THE FINAL LEG OF CLAY’S EPIC JOURNEY HAS BEGUN

11 October, 2007

For anyone who missed it, the final leg of the 2007 MiniTransat Race began at 12:20 p.m. Funchal time on Saturday, October 6th. As John Groton’s report so aptly stated, (shown on www.teamacadia.org) Clay was in good spirits before the start, but a bit apprehensive about the coming three weeks at sea. John took the photos at right.

By now, most of us have settled into the routine of living this race vicariously through the Team Acadia website and on to the Transat site. We have cheered when he was in first place after the initial 24 hours and groaned as he slipped further back into the fleet rankings for now. We followed the progress of part of the fleet as they charged through the Canary Islands and wondered which boats had the better strategy. We attempt to decipher the sometimes difficult English translation of the stories from the Transat site and we have tried to plot the wind and weather conditions and guess how they will affect Clay and the others. The list goes on…

The winds were light and variable for the first day and a half, which benefited Acadia. As the breeze has filled in, the beefy French boats are beginning a run. Clay’s initial strategy was to be in the lead group until the wind filled in… and that he did! Now, we shall wait and see how well the boats and sailors hold up.

Many surprises have already occurred during these first five days including the biggest shock of Isabelle Joschke’s apparent major issue with her canting mast today. She is now heading to port and it is not clear if she will be able to repair it and continue the race. Isabelle won the first leg handily. Other skippers have broken masts, rudders and auto pilots. Some have been able to start back up with the fleet, others have not been so lucky. Anything can happen in the next 2 weeks so we will continue to cheer, groan and be thankful for the little things. As Doug Curtiss from Campbell and Company Productions commented, “we are all watching this event as a sailboat race. We know more about what is going on than the competitors themselves. But it’s not just a sailboat race. It is an endurance and survival event and oh yeah… they’re racing too.” It is a huge feat to just finish this event, as we spectators are beginning to realize.

Say a prayer to the powers above for the safe passage of all the sailors.

Signing off for now… Team Acadia

Follow the daily progress of Clay and the fleet by going to www.teamacadia.org. The race committee appears to be providing three regular updates now: 0600, 1200, and 1800 Portugal time.

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A FEW QUIMPER PLATES STILL AVAILABLE

If you missed your chance, we still have 12 commorative Acadia plates available for purchase. Eleven of them are priced at $100 each and the plate with number 50 is priced at $250. Help us bring Clay and Acadia back home to the USA. Quimper is no longer sold in the US and there were only 100 plates made for the Acadia campaign. They are all numbered and signed by Clay.

Send us an email at info@teamacadia.org to reserve your plate now. Once we receive your check, we will mail your plate(s) out to you.