Is an “extended pit stop” an official feature of the race? I don’t remember other seasons having “extended” pit stops (not that I was paying such close attention, of course).
They do occasionally have 24-hour and 36-hour pitstops, in addition to the more usual 12-hour ones.
Best moment:
Phil: “I have good news. For winning this leg of the race, you have each won a catamaran.”
Myrna and Shmyrna: (Blank look)
Yeah that was definitely Oswald doing Santino doing Tim Gunn. We had to rewind it to hear it again - hilarious!
Considering that Charla had gotten sea sick, I thought it was quite fitting. 
And Phil almost laughing before he announced it.
But how do you engineer a wait that long? Engineering an overnight 6-ish hour wait is one thing. But, based on my loosely based “where is the sun” guess, Charla & Mirna & Danny & Oswald are 18 hours ahead of the Guidos. With the normal 12 hour stop over at a pit stop - those two teams have already gone on to the next leg of the race. I don’t see how to catch up there without extreme luck.
Still love Danny & Oswald. Everything about them. They’re wonderful. Loved the Amazing Editors when they hand modeled their opening clue. Loved “where’s andre” loved stopping for fruit.
The BQs reminded me why I thought they were simply horrible people. OK racers, but bad human beings. Between the few shots of them on the boat and the comment about C&M at the beginning…ick.
Oh like we don’t pick on Charla and Mirna. Heck, even Phil riffed on them a little.
What happened on the boat?
I’ve read somewhere that the rest stops are occasionally 36 hours. And if you listen at the beginning of the episode, they never actually say it’s 12 hours (“Humphrey and Lauren, who were the first to arrive at 3:17 p.m., wil depart at 3:17 a.m.”).
The logistics of Phil make me think this has to be a 36-hour break. He has to check in the last team at this mat, film the intros at the next Roadblock and Detour, and be at the mat ahead of the first place team on the next leg.
That said, I don’t know how you bunch the teams up again once they’re spread over more than 24 hours (maybe send them to a business that’s closed for a holiday or something). If it’s happened before, I haven’t seen it.
By the way, did the Amazing Producers play a little fast and loose with the boats to Zanzibar? At the ferry terminal, I thought the numbers were 1, 2 and 3, and the intro showed three boats, but the teams made four seperate trips. (I thought Eric and Danielle were going to be mad, getting away from Teri, Ian and the Guidos in Johannesburg only to wait for them again in Dar Es Salaam.)
In early seasons Phil would state that teams arrived at the Pit Stop for a “mandatory 12 hour rest period” where they could “eat, sleep and mingle with the other teams.”
In season 1 the Guidos fell more than 24 hours behind the other two teams of the final three. At what would have been an otherwise normal clue box sending them on their next task, the producers substituted in a note that the Race was over and let them know which team won (Rob and Brennan). I think that’s the only time that all of the final three teams didn’t cross the finish line, although there have been a couple of times when there was a similar clue substitution on an earlier leg (telling teams who hadnt finished all the tasks to go to the Pit Stop) and at least one instance of Phil’s travelling to a team to Philiminate them (the hay bale Philimination).
I had wondered about that as well but presumably the producers just arranged for another boat rather than penalizing Eric and Danielle for arriving so much ahead of the trailing two teams. What I’ve always wondered is on legs where they bunch teams at charter flights, what happens if a team doesn’t arrive in time to catch the last charter?
At least two, actually. The Pizza Brothers quit at the scarab dig and Phil had to go out to them and do the elimination because Marshall (or was it the other one?) just couldn’t MOVE, his knees were so bad.
A few points and questions about this episode:
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Charla & Mirna did a good job of going out on a limb, and it paid off.
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When the 3 teams had a 24 layover in Jo’Burg, why didn’t they look at other routes to get there? My first thought was Nairobi in Kenya…then maybe Capetown…or maybe even Zanzibar?!? You’ve got 24 hours, check it out!
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Producers fudging the boat times to try to catch people up…the thunder (nice touch), blue sky and calm waters of the ferry delaying C&M until the next morning seemed unfair.
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Scheduled ferry times, bah! Guidos and T&I left after dusk (sunrise~5AM, sunset~5PM)
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Scheduled ferry times, huh? There was a 3 hour gap between ferry departures. I figured after a non-elim that all the teams could be assured a close finish to ensure drama for the team marked for elimination. This seems to take that drama away.
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Look for a Charter flight bunching point next time to make sure that everybody is kept close.
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It looks like a 20 mile ferry ride and at least 3 hours.
Oh, yeah…This site has a good chart with the tasks and times for each episode. I posted it previously, but I killed the thread with it.
It wasn’t exactly luck, though, since the Guidos and Ian/Teri chose to wait in line at the ticket counter, while all the other teams went upstairs to the office to see if they could get in ahead of the ticket counter opening. Which they did, because of a nice guy in the office. One of the Guidos watched them trooping up there, and said something like “they’re just doing something to do something, I think we’re better off staying here.” Although from his perspective, it probably seemed risky to lose their first place in line, it was still one of those little decisions you make that can screw up the whole race.
C&M have clearly been learning from their mistakes and the mistakes of others. You don’t ask which plane leaves first - you ask which arrives first. If one flight can’t take you, find another. A little begging will work on airline personnel (people who wish to think U&J were ‘helped’ by the producers please take note). Ask people for help whenever you can. If they’ll take you to your destination, so much the better. If there’s a lineup for something, see if there’s another way in.
It’s the racers who absorb and use these principles who’ll win; unfortunately, Terri & Ian and the Guidos still don’t seem to have done so. When the racers who went upstairs didn’t return right away, the ones in line downstairs should have realized that the others were doing something useful up there and followed or at least sent one party of each team upstairs to see what was up. Bad strategy will finish you off.
T&I really bombed at the puzzle - trying each piece in every slot? Very bad plan.
I missed the end of last week’s thread, but that chart is awesome. And I don’t mean just plain old, garden-variety awesome, I mean I am literally full of awe. The anal-retentive color-coder in me shivers with delight at the organization of that chart. Very useful, thanks cantara!
I, too, welcome our gay hand model overlords. I want desperately to be the sassy next-door neighbor in the sitcom of their life.
Can they do that? I’ve always assumed that since nobody ever sends one team member off to check on other options while the other waits in line that it was forbidden for the teams to split up. I imagine they’re allowed to send one team member to McDonald’s, but not to a travel agent.
I think they have to stand together in line, but I don’t know why one couldn’t go scout out the situation and return to report back.
That is a great chart. I like the part at the end with the mouse-over to indicate which team member has done which Roadblock.
**Draelin, ** I think the teams could have split up just to go check on what the other teams were doing. They couldn’t split up to actually talk to the travel agent and make reservations, but one could have walked off to see what was going on upstairs.
I didn’t count them because they weren’t Philiminated. They just quit, the big quitters. “Ow, my knees.” Yeah right, quitters. Kevin and Drew were older and fatter than you and they didn’t quit.
Which had the ripple effect of getting them first on the standby list. Always a mark of pure doom when a team announces boldly that the thing the other team is doing will never work. That was the moment the Death Clock started tolling on Teri and Ian.
I have always heard that team members have to stay within a certain number of feet of each other unless instructed to separate for a task, not though for “rules” purposes but for production purposes. If team members consistently split up then it would be difficult for the camera crew to get coverage of both members. That distance rule does seem to get fudged a little bit when for example one half of the team needs to wander off for a good cry or something.
When C&M and D&O reached Zanzibar and opened their clues, I could have sworn I saw a green FF clue, but it was never mentioned. My eyes could have been playing tricks on me, though, because I expected a FF after last week’s NEL. Did anyone else see it or was it my imagination? I deleted it from TiVo before I remembered to take another look.
I think it used to be that if he left out the “12-hour” part, then it was some longer period of time.
Do you mean that those teams just wouldn’t have to do the remaining tasks? How did that work, and when? (I’m not doubting you. I’m just counting on those contributors to this thread who have such Rainman-like recall of every thing that has happened in every season.)