For two years in a row, inclement weather forced the ferry to cancel service out to Shackleford Banks.  Luckily, the route to Bear Island is a bit more sheltered, and we were able to have two days of orienteering on Bear Island.  Of course, Saturday’s weather was still predicted to be unpleasant, and most of our registrants decided to do something else.

For the 10 of us who ventured out on Saturday, the conditions were much better than expected.  I threw together an 8.8km goat race with one skip and one fork, and it turned out to be technically challenging and fun.  There was also a shorter 5km version of the course that skipped many of the last controls. Because plans for the race were made on the fly, there wasn’t time to put out physical controls.  Instead, we used a smart phone app to register a visit to each control location.  There were a few unfortunate technical glitches with this app; however, for the most part it worked pretty well.  Results for Saturday’s race look like this:

Goat

1. Lina Lindberg:  2hr 22min

2. Jilian Doherty: 2hr 23min

3. Matt Craig: 2hr 23min

4.  Robert Enochs: 2hr 35min

5.  Marcus Enochs: 2hr 37min

6. Donald Hohenstein: 2hr 40min

7. Adalia Schafrath-Craig: 2hr 58min

Pygmy Goat

1. David Waller: 1hr 36min

2. Dennis Doherty: 1hr 49min

3. Helen Doherty: 2hr 46min

Sunday’s weather was much better, and brought out nearly 40 orienteers, including over a dozen JROTC cadets tooling-up for their national championship event next week.  Good luck to them!  Despite some extremely technical orienteering, there were relatively few MP’s and DnF’s — a testament to how enjoyable it is to be out on the dunes, even if one is slightly lost. 

Before the results, we must extend huge thanks to: Lady Swan Tours, our chartered ferry which provided punctual, smooth, and professional service to and from the island; Hammocks Beach State Park, which was so supportive and made permitting a breeze; Ben Beach, who paddled out to Bear Island on Sunday just to learn more about orienteering and to help pick up controls; and our stalwart club volunteers Vladimir, Lina, and Tatyana who helped pick up controls.  Results follow.

Filed under: Event Results, Latest News by David Waller