What are you looking for in a co-driver on a long-haul trip like this? LOTS.
* Safety -- Can you trust them with your life? Will they have the courage to stop and sleep if they need it, instead of pressing on foolishly? Can they anticipate traffic, and the poor choices of other drivers? Will they check every one of the 30 straps on the trailer at every stop?
* Sense of adventure -- Can they enjoy 42 hours in a truck, driving 21 hours, watching/sleeping/talking the other 21? Will this be a chore, or an expedition?
* Compatibility -- Can you tolerate each other's music, driving habits, personal habits, eating preferences, and so on? Can you share the same space? This is the litmus test: Can you sit and not talk? Try that sometime with a good friend. It's critical on the road - no one wants to talk for 42 hours.
* Responsibility -- We're driving over a quarter of a million dollars of equipment, taking up eight feet by 10 feet by 75 feet of space at 65 miles per hour! We have a tremendous responsibility to ourselves, our teams, the other teams whose boats are on the trailer, and the other folks on the road. Can you count on your fellow driver?
* Humor -- If you can't laugh at things on the road, you'll be miserable. And ultimately, why not have fun!?

The first time I drove to San Diego was in April, 1997. I was the novice coach at Virginia and my co-driver was Kendall Atterbury, who was also an assistant at UVa. We left on a Tuesday morning, expecting to have plenty of time to stop, sleep in a hotel, and make our way to San Diego by Friday morning.

Somewhere in middle Tennessee, we independently did the math and figured out that if we just kept driving, we'd make it to San Diego in time to drop the trailer at the regatta site, go to the beach for a few hours, and then greet the team at the airport.

So, we danced around it a little bit, neither of us wanting to put an unfair expectation on the other driver, until we both realized we wanted to do the same thing: DRIVE. We made it into San Diego a day ahead of schedule, and greeted the team at the airport. We told head coach Kevin Sauer (who is still the coach at Virginia) that we'd left the truck and trailer in New Mexico, awaiting repairs.

That same trip was a great one for my crew -- we upset perennial champion Washington in the novice eight event. I can still remember the trip home, when, with Kendall driving, I was able to watch and re-watch the race on the video camera's tiny eyepiece viewfinder. The long haul home is always easier when there's a trophy on the back seat!