October 7, 2013
It’s a tradition with the Mini Transat race that each competitor gets connected with a classroom of school children. I have an exciting group of 16 children who have become part of my inspiration. Today I had the great fortune to meet them in person at the boat in the race village.
They have been using the race and the boat in their studies and came armed with a mountain of well thought out questions. “What do you eat? Where do you sleep? How can you get help if you need it? Do you swim in the water? Have you ever hit anything in the water? And many many more questions.
They also came armed with t-shirts they created. Mini #655 has been permanently immortalized in a t-shirt like no other!
The final piece of icing on the cake was a wonderful gift from them. It’s a model of One Girl’s Ocean Challenge that has sturdily been reinforced with wire, tape, brilliant blue marker and some Canadian flags of pride. I have taken a picture of the new craft and will place it in the boat for the race across!
We finished up with a “grand tour” of the inside of the boat, more questions and a heartfelt “bon vent”. They also created a massive drawing that has been laminated to my mainsail. When things get rough out there I will look up at my main sail, see their drawing on it and all their warm faces smiling back at me and I will be inspired to push harder and smile through it all!
Diane
October 4, 2013
Wow! You guys are all amazing! Thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes! Not only are we 8 days away from the Mini Transat Race, but I got to spend it in a luxurious spa with a massive flood of email birthday wishes from you all. Thank you very much for your wishes and your encouragement and excitement. 8 days to go to the start!
Diane
October 4, 2013
The girls of the 2013 Mini Transat got a very special treat yesterday. We were pampered by the Thalasso Spa for an entire afternoon.
The afternoon started off with a most amazing lunch of pumpkin soup, crab roulette and foie gras. Then we moved on to our main course of seafood with some kind of crazy delicious sauce followed up with a delicious coffee and a dessert of milk chocolate mousse, vanilla creme and pear compote! I would have been satisfied at that point……but that was just the beginning!
At the Spa things got kicked off with some reporters and a little photo op. We had to put booties on to keep the floors clean and then we were up to the terrace.
The little booties were interesting! Katrina was happy to play “fashion model” for us.
Then it was on to my first of four luxurious treatments.
The facial involved a bunch of cleansers…some steam…a bunch of scouring pads ( I think they call that exfoliating?) and then some heavy encouragement to wear “day cream” more often. Clearly I am not doing my sponsor justice with my skin care. I tried to explain to the lady that I use the BEST sunscreen in the world, but I’m not sure she completely understood. There was also a full on facial massage and finally some interesting eucalyptus thing.
Next was a bath.
More specifically a hydrotherapy bath. This thing had some incredible jets and interesting lights. Here you can just see one of the red lights coming on. They would change through red blue and green while the jets rotated around and gave you a full massive massage with salt water.
Treatment number three followed up a nice relaxing moment with friends in the Jacuzzi and a bit of lounging on the terrace.
It was a full on massage. I’ve been running every other morning and riding my bicycle everywhere and I’ve been bashing about on the boat a ton. I’m covered in bruises, scrapes and tired muscles. The massage was incredible! I am sure she looked at my skin and thought to herself ???
And then the final treatment. I had been hearing about this one all afternoon from the other girls. Nobody was really sure what to call it. It was some kind of algae therapy. BUT it was certainly more than that.
This may look like a simple little room with a shower, but it’s way more than that. When I arrived to this room the blue blanket had a massive plastic sheet on it. I laid down and then she covered me with this red algae goop. She tried to tell me what it contained and basically it was another combination of interesting stuff with derivatives from shells and things like that. Then she wrapped me in the plastic. I had a brief flash to CSI the tv show and all the bodies they wrap in plastic, but she assured me everything would be fine…. hahahah! Then the other half of the blue blanket was wrapped overtop and the whole thing started to heat up like mad! If you’ve seen the movie “Jack the Giant Slayer” and you remember the scene where they get wrapped up as pigs in a blanket to be eaten, then you can imagine what I looked like. There was even a panic button on the wall if I needed out. 20 minutes later I was fully cooked and my skin still feels amazing the next day!
Thank you Thalasso for giving us a wonderful memorable moment. I will think nice warm fuzzy thoughts when I’m three layers deep in thermals bashing around in the Bay of Biscay on my way to the Canary Islands!
October 3, 2013
The starts in 10 days! 4000 nautical miles solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a 21 foot racing machine. I’ll be there as the first Canadian woman ever to qualify for the race. Catch all the action here or at https://www.facebook.com/onegirlsoceanchallenge. Follow the action live with our trackers and play the virtual race!
Diane
October 1, 2013
We’ve arrived to the race village!
The 80 mile delivery from Lorient to Douarnenez was beautiful…sprinkled with a small squall, some sunshine and a kite and gennaker combo run for a good part of the first 60 miles. 
I even got to try out my newest toy for the boat!
This truly inspiring new piece of kit has been given the highest of thumbs up from round the world Global Ocean Race winner Conrad Colman. This fantastic thermos tub will hold a bag of freeze dried food, lid on and your spoon. You can even drop it in the cockpit, let it roll around while you’re dealing with a “dicy” moments and it still comes up warm 🙂
Tonight’s adventure includes putting all of the individual medical kit components into ziploc bags and sorting for my inspection!
September 30, 2013
Delivery day to the race village for the ! Off the dock this morning to deliver OGOC to Douarnenez. No trackers onboard for this run, but we’ll be travelling up the coast past Les Glenans, through the Raz de Sein and then into the Bay of Douarnenez. It’s looking like it will be about a 14 hour spinnaker run in 8-10 knots of wind building to 15 in some spots. Woohoooo! 13 days to the start of the#MiniTransat Race.
Diane
September 29, 2013
At 16 days to go to the start of the , we’re almost ready to move the boats to Douarnenez to the race village. One of today’s missions was to go to Port La Foret to pick up the new bow sprit for OGOC. Port La Foret is one of the great places where some of the famous Open 60s hang out. I rounded the corner and saw this!!! Sam Davies’ Open 60 from the last Vendée Globe. Another inspirational moment 🙂
Then at the next corner I saw this. Vincent Riou’s PRB!
Diane
September 24, 2013
Let the loading of stuff begin! With 18 days left to the start of the Mini Transat race, it’s time to finish sorting the boat, get the gear loaded and move to Douarnenez. We’re even dressing ship with some sparkle.
Finally, the jobs list is starting to get shorter. For the last week it’s been a steady process of stroking one thing off the list and adding two things on to the list. Finally today the list was actually shorter at the end of the day. We’ve also been very fortunate with the weather. It’s been sunny and warm in September in Lorient…something that is unusual for this rain and drizzle ridden coast. Hopefully that nice weather will hold for our test sail on Friday!
Diane
September 21, 2013
We’re in! Launched, mast up and tuned. Tomorrow the sails go onboard 🙂 BUT, talk about excitement….there’s a big event at the Base de Sous Marins this weekend and all the kids have come to play!
Banque Populaire, Safran, Bureau Vallee, Cheminee Poujoulat and Groupama just to name a few. It’s absolutely awe inspiring to walk down the dock these days!
September 19, 2013
One of the many key aspects to racing fast and safe across the Atlantic Ocean is being able to understand the weather and to know what to do with it. That means learning from the experts. Throughout the world we have influencing tides, current, weather systems and land effects. Their net result becomes our “local phenoms” that we race in. Even if you are racing across the Atlantic Ocean, you still have to understand how and why the weather does what it does and what to do with it. Soooo, SkyWeb Express brought in an expert to teach us all about the weather through the Bay of Biscay, down the Portuguese Coast and past the Straits of Gibralter to the Canary Islands and then for the big leap across the Atlantic to Guadeloupe.
Our weather expert is Jean Yves Bernot. Not only does he specialize in offshore racing weather, but he is the weather expert for such incredible names as Michel Desjoyeaux, Ellen MacArthur, Vincent Riou and Francois Gabart. The list of accolades goes on. Not only that, but it was a fun and exciting training session, providing us with incredibly valuable tools to navigate the complex weather systems that will come our way throughout the . Thanks very much SkyWeb Express for making this happen. You not only get people around with your Point to Point Transportation on land, but now you also get people around on the ocean!
