February 11, 2011
Nick and I are heading off to Miami for the 1000 nautical mile solo qualifying run. I’ll keep you up to date on all the details, but it should take us 2 days to drive there. The plan is to get to Miami by Sunday, launch and possibly rig….pending tides of course. Then Monday we will make our way over to the mooring and get the no2 autopilot computer calibrated, the rig tuned and do a run out to the Miami Sea Buoy to appreciate the route. A few little rigging things to take care of and then Thursday I’ll head out to the Sea Buoy to start the run. 🙂 Still haven’t got the Sat phone talking to the computer….hope a tech at Globalstar will call me back soon!
Diane
February 8, 2011
Yesterday my USB cable came to connect the laptop to the sat phone! Phew…now if I could just get the software working!!The last of the safety gear also arrived, and I picked up all of the freeze dried food. Almost there….the list is getting shorter every day! Tomorrow we pack the boat and …shovel out the snow 🙂
Diane
February 5, 2011
Only 6 more sleeps until we drive to Miami. The sails are back from the loft, the new sheets are cut and ready to go, the new foul weather gear has arrived and the routing is almost finished. A few more calculations and some more gear to pack and we’ll be in good shape. Monday will be a trip to Mountain Equipment Co-op for food and a final safety check of all of the equipment. Then there’s only about 32 more things to go on the jobs list 🙂 We’re getting there!
Diane
February 3, 2011
We’re down to the final planning stages. The check lists are getting smaller every day! The plan is to head out of Toronto Feb 11 and then start my 1000 nautical mile qualifier on Feb 17th, pending weather and wind direction across the gulf stream. We’ve got the spot tracker and the sat phone for blogging, so make sure you follow along the journey! 🙂
Diane
January 30, 2011
For anyone thinking of taking the Intensive Weekend training at , don’t be fooled when they say “Intensive”! Our instructor Paul was fantastic! If I didn’t pass it certainly wasn’t because of him! You must have an excellent grasp on the material and use this course as a review for the test! Won’t know if I passed or not until Thursday…..there is a rewrite offered, thankfully! It definately was a great course though. Our instructor really knows the content and was able to deal with any variables we threw at him. I was totally impressed with his knowledge and his ability to make it fun and keeep us from falling asleep!
Diane
January 29, 2011
Time for Class!
has kindly given Nick and I their Coastal Navigation Intensive Training session this weekend. So far so good! This will be a great lead up to taking the Yachtmaster’s out in Victoria with VIMA!
Diane
January 25, 2011
Tomorrow on
I’ll be talking with Jim Harrison about One Girl’s Ocean Challenge. It’s live at 12:45pm!
Diane
January 21, 2011
View 1,000 Mile Qualifying Run – February 2011 in a larger map
The Date is Set!
On Feb 17, 2011 I will set off from Miami to complete a 1000 nautical miles single handed adventure. The course will take me east from Miami out and around the Bahamas as far as Great Inagua and back again. This run is part of the qualifying events that I need to do. The entire trip will be photo documented at each waypoint and videotaped. I am also required to do celestial navigation throughout the trip and submit my fixes along with the rest of the documentation to Class Mini France upon completion. This is the ONLY qualifying event I can complete in North America…..the rest of the class racing will be completed in 2012 in France. Follow along with me in the Bahamas with the , and my blogs right from the boat! It’s going to be a great ride 🙂
Diane
January 16, 2011
We made page 4 of the Toronto Star!
Diane
January 16, 2011
