Monday was another beautiful paddling day on the Yukon River, and the paddlers in the Yukon 1000 made good use of it.

The race has divided into three parts, like all good stories.

In the front are the three British kayaks, the voyageur and the canoe of team Price and Olson from Georgia and Florida. Then there is a well-defined middle pack, and a long tail.

The first story of the day was all to do with the tail. The back marker spent Monday night about half way up Lake Laberge. Their last check-in Monday night was at about 10:45p.m. Unlike all other teams, they did not send a morning check-in.

One can, in the absence of real information, construct all sorts of scenarios why a team might fail to send their morning check-in. However, the race procedures are quite clear what should be done.

The race coordinator shall call the team's emergency contact and make it his or her responsibility. In this case, they said that they were quite likely to be slow to get going in the morning.

By noon, the team still had not moved. So race officials called the emergency contact again.

Again one can imagine all sorts of bad things. But this is a very bush savvy team with many miles in a canoe, so the guiding principle was; "If you hear hoofbeats it might be zebra, but it is probably horses."

So the assumption was again that either they were slow getting going, or they had not set up their Spot device in track mode properly.

The team was given a 30 minute penalty for going six hours in the day without checking in, and by 1 p.m. they were on the move and tracking. The system works.

The next bit of drama was at the front of the pack, with a formal complaint from team 10, the Voyageur, regarding teams One and Four, two of the kayaks.

The basis of the complaint is that the kayaks do not have maps, are purposely obstructing the voyageur, are assisting each other and are using the voyageur for direction and mapping.

These complaints will be investigated at the end of the race when officials can talk to both teams. There have been rumblings of bad blood between kayaks and voyageurs in races up here before, but this sounds more bitter than most.

The teams are now spread out over a huge distance. The first boat blew through Carmacks at about 2 p.m., the rest of the top five by 3 p.m.

At that time, the back marker was still only half way up Lake Laberge, and the bulk of the racers were between Big Eddy Woodyard and Selkirk Rock, half way between Hootalinqua and Carmacks.

Overnight order:

10) Yukon Voyageurs - Ft. Selkirk at 11:08 p.m.

1) All the Way 2 - One km before Ft Selkirk at 10:44 p.m., One km back.

4) Team Hendron 1.1 km before Ft Selkirk at 10:21 p.m., same place.

11) Price and Olson 12.5 km before Ft Selkirt at 10:34 p.m., 11.5 km back.

15) After the Gold Rush  3.5 km past Minto at 8:41 p.m., 20. Four km back.

19) Dueling Banjos - 6.1 km past Yukon Crossing at 10:52, 32.3 km back.

7) We Must Be Nuts five-km before Yukon Crossing at 10:36 p.m., 4.5 km back.

14) Frozen Hobos - 8.4 km before Five Finger Rapids at 10:30 p.m., 24 km back.

3) Northern Current - 4.5 km past Carmacks at 10:30 p.m., 10 km back.

8) Yukon Duet- 4.4 km past Carmacks at 10:40 p.m., 0.75 km back.

5) Humpbacks - 3.2 km past Carmacks at 9:56 p.m., 1.5 km back.

9) Best of the Mediocre - 2.6 km past Carmacks at 10:14 p.m., 0.8 km back.

2) Fruit Loops - Coal Mine CG, Carmacks at 8:31 p.m., 14.6 km back.

18) Tim x Two - Coal Mine CG, Carmacks at 9:10 p.m.

6) Gonzos - 5.6 km before Macauley Bar at 6:44 p.m., 29 km back.

16) Tanned Rested and Ready - 6.6 km past Eagle Bluff at 10:25 p.m., 1.8 km back.

17) Aching Joints - 5.8 km past Hootalinqua at 10:34 p.m., 132 km back.

Release provided by Peter Coates on behalf of the Yukon 1000 Canoe and Kayak Race.