Wednesday October 30, 2013
The weather story continues. Conditions are deteriorating at Cape Finisterre and thus the Race Committee had decided to have the fleet put in at Porto de Sada. See the Google “chart” below. They’ll wait out the weather for a couple days. Diane’s French is quite good – wonder about her Spanish. Read the full Mini-Transat news release.
The weather overlay on fleet tracking has the wind at 14 to 20 knots. It also shows boats on both port heading west and starboard heading south. It’s on the nose – beating to weather in seas that haven’t calmed down much.
The fleet has had a few mishaps thus far. Bert in Netwerk, who hosted Diane during the two week, pre-race weather delay, has bailed on the race with a shredded jib. Shortly after the start, a tree reared up from between a couple of waves and punctured his headsail. The Mini-Transat web site has a nice, pre-puncture picture of Bert on its front page.
Speaking of seaborne obstacles, a container ship has lost 15 containers. They’re the steel version of growlers from racing in extreme latitudes.
Craig on Naked Retreat, the former owner of Diane’s boat was involved in a collision at the start. The other boat was able to return to port in Douarmenez effect repairs. Alas Craig’s damage could not be fixed before the starting weather window closed.
Katrina on Seanergy, Diane’s Mini friend from Oz, had difficulty getting in the the rhythm of the seas at the start, but seems to up to speed and moving up through the fleet.
The English translations of news segments on the Mini Transat web site can be a bit awkward in their grammar, but quite understandable. Read the details about Bert, Craig & Katrina and other competitor, including the update with Tuesday’s late day de-masting.
The blue marker is Porto de Sada, the newly added pit stop for the fleet to wait out the Cape Finisterre (yellow) weather. You can interact with this Google “chart” directly, or use the link below to open it full size in a new window.
View OGOC Mini Transat: 1,257 Miles to Lanzarote in a larger “chart”
