Going solo: Sailing the Atlantic alone

4:01 PM Thu 8 Apr 2010 GMT

'Scarborough sailor Diane Reid will spend the next 18 months re-equipping, fundraising and doing qualifying races in preparation for the Mini Transat.' Andrew Wallace

By the time Diane Reid's grand adventure is over next fall she will have spent about $400,000 to discover whether she has the right stuff to sail across the Atlantic Ocean alone in a 21-foot boat.

The 35-year-old Scarborough resident figures that's a fair price for a four-week, 4,000-mile race from La Rochelle, France to Salvador, Brazil by way of the island of Madeira. She will be the first Canadian woman to enter in the Mini Transat, started by an Englishman and now dominated by the French; a small boat romp, run every two years that attracted 84 entries in 2009. The Mini Transat is to the top tier of ocean racing as Double-A baseball is to the majors - a step up the ladder where the ambitious and talented gain experience and learn their craft.

While the Durham College graduate isn't sure whether the Vende? Globe or Velux 5 Oceans are where she's headed, she has long admired such stars as Britons Ellen MacArthur and Samantha Davies and France's pioneering Isabelle Autissier. They all started in the same spot and all made the A-list.

Read the full story at TheStar.com www.thestar.com/sports/article/791846--going-solo-sailing-the-atlantic-alone

by Adam Mayers