One Girls Ocean Challenge

November 30, 2011
Life is about achieving little steps.  Got the gear off loaded today from the boat and the sails back up to the UK Halsey loft, but the wind was blowing 20+ knots, so too windy to haul OGOC out.  Nick and I will do it in the morning before heading to Bristol Marine 🙂
Diane

November 29, 2011
One mast down and tidied up…check!  Unfortunately there was not enough daylight to get all of the gear off loaded and OGOC stowed back on her trailer.  Everyone cross your fingers that there will be a pause in today’s rain long enough for me to get her ready for transport!  Thanks Tom for your help yesterday!
Diane

November 28, 2011

Looks like today is the day.  After my morning meeting I’m going to take OGOC’s mast down.  We’re moving in to Bristol Marine on Thursday to get all of the “go fast in France” work done, and having a mast up will make the road trip a little tricky!
Diane

November 25, 2011
Yesterday was a successful mission with Tristan from UK Halsey onboard.  We sorted through bobstays and reinstated the shortest one for comparison measures.  As we launched OGOC, the wind started to pick up a little with a puff here and a puff there.  A little rigging and we were off the dock.  After doing turns to calibrate the new pilot we pressed out of the harbour….10knots of wind, 11, 12, 15….we were making our way up wind.  17, 18, 20, 22!!!  This wasn’t the forecast!  So we turned around, put the kite up and gybed before the imminent portage!  We were heading for Kingston at an easy 10-12 knots…….fabulous day!  🙂
Diane

November 24, 2011

Sailing Day!  Adjust bobstay height, more photo data for new sail measurements and configure autopilot are the final things on the “to do” list.  Tristan and I are going sailing to get the data.  Then UK Halsey can start building some new racing sails for France this spring.  Get your woolies on….it’s gonna be chilly 🙂  !!
Diane

November 21, 2011

Well Saturday was great as always at the awards dinner at ABYC!  Awards were applauded and individuals’ incredible efforts were acknowledged, including a very nice nod to OGOC for completing our 1200 nautical mile qualifying run through the Bahamas.  Congrats to everyone and thanks for the moment 🙂
Diane

November 19, 2011

Tonight at my home club we honour our members for all their outstanding achievements and efforts throughout the year.  I treasure this event so much I think I’ll wear my fancy party dress!
Diane

November 14, 2011

What an awesome race. There are great lessons to be learned here. The winners of this year’s Mini Transat race stayed closer to the rhumb line keeping their miles down. They seemed to accelerate as the race moved along, but in fact one could argue that they held their ground while others struggled to keep up the pace. Never ever ever stop pushing your boat as hard as you can! But the most important lesson of all is not a new one. “To finish first… first you must finish”.  A big piece of the puzzle is to make sure that your boat is strong enough to survive whatever happens out there. Mind you there are some things out of our control. Submerged containers and sleeping marine wildlife are a constant fear, but if you have confidence in your boat and your team, then you can fully concentrate on going full throttle all the way down the track! France… here we come!  🙂
Diane

November 12, 2011

The show down is on in the Volvo Ocean Race!  Groupama is out on the right and benefited from early wind but now they have to cross over to the West to get to the gate and out of the light air……Puma and Telefonica are BOOKIN it south……Who’se going to come out in front? AHHHHHHHH!  Crazy exciting!

Diane

November 7, 2011

The number of races happening right now is CRAZY!  The last four racers for the Transat will finish soon, the Volvo Ocean Race just started with some astounding race following technology, the Global Ocean Race just finished leg 1 of 5, and the Transat Jacques Vabre is well under way with 4 of the 6 Multi 50s having abandoned, and 4 of the 16 class 40s have abandoned, and 11 of the 13 IMOCA 60s are still booking it for Puerto Limon.  There isn’t enough time in my day to follow these guys…it’s AWESOME!

Diane