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 13th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
And we believe that you have what it takes – we are also bribing Poseidon to be on your side. Forza!
November 13th, 2013 at 5:49 pm
The the sun coming out for the start and the wind moderating might confirm Poseidon is keeping up his end of the deal.
November 13th, 2013 at 6:32 pm
After all the drama, to finally be out there racing, and with a good following wind…this is sailing at its best.
You might not be in first place, but you are definitely a winner!!!
See you in the Canaries!
November 14th, 2013 at 5:31 pm
I can see from the tracking page that OGOC is slowly moving up through the pack…nice work…still lots of miles left in this race.