first lap, then kiting the second lap. It had been discussed as a possible event during the planning of an expedition to Madeline Island. It seemed only logical since the vast majority of kiters in the earlier years came out of the windsurfing community. Of course, that was a contributing factor to combining windsurfers and kiters in the redesigning of The Crossing a year ago. Incredibly, the concept lay dormant until Randy Johnson enlightened us once again.

We have added the Notice of Race and lodging info to our Fleet 8 web site as well as a PayPal button. Since we put the Notice of Race in a PDF to make it easier to print and mail, just provide the information in your e-mail registration. If you have registered for Fleet 8 events before, there should be no need to duplicate information that hasn’t changed, just name, category, shirt size and type, and include any guest. The PayPal button is a Donate button and has a fixed amount of $75 until midnite Tuesday, then the $120 late fee goes into effect. Guest fees will have to be paid at check-in time. You can find all this by scrolling down the page at http://fleet8.com/news/.

With over three dozen windsurfers registered, we are even or a little ahead of last year at this time. The kiters are lagging well behind. The good news is that we have 16 registered kiters that weren’t even on the invite list last year. But less than half of the elite group on the water a year ago have registered which leads us to believe that the challenge was tougher than anyone wanted to admit. Understandable when you consider that only half of the windsurfers even started and only 16 completed the two laps.

Currently, adequate lodging still remains available. We will provide up to date lodging info and a final preregistered count Wednesday.