Les Sables bound

Spirit of Canada leaves Canada for Vendee Globe start port

Spirit of Canada and team are finally on their way to France and the start of the Vendee Globe on November 9th The team left Halifax today to a warm farewell from the Royal Nova Yacht Squadron who have hosted us for past few weeks since arriving in Halifax from Port Credit.

We are a little later leaving Halifax than expected as I was required to attend the official Vendee Globe press conference in Paris on September 16th. All of the Vendee Globe skippers save but one were present and introduced to the 100 or so journalists present. It was very motivating for me to be among such an impressive line up of the best single handed skippers in the world. In total, the skippers represent over 32 previous single handed circumnavigations of the world. I definitely have my work cut out for me from a competitive point of view.

It will take us about 14 days to do the transatlantic crossing and once in France, we will be full on doing the final preparations for race day. We must replace all the running rigging and start loading the boat with provisions for the 100 day sprint around the world. We still have some financial hurdles to overcome, the biggest one being the insurance required for the race. The response to the crew member emails continues to bring in further donations. Thank you very much to the over 200 crew members that have contributed again and welcome to the new crew members that have recently put their names on the boat, we really appreciate the additional support.

We will continue the names program in the Race village in the weeks running up to the start with the hope that we can reach our goal of 10,000 names on the hull of the Open 60. A number of competitors find themselves with financial short falls even at this late stage. Here’s hoping they all make the start cleanly.

The Spirit Tracker will be following our progress daily as Spirit of Canada makes its way across the North Atlantic to France.
Take care,
Derek