Today marks 29 days to the start of the race in Charleston SC. Needless to say the pressure of final preparations is hitting the fleet.
England- Around Alone Veteran Niah Vaughn's fortunes are looking up. He has left England on his way to Charleston. This is after a last minute infusion of cash from a sponsor.
England- Andy Darwent's Heart of England is afloat. The boat was launched in Plymouth England. This is home port of British sailor Pete Goss. Goss has kindly leant Darwent work shop space, sails and lots of advice and encouragement. Darwent hopes to sail for Charleston ASAP.
Charleston- Neal Petersen of www.no-barriers.com continues both sailing preparations and his work with his educational foundation. On September 4th Neal will present an educational satellite TV broadcast called: No Barriers: Quest for '98. During the broadcast school children will be able to interact with Neal via a toll free phone number.
Charleston- Robin Davie's 48 footer is still not sailing. Robin is under extreme time pressure as he still needs to make his 2,000 mile qualifying voyage.
Atlantic Ocean- Josh Hall in underway on his trans atlantic voyage to Charleston. His boat is a new Finot 60 with a striking green paint scheme. He has a crew of 4 on board. Hall indicates he is very pleased with Gartmore Investments performance and has only minor problems to work on solving.
Portsmouth RI- Here Around Alone mariner Isabelle Autissier who will sail PRB in Class I is installing a new flotation system. This system is a balloon that grows to 283 cubic feet when inflated. If PRB turtles in a storm Autissier inflates the balloon. The balloon is located in the aft section of the boat. The theory is water would flow to the bow and thus give the keel enough torque to right the boat.