One Girl's Ocean Challenge is off on the 1000-mile qualifier

by Tim Hill on 22 Feb 2011 Toronto's Diane Reid headed out from Miami on Saturday afternoon to start her single handed circumnavigation of The Bahamas; this trip has been sanctioned by the Mini Class to count as Diane's 1000 qualifying miles in preparation for the 2013 Mini-Transat Race from France to Brazil. Tim Hill reports from shore:

Rounded the Miami Buoy to Start the Solo Circumnavigation
5:21pm Saturday February 19, 2011

Tim here. Just doing Diane’s update while she’s out on the boat. About 5:21pm Diane rounded the Miami Buoy, the start (and finish) mark of her solo circumnavigation of the Bahamas for her 1,000 nautical mile qualifying run. You can check her current position with http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Naq1iG3jLsgDhvqRHDq8ytHhCRKs07EZ!SPOT_Tracker. Whoo Hoo! She’s off on another exciting installment of her adventure.

Diane put out out to sea via the narrow Biscayne Channel, which is only about 50 to 60 feet (15/18M) wide. Towards the end of the channel, the engine got swamped. With the main ready to go, and the breeze from behind, a quick hoist made for a smooth exit. Heading up the cost to the Miami Sea Buoy, the official start point of the qualifying run, Diane was dodging cruise ships and freighters 'there are some pretty big ones man!'

Diane is having some keyboard troubles. Words are not always clear over a sat phone connection, but Diane said something about 'hose the sucker down'. Having left the hose back on land, I’m left to ponder how she’ll wash the salt water out of her keyboard, or if she’ll be washing it out the with salt water. If only her keyboard was working, Diane could send her development team an email instructing them to find a notebook sponsor. Yep that’s my attempt at humour and likely why you prefer Diane to blog directly.

Gorgeous Sunday Sail
9:30am Sunday February 20th

Tim again passing along a slightly edited update from faithful shore crew Paul: Just got off the phone with Diane and she sounds great. She had a very busy night with about 9 big cruise ships to avoid and some freighter and other boats etc. The problem with cruise ships is that they have so many lights on board that it’s hard to see the nav lights and tell what direction they are headed. They also look like a small town at first when they are a ways off.

Her spirits are high and all seems well. She ran the autopilot all night and is recharging the batteries now so she isn’t using the computer for awhile.

Right now it’s a gorgeous beautiful day and she is having a really good sail and making some good time.

The AIS system is working beutifully and the boat plotter is a huge asset with all kinds of info that Diane hasn’t used before. Currently under full sail with genoa and no reefs. 14 kts apparent, 8 kts true, 1kt of adverse current, 97 nm to Hole in the Wall, high pressure system, will have to tack soon.

There appears to be an area off of Miami where the cruise ships sit in a holding pattern until it is their turn. She had to change course for awhile to avoid this. All of the changes to the boat have worked out well and her new sheet bags and soft shackels are pefect. Just what she needed. She is very happy with her progress and her spirits are high. She sounds pumped.

Follow along on http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Naq1iG3jLsgDhvqRHDq8ytHhCRKs07EZ!SPOT_Tracker.

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