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Friday, April 14, 2000 Team Varig of the USA kicked off the two weeks of racing that is the Elf Authentic Adventure Friday, winning the Paul Vitane sailing regatta and staking their claim as the team to beat come Saturday's official start. With the main race still one day away, organizers set the stage on Friday here in the Nordeste region of Brazil with an afternoon of sailing and paddling. Actually, the paddling wasn't part of the plan, but light winds forced teams to dig deep for this prologue. Two hundred competitors from 30 teams joined the 300-strong organizations staff here in the town of Camocim, on the northern coast of Brazil where racing begins in just one day. With every hotel room in town booked and Elf logos everywhere, the town has come alive for this the longest adventure race ever. The unpredictable Brazilian rainy season kept everyone on their toes after unleashing the heaviest rainstorm in 25 years Thursday night, but brought out beautiful conditions for Friday's race. By the finish the winds were steady, with blue skies and tolerable humidity giving everyone a jump-start on their tans. But the morning didn't begin so enthusiastically. Just as last year's Elf Authentic Adventure ended with a sailing leg amidst a dead calm sea, so it seemed that this year's first stage would suffer the same fate as overcast skies kept the water glassy. Boats were towed out to sea to a buoy, as Fusil awaited some wind before getting things underway. Then, an hour later, the winds picked up and the race was on. Teams made a broad reach run for the town before heading up the same river where Saturday's main race will begin. Several hundred yards past the gathered crowds on the beach, teams made a left turn around a mangrove island, finally entering a tacking duel for the finish. Team Varig Airlines won the duel against the more experienced French Team FujiFilm, escaping defeat when the French boat tacked behind them — losing wind, time and the race. At this point the international squad of Spie Pharmanex kept up their race-long pace to finish second, while FujiFilm ended the day in third. The four-person teams were intended to act mostly as hired hands and rail fluff, the boats' owner/captains getting all the skippering duty — and the $300 prize money as well. But with the lack of wind, teams brought out their paddles and made it a mix of a regatta and outrigger contest — sort of Hawaii Five-O meets the Whitbread. Nevertheless, it must have been heartwarming for Fusil — who came up with the concept of adventure racing while on the deck of a sailboat race — to see his teams duking it out in such close quarters. Boats were crossing each other and paddling like madmen (and women), all for a starting position on Saturday. And so Team Varig will get to line up closest to the buoy tomorrow when the teams leave the same beach, go around said buoy and head south, up the river toward the first checkpoint and the first official day of the Elf Authentic Adventure 2000. —Elf Authentic Adventure Correspondent
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