My buddy Geoff Webster is a rock star sailing photographer based in Kingston and I was delighted when he agreed to help me get some photos for promotional stuff for the campaign. We went out on Wednesday evening with Matt and James Fair driving the whaler.

As always Geoff got some great shots. Here’s a sample.

I know, I know. This is a very late report on the training run to Toronto. I got back to Kingston on Monday night and it’s been tough getting back into the swing of things at work and I’ve been getting ready for a couple of events that are coming up.

We (the boat and I) left Kingston on Thursday night and headed out in almost glass flat conditions. My motor is a touch temperamental on a good day, but she performed like a champ for the few hours until the night breeze started to fill in around 2000-2100 that night. It was a beautiful sail out of the harbour; sunsets are just so amazing this time of year.

One of the goals for this training run was to try out as many sail combinations as possible and I definitely did well on this goal. As the wind direction and speed changed, I did every sail change as if I was racing. I also had about 100L of water in moveable tanks, so this was a good chance to see how weight affects the boat at various points of sail and in different wind conditions.

As the sun went down I tried to get into a sleep pattern that I could live with for a while, and I am happy to say that I stuck with it for the duration of the trip. (Except the end, more on that latter.) I set my watch to repeat every 20 minutes and whenever it went off, I checked the bearing, sail trim and traffic and then tried to doze again. I slept in the cockpit for most of the sail, which sounds uncomfortable, but really isn’t that bad if you are dressed for it.

Sailing was light but good on Friday, with a broad breeze and filling as the day went on. I went fairly far south on this leg, and was outside of communications for almost all of Friday. It was the first time I got that pang of “damn, I am really far out here and if I were to fall off the boat, no one would know for days…” I was too busy to dwell on it really, but that knowledge in the back of my head motivated me to stay safe and move slowly and deliberately.

I got to Toronto around 0300 on Saturday morning, and when I went to take my main down I found that the bolt rope had frayed enough that I couldn’t get the main down. After fighting with it for an hour, I gave up and headed into the harbour with it up. To make matters worse, I bumped into the mud just outside of the RCYC harbour, and had to spend another half hour trying to get out!

After a quick sleep, Andrew Morgan came over to help get the main sorted out and after a couple of hours of pulling, cutting, “dremmilling” we got the main down. I spent the rest of the day visiting with old friends from RCYC, picked up some more groceries on the main land, and headed to bed around 2130. (My internal clock was so screwed up, I could have stayed up and partied with folks, but I thought better of it.)

After breakfast on Sunday morning, through off the lines and headed back to Kingston in a really nice 10-16 knot breeze. It was perfect conditions for the boat, with flat water and a building breeze. We were traveling at almost 10 knots, and passing boats almost three times my size. “Big grin sailing.”

Around 0000 my autopilot was having trouble keep a compass course and the GPS was giving me low power warnings. Turns out that both batteries were almost empty. By 0200 the GPS would not even start up, and I was stuck steering all the time. I was exhausted by the time the sun came up, but as Point Petre arose on the horizon my bearing in was right on. We bore off with a full main and a kite up and blasted North toward the Duck Islands.

I finally got into Kingston around 1730 and got the deck cleaned up before hitting the dock. I was SO looking forward to seeing Alison, having a hot shower and getting into a nice soft bed.

I was back to work on Tuesday morning, and this week has been somewhat of a blur as I have had to keep the momentum going despite some serious sleep deprivation. Ces’t la vie, this is the life of a competitive solo sailor.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m going sailing!

While watching the Transat news and studying weather has been a constant distraction, I have have been busy trying to get ready for my first big solo trip this weekend. We (the boat and I) will be heading out on Thursday evening for a quick trip to Toronto and back to visit the c-class worlds which are underway at RCYC, then turning around and coming home on Sunday.

Getting the boat ready for this little jaunt has been a lot more work than I thought it would be. Little things like getting the hanging stove rigged, installing the last of the required safety gear, rig inspections and engine maintenance have taken up most of my nights this week. It’s nice to finally be preparing for a longer sail, but it is a bit stressful, because forgetting something could mean the difference between a nice weekend sail and a total disaster. “Thorough preperation” continues to be my mantra, so if I get through all of the stuff on my list done, I should be in pretty good shape. (Knock on wood.)

Over the last two weeks, we’ve been trying to get the boat out in various conditions and start to get a sense of what she can do. The big challenge at the moment is to figure out what sail combinations we should have up in various wind speeds and angles. It’s been a usual fall here in Kingston, so it’s been blowing twenty something for past couple of weeks. I haven’t even had a chance to really test the genoa yet!

Generally I’m very pleased with the boat. Matt Fair and I had a chance to take her out and do some upwind practice in 30+ knots last week, and with two reefs and a jib she was wonderfully balanced. The trip this weekend should be good for taking notes on sails, speeds and stuff. Greg van Rossem and I also had a great downhill run out in the lake last weekend and we had some great speeds, over 11 knots. It’s been SO much fun figuring out the boat and how all of the manouvers go. We’ve certainly got a lot of work to do, but we are definetly off to a good start.

I’ll try and post an update from Toronto, so stay tuned to this page for updates throughout the weekend and the rest of the season. (Remember there is still over a month of sailing left!)

After a brief postponment, the minis are underway and the weather for the start couldn’t have been more perfect. The low pressure system that caused the postponment has stabilized and the fleet started in a north breeze of 15 knots.

As of this morning, Isabelle Joschke is in the lead, which makes me smile. While Isabelle has had an amazing season and is a favorite to win the race, she is still a bit of an underdog. Some of the others who are favorites for the race, had a really rough start, but are now getting things sorted and out and back into the positions they “should” be in.

It’s been a bit tough finding news for this race, so I thought I would provide a few links. If you have found another good source of news please post the link in the comments.

The official site is here. The race tracker is under “cartography”.

The best mini blog out there is the Adria4oceans team blog. This is a two skipper/boat team and they are also favorites for the race over all. Unforetunately Andraz had a collision with a press boat at the start and damaged a dagger board, but he is pressing on.

Yachting World also has had tonnes of good coverage.

Finally there are a few threads with news and opinions worth watching. Here on Leo’s forum, and here on Sailing Anarchy.

For weather, checkout the NOAA Atlantic Briefing.

With the start of the Transat 650 in only four days, I’m sure that the tension in La Rochelle is building quickly as the skippers go through their final preperations for the race.

Transat competitors need to be in LaRochelle a week before the the race starts to deal with all of the administrative and required activities. Clay Burkhalter of Team Acadia describes some of the things skippers are dealing with this week:

“Each day from now until the start of the race, everyone will be busy finishing up last minute projects, double checking spares and loading on supplies. The docks will be a very busy place. The last couple of days before the race the activities in the race village become more formal… there will be a presentation of skippers to the public and on Friday the 14th, a big 30th anniversary party (this is the 15th running of the biannual race).”

Skippers must also attend mandatory meetings on safety at sea, procedures for high seas rescue, race instructions and weather. I can only imagine the nervous tension that must be hanging over the docks at the moment!

The official race site is www.transat650.org (French only I’m afraid) and there is a race tracker set up for the race here.

I’ll try and provide more links and news as I here what is happening in France.