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.
November 16th, 2013 at 2:10 am
No further contact yet. I spoke with Mini Transat .There is an issue with the bow sprit and charging of batteries. Diane and all other components seem to be OK. Spirits were high, the plan is to resolve issues and get back out.