One Girls Ocean Challenge

Friday November 15, 2013

If you’ve been following the Fleet Tracking you know that Diane is making a pit stop in Cascais, Portugal (the west side of Lisbon). Shore Crew has from heard from Diane, via the race organizers, that: Diane has arrived, is safe and that her good spirits are vexed by charging issues and the bow sprit. The plan is to get these items addressed and back out to race.

Mini Transat has a news item posted, which includes both Diane and her friend Pip Hare, coincidently pulling in at Casais also for “technical issues”.  Do not believe Diane’s bow sprit is broken, just that it needs attention. The big issue being charging batteries. 3,700 miles without power for the AutoPilot is a LOT of hand steering. Nothing yet on Pip’s blog, but the news report speaks of a broken spreader.

Several competitors have had much tougher first couple of days: de mastings, hitting a log and taking on water, keel issues. You can read the english translation of Ian Lipinski’s first hand account of the first night’s de-masting, getting rolled and rescued : spoiler alert: Ian is in a deluxe cabin, en route to Sfax, Tunisia arriving Tuesday.

Hmmm… and electrician on a Friday. Fingers crossed for a quick turn-around.

Noon Update: For the start, the sun came out. The fleet shook the reefs out of their mains. The competitors got a clean start in a north west breeze of 9 knots. It took about an hour to get out the estuary and into the ocean. Diane and the rest of the fleet are sailing along at better than ten knots.

Fleet tracking is up and running, but it only updates four times per day. Being 0800, 1200, 1600 & 2000 in France or 2am, 6am, 10am & 2pm in Toronto. There are some photos from the start, including one particular racer who is very happy to be starting.

Much of the fleet had considerable damage in both Gijon & Sada. Diane was unscathed. It speaks to Diane’s preparation and solid products from her sponsors including  ropes, and her bonus spinnaker from Brainbridge and Sailcare which came with an interesting story. All part of Diane’s team.

In related good news, Diane’s friend, Mylène Paquette arrived in Lorient harbour yesterday. Diane & Mylène met at and sealed a friendship one evening at the Riverdale Winter Training facility. After 140 days at sea, Mylène becomes the first North American woman to row solo across the Atlantic. Bravo! Trust this is a good omen for the start of Diane’s about four week crossing. Mylène has a blog if you’d care to visit. Or check out todays coverage on CBC’s or the Globe.

Click on the image for a bigger view of Mylène finish

3:47am Wednesday November 13, 2013

After a month of delays and an abandoned leg, the 2013 Mini Transat has started. They were all clear on the starting line about 0945 (3:45am Toronto) this morning. Diane has commenced her 3,700 mile, non stop run from Sada, Spain, south to pass between the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, then across the Atlantic to finish in Guadeloupe.

Mini Transat’s official weather forecast (en francais) around Cape Finisterre calls for ENE winds at 16/21 knots with gusts to 35, slamming into 3.5M seas coming from the NNW. Wet and lumpy getting the westing out of Sada before heading south past Cape Finisterre. The forecast includes an “with intermittent rain” – those meteorologists think of everything! Hopefully the protection of Sada bay will get them all off to a clean start.

Diane and the other english speaking skippers share their pre start thoughts in a new video. There is an annotated trove of prior English language videos as well as a hub of English content on their video server.

The Mini Transat site has a “how to follow the race” page (in English) with links to fleet tracking (aka cartographie), as well as their facebook and Twitter feeds. With Diane’s communications restricted by the rules, Tim von Incommunicado will continue to keep things up to date on both Diane’s blog and the OGOC facebook page.

The new non-stop course, through the Canaries to Guadeloupe, make this the longest leg since the Mini Transat history, which started in 1977. When Diane was advised last week, that the originally scheduled stop in the Canaries was dropped, she declared:

I am seriously stoked for this. It’s going to be an epic run of endurance.

Sail smart! Sail fast!

Adiós del cabo Finesterre - click in image for a larger view of the Finisterre Lighthouse

November 12, 2013

Well since we’re back on the hurry up and wait program until tomorrow morning, I have one last minute to tell you all about “Cadenote”. Cadenote is the chandlery here at Sada Marina who have been absolute heroes to the mini fleet. Much like the wonderful city of Sada, we have very much landed on them and they have graciously accepted us. They stay open for extended hours at lunch time just to help us out and massively tolerate our inability to speak Spanish. I for one showed up on their door step with google translate looking for a charger and shorepower to get my batteries going. Then after understanding my concerns about my solar panels, they sent the electrician over to me free of charge! If you are ever in Sada Spain, please drop in on Cadenote and enjoy a little apero while you purchase something for your fantastic yacht!

Diane

Tuesday November 12, 2013

So… a guy walks into and diner and a horse shows up behind the counter. The guy just looks at the horse. The horse asks “What’s the matter, are you surprised to see me?” To which the guy replies:

Postponed!

All Dressed Up, but No Place To Go - click for a larger image.

This morning’s news release from the Mini Transat web site reports:

This morning the Race Director posted an amendment regarding a postponement of fifteen hours to the start of the race from Sada to Pointe-à-Pitre. The new warning signal will be given on Wednesday 13 November at 9am [3am Wednesday morning Toronto time].

There are two reasons behind this new start: first, according to the race meteorologist, the fleet might encounter strong winds with a risk of winds gusting over 40 knots off Cape Finisterre. More importantly, the passage of a front overnight will cause heavy rain and very low visibility. To send a fleet of over 70 boats out at night into in a high traffic area where many fishing boats do not have AIS, was an added complication in the circumstances.  In many ways, given all the incidents and adventures of the Mini fleet since its departure from Douarnenez, this delay is only a small hiccup…

They have a timer on the front page of the web site ticking down to Wednesday 9am local (3am Toronto time) start. Lest Diane gets called over early, best note that it’s Tim blogging again.

Monday November 11, 2013

Imagine…. we’ve been postponed again. At the moment it’s from a 1500 to a 1730 local time start [11:30am Toronto start time]. But they are reviewing the weather files again at 1100 tomorrow to decide. Fact is it’s going to blow 40 going around Finisterre. It always blows 40 around Finisterre!  🙂

Anyhoo, I am probably going to loose my phone and stuff tomorrow so I don’t know if I will be able to do a final post, but we’re looking “all systems go” from my end of the stick!

Diane 🙂

Monday November 11, 2013

Tim again. I don’t want to distract you from reading Diane’s post The Road to Sada. It’s a great read with Diane’s first person account of the conditions and a couple pictures of waves pounding into Gijón harbour wall. When you’ve read it, come back for the video links below. Cue the theme music from Jeopardy.

Pip Hare joins Diane to discuss the sail from Douarmenez to Gijón, the delivery from Gijón to Sada and look forward to Tuesday’s start in this eight minute video.

A two minute video of the much delayed, original start of the race in Douarmenez, you can see the Minis cutting though the starting conditions.

A six minute video round up of the leg from Douarmenez to Gijón in English. It includes most of the two minute video on the demasting of Jeffery MacFarlane.

A two minute Welcome to Gijón video with just a bit of french at the end, notable for the great shots of the town’s waterfront.

Back for the restart after retiring due to damage in the original Douarmenez start, we have Craig Horsfield getting launched in Sada via travel lift in this two minute video.

And two more commentaries about the Dourmenez to Gijón and Gijón to Sada runs. Nine minute video of Aron Meder and eight minute video of Richard Hewson.

And for completeness, here’s the 15 seconds of raw footage Pip shot of Diane during the 30 seconds of sunshine during the second leg of the Sada delivery.

Regret these video links were not into Diane’s blog earlier. There seem to be some issues with video links on the MiniTrans web site. Fingers crossed they’re getting sorted out. However, these direct links have been tested and are working fine.

Today Diane is busy getting gear sorted and stowed for tomorrow’s start, non stop to Guadeloupe.

Sunday November 10, 2013

Diane writes: Well, if you’ve been following the Mini Transat race you will have learned that this race is going to go down in history as an epic tale. It has been filled with incredible weather anomalies, rerouting, and resurrections! The delivery of the fleet from Gijon Spain to Sada Spain has lived up to these new expectations of the 2013 Mini Transat! After numerous days of discussion and round table collaberations within the fleet and the race organizers, the Mini Transat fleet finally had a decision as to the state of affairs and how we would get the fleet from Gijon to Sada.

It’s a difficult coast filled with easterly winds that rip along the coast often at 20-30 knots. Finding a weather window was tricky at best as the fleet was significantly spread out this year…. more so than in years past. So the race organizers were finally able to pick a day. We leave Tuesday! As it was a delivery, you had the options of leaving when you wanted and when the tide and swell would allow a tow out of Gijon.

But if you wanted to start the Mini Transat race, the start was scheduled for November 12, 2013 in Sada, Spain. The accompanying boats would also be spread out as best could be to help with safety and support. We weren’t the only culprits in Mother Nature’s plot. The Transat Jaque Vabres had also been rerouted…

It was my mission in life to get to Sada. The forecast was for 25 knots on the nose with a 2-4 metre swell and wicked cross chop throughout the delivery. I wanted to go. I was very happy to plunge along in 30 plus knots. It’s not a massively fun ride in a mini, but I have no fears of doing it. The series boats are little tanks and OGOC is no exception to the rule!

Diane, Katrina, Pip & Richard decide the conditions have improved and it's time to get on the Road to Sada - click to view larger image.

So, with that in mind, Pip Hare, Richard Hewson, Katrina Ham and a whole lot of us set off from Gijon. The swell was deep, as if the entire ocean was landing in Gijon. Two and a half to three metre swell, behind the massive breakwall protecting the harbour entrance. My batteries were sitting at 12.8 / 12.6. This meant they were anywhere from 80%-100% full. But, when the sun tucked away she was going to hide for quite some time. I could foresee loads of hand steering in my future! The wind was a steady 20 knots. The sky quickly turned grey. Did I mention that I made my first pot of slop before even leaving the dock… just to make sure that I would eat and hopefully ward off potential sea sickness. The storm jib was up to protect my jib. It’s a beautiful jib, but it’s seen many many miles now with many many reefs in it. Reefs just eat the hell out of jibs and mine needed some mending on it’s lamination.

Hmmm... another reef? Click image to view a larger size.

After an hour out, the chatter was starting on the radio.  Initially it was good background noise for me, but it quickly became apparent that the fleet was feeling a desperate social need to connect and confirm feelings of the weather and the sea state.  After the delivery, Pip and I talked about the culture of the chatter.  We were both of the opinion of wanting to make our own decisions about routing, rather than adopting the “follow the heard” mentality.  BUT, we are both also very happy to bounce along in our boats in any conditions.

The first section of the shoreline was windy in a deep sea with TONS of cross chop.  You would climb up a wave and have another wave on top of it come at you from 45 degrees. Next wave the cross wave was from a completely different angle. Hand steering was critical as the gyros wouldn’t feel or see the secondary cross wave or be able to anticipate a free fall off of the square back of the wave if it wasn’t a roller. Jack, my moose had been told he could up chuck if he needed, but he was fine for the ride!

As we made our way along the shoreline and out of the bay, the sea state started to stretch out. Time to make coffee, do a plot and get ready to hand steer all night. The rest of the fleet was in good sorts as well. The boats that use NKE pilots were particularly chatty about how to calibrate their pilots.  It must have been a nightmare ride if they didn’t get the pilots tuned just right. My friend Katrina was chatting a lot on the radio with the boats around her.  There was some concern in her voice.

I fell asleep hand steering several times, as I often do!  But, no earbuds in tonight. I needed to hear the waves crashing.  This first night was pleasant and fairly uneventful, but the batteries were down to 12.4 going into the night. During the night Katrina could often be heard calling Navman who was sailing close by. She was having trouble with her boat and needed to tack. The boats are often in close quarters and so we are very careful when tacking amongst others to avoid collisions.  Navman never heard her calls.

Wednesday morning the sun never really came up. It was going to be a grey day and I really needed some solar power! Breakfast was going to be some cookies and a coffee. Snacks were loaded into the navigation bag. The radio chatter heard the fleet getting tired.  It was tough work during the night.  We had made progress though and were still on schedule to arrive in Sada Thursday night and throughout the morning.

The first weather report was out. The winds would increase to a steady 30 knots for a large part of the day and solidly into the night with gusts upwards of 35. By mid afternoon a large group of the fleet was choosing to head into shore and camp out on a mooring or in a harbour for the night. I wanted to keep going. A quick conversation with Pip, Rich and Robert found our group also wanting to press on. We were fine and good to go in the big winds.

At this point we were following the shoreline that starts to jut to the north.  This was also going to provide some protection for us from the south west wind and the bigger waves. Katrina and I had a chat on the radio.  Her gooseneck had broken.  She had done some temporary repair, but she really needed to head in to deal with it. Our chart for the shoreline was a bit limited so the wise choice was to notify the accompanying boat and ask for an escort in to a harbour. It would be an easy 18 miles to go in and better to have support along the way if something went wrong. Katrina doesn’t speak French. I did some relay translating work and Wanitoo was dispatched to Katrina to go in with her. The last transmission I heard was in their final approaches to the harbour: “Katrina, drop your sails”. Ironically enough, shortly after that my cockpit speaker for my vhf gave up the ghost and I couldn’t hear many transmissions unless I was inside the boat.

By 0400 Thursday morning I was tired. After a quick chat with Pip, I learned that she and Rich and a couple of other boats pulled in for a quick nap in Cap Ortegal. This is the cap just before turning around the corner to head to La Coruna and Sada Marina our final destination. I didn’t have a chart of the area, but Pip was able to give me waypoints and would coach me in as she had Navionics on her phone. Woohoo! A little rest. My batteries were down to 12.2. I would be in just as the sun came up and maybe catch a few hours rest. That way, even if we didn’t get any sunshine, I would be refreshed enough to hand steer around the corner to Sada.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time! The wind was now at a steady 30 knots gusting 33. As I approached the harbour, Pip assessed the mooring balls and found that in fact there didn’t seem to be any that I could pick up without it being disastrous. It’s not easy to park a mini in 30 knots of gusting wind. Plan B was for me to drop anchor. Equally as difficult, but I could try to do it outside of the mooring field. I tacked my way in under reefed main, found the mooring field with her help, picked my spot to anchor and turned the boat up into the wind. The boat slowed, a puff came and we started to slide sideways. So the plan of “stop, drop and set” became the reality of “stop, drop, slide sideways over your anchor, try again three times and slide randomly into the mooring field!” This was getting scary!  If I didn’t get my anchor set I was at risk of bashing into a boat, or worse, drifting into the teeny weeny fishing boats that I am guessing were on moorings in about 5 feet of water at low tide ( I  need 6 feet).

Fortunately I was lucky enough to come crashing in with great finesse (that’s what we’re going to call it) into Mini #5 AND Ludovic was onboard to catch me! Then with a massive effort of organizing lines and crossing anchors, we got me drifted back onto a fishing boat where I could hook up a line to hang off of the fishing boat for a couple of hours. In the process we swapped anchors as he had had a similarly dramatic anchoring attempt.

For the next two hours I closed my eyes and stopped hand steering. I didn’t sleep. I was worried about the batteries and the lack of sunshine. A little after 1000 a pleasant holler came across the mooring field from Pip waking me up. I had shut down all of the instruments onboard so no VHF for her to raise me with. She had the next weather report. Steady 30 knots gusting to 35 often while we passed around the cape. Then in early evening there would be a solid swing from a south west wind to the west and we would fetch Sada. Woohoo! Lets get this show on the road we thought. Rich had already left.

Then Pip said… ”now I have to tell you about Katrina”. My heart went in my throat. All I said was “tell me she’s alright”. She then proceeded to explain that while the support boat was towing her in there was a massive wave that picked her up from the stern and the boat rolled. Through one way shape or form she ended up in the water and had been taken to hospital for observation. The boat was gone. For a brief moment, my world stood still. Once I heard “under observation”, I started to breath again. Ok, losing a boat is one thing.  A friend, is another!

Alright then let’s get these anchors unfowled and get on with the road to Sada. With two hours of intermittent sunshine at the mooring, my batteries were up to 12.4. That was fine, we had all day to make 40 miles! So, with 2 reefs in the main and a storm jib we set off. As we turned out of the harbour and into the bay downwind, a puff came in from the cliffs hitting 43 knots. Hmmmm. Ok, three reefs in the main then!

This section of shoreline is a major headland and turning point in a south westerly wind. The swell was coming from the north west and the wind from the south west.  Everything was hitting the shoreline and was now beyond confusion! I radioed Pip and suggested “want to go offshore a little?” And with that we headed out to the west waiting for the shift to come in. [Pip’s video of Diane: Road to Sada in 30 Knots. Unlike Jack, the camera tossing has me thinking of tossing -tim]

Eventually the shift came in and we were able to tack and fetch Sada. It took foreaver! The final approach to Sada was in the dark. It’s a well protected bay. The weather forecast was also for the wind to switch further to the north. While all of this happened, I sat in the bay sometimes with 15 knots of wind and at others with a half a knot of wind and batteries now at 11.9.

In my last two miles to the breakwall for Sada Marina most of my equipment ran out of power. No pilot, navigation lights, AIS and a weak vhf radio. I grabbed a position, got a quick sight on the green light on the breakwall and radioed in to Pip to share the info. She relayed it into the marina who had been towing minis in as they entered. I got a little closer to the breakwall and with all the lights of the marina I lost the green light! Ah bother, now I was going to have to crack into my emergency equipment. Portable nav lights got taped on, the handheld gps got fired up and the waypoint entered and the hand held vhf dropped into a sheet bag for easy use.

At 1.75 miles a little rib pulled up alongside and took my bow line. There was a hearty French welcome with a reminder that the faster we got to the dock, the quicker I could get to the beers waiting onshore.

Welcome to Sada!

Friday November 8, 2013

Diane reports: After a very eventful delivery, I am in Sada. I should be getting my laptop and phone charger sometime today.  I will try to send a more complete blog tonight.

In short…. HUGE seas with massive cross chop, howling winds, stop-over in Cariño.  Problem with my batteries charging as there has been no sunshine for the whole delivery so I have been hand steering. Last night, coming in to Sada, the batteries went down and the lights & pilot stopped working. Good thing I have back-up systems. Will sort out the boat and charging system this afternoon.

Want to find Katrina to see how she is. Her boat is in a million pieces…. literally.

Rumour is that the van with my gear & supplies for crossing the Atlantic, arrived, but I have yet to find it.

Diane 😉

Tim again: my crack about always an adventure sort of under stated things. Here’s another Google “chart” of the delivery from Gijon (green), Katrina’s troubles in Ribadeo (red cross), Diane’s stop-over in Cariño (yellow) and Diane’s arrival in Puerto de Sada (blue). You can interact with this chart directly, or use the link below to open it in a new window.

View OGOC Cariño Stop on Delivery in a larger map

Thursday November 7, 2013

Tim again: During the delivery to Sada, Katrina Ham, Diane’s friend and fellow mini-competitor, had goose neck problem (joins the boom to the mast). Katrina requested an escort from a support boat. For the entrance to the harbour of Ribadeo, Katrina was under tow. A wave capsized Katrina’s boat. Katrina was promptly recovered from the water and taken to hospital. Understand she is under observation, but otherwise fine. Less sure about her boat. Reports vary or omit details, but one report has it abandoned.

Godspeed for a quick and full recovery Katrina.

Wednesday November 6, 2013

After reviewing their options and consulting with the competitors, the Mini Transat committee has decided to run the race as a single leg. It will start off Puerto de Sada (cape Finisterre) to Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. The race will start Tuesday November 12.

There will be a gate off Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Competitors who wish to make a quick stop, may put into Puerto Calero to effect any repairs before continuing across the Atlantic. With the gate, the leg becomes 3,600 miles, the longest in Mini history.

This route change raises some logistics challenges. Minis are a very weight sensitive boat. Anything Diane didn’t need for the Douarnenez to Lanzarote leg didn’t get onto the boat. Like many competitors, Diane sent gear onto Lanzarote – food, clothes, batteries, computer, cell phone & everything else needed to cross the Atlantic – or like the cell & computer, get forwarded, in turn, from Lanzarote onto Guadeloupe.

Diane and several competitor friends, pooled their resources into a van for delivery to Lanzarote. Expect Sada is in every regard a hospitable place. I’m just not sure their retailers will have in stock three weeks of long life (freeze dried) foods for a whole fleet of mini sailors. Diane and friends are trying to get their equipment and supplies re-directed to Puerto de Sada.

Actually, Diane and friends are delivering their boats from Gijón to Sada. The background buzzing you hear are logistics parts of the shore teams burning up the telephone lines & eMails, getting things sorted. I’d thank S by name, but she’s probably busy. Cross your fingers they get through to the van before it boards a ferry to the Canary Island.

Speaking of the Gijón to Sada boat delivery, some left last night and the rest of the fleet departed this morning. It’s Tim blogging again today. My post yesterday, understated the conditions. The official weather forecast and routing briefing called for closer to 30 knots, on the nose with 4+ m seas. Heading out into that at 6pm last night, or spending another night in Gijón and heading out in today’s calmer conditions is what split the fleet. Expect most will arrive in Sada  sometime Thursday.

Communications in and out out of Gijón have been challenging. Thus my (Tim’s) blogging although Diane is ashore. I’d be remiss if I didn’t share this very telling detail from Diane’s pre-departure email:

The longest single leg in the Transat in history!  I am seriously stoked for this.  It´s going to be an epic run of endurance.

Go Diane!