TeamUSA Leaves for Portugal by Laurie Nadel After a flurry of emails back and forth to coordinate checklists of gear and other supplies, the five members of TeamUSA embarked on the first stage of a windsurfing travel adventure that will span half the globe. TeamUSA's organizing captain John Chao, 46, Marco de Moraes, 37, and race captain Guy Miller, 44, converged on Newark Airport on Monday afternoon (March 13) with a major assortment of boards, masts, sails, booms, wetsuits, and sleeping bags. Guy, a software engineer with Trilogy Software, Inc., in Austin, has been developing a waterproof lipstick camera attached to a helmet so that, for the first time, it will be possible to get video of what the racers see when they are out there, alone, in the middle of the ocean. Guy's helmet cam was a hit at Fox 7 KTBC-TV in Austin, where producer Dennis de la Pena shot a story about him and TAWR2000. (The story will air on Tuesday, March 14, on KTBC-TV's 5 pm and 10 pm (Central Time) newscasts.) As any windsurfer knows, there has to be at least one serious problem during any given windsurfing trip! Guy Miller has learned this first-hand, today. After some confusion over his ticket to Faro, Portugal, via Lisbon, he was rerouted through London on Continental airlines. John Chao and Marco de Moraes traveled to Lisbon and Faro together with the gear. Concerned that everyone was bringing too much stuff to fit into the 35-foot rigid inflatable boat that will serve as TeamUSA's floating headquarters for the next three weeks, John sent out a last-minute appeal for everyone to pare down what he and she planned to bring. "Think of a camper with a deck that has to house six people," he said. Monty Spindler, 41, will meet up with his teammates later in the week, in Algarve, Portugal. Spindler, one of the world's premier sail designers, lives and works in Tarifa, Spain. Renata Fuzetti, 22, the only woman competing in the Trans-Atlantic Windsurf Race that begins this Saturday in Algarve, Portugal, prepared to leave her home in Sao Paulo, Brazil so that she can meet up with her teammates in Cabo Verde, for the ocean crossing. After a quick e-mail cross-check with Guy Miller, Renata decided to bring only "clothes, documents, my wetsuit and harness, right?" "Sleeping bag, too. Probably need booties for sailing in, as well." "I guess if that's all, I'm ready for some sailing :-)" replied Renata. Over and out. Next stop: Algarve, Portugal. CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS