Follow Donald Alexander, international sailor and adventurer, as he competes in his second Route du Rhum, the grueling, 3,542 nautical mile, non-stop solo sailing race that takes place every four years in Brittany, France. 

Donald will be posting in the next few days, but many are asking about him, so here’s a quick update. He got back to the Azores on Tuesday and when I spoke to him, he was in good spirits. After almost ten or 11 days of endless pounding upwind, his return to Ponta Delgada was…

Firstly, here’s correspondence from Donald yesterday: “Best laid plans o’ mice ‘n men”: At last, an opportunity to write something.  Bashing away upwind for the first 8 days made eating, hydrating and sleeping difficult enough, let alone writing.  Things have not changed that much since setting sail from Ponta Delgada in the Azores yesterday in…

Yesterday, I was saying Plan B wasn’t so bad.  I take that back.  In all seriousness, the poor guy! Yesterday morning, to Donald’s great surprise, the weather routing was in his favor when he took off from the Azores. There was even a gap where it looked like things might be easy street (relatively speaking). …

After pounding upwind for days on end, being stuck in the Azores with one of your dearest friends, Ian, (who also just happens to be an expert boat mechanic) isn’t all bad!   Last night, I got a call from Donald and, after getting most of the mechanical issues resolved, he and Ian were having a…

Just after I posted yesterday’s blog, Donald called and was a bit despondent.  He’d been working tirelessly trying to get the various mechanical issues sorted out, and if he didn’t leave port within the hour, the last weather window would pass and he could be stuck in a no-wind scenario for possibly several days.  He…

Donald called at around 11 last night a bit frustrated with, once again, dealing with headwinds getting to the Azores.  It was slow, slow going;  I think he was getting around 4 knots and it was going to take around 11 more hours to get in.   He was in good spirits though, and very grateful…

This has been an unusually treacherous race, with several of the larger boats capsizing and even one exploding, but the sad news today wasn’t from the race itself, but from a motorboat holding 11 people, which capsized in the Pointe-a-Pitre Bay of Guadeloupe as the boat went to greet the winner of the Ultim category. …

When I heard from Donald late this morning, it was with disappointment.  After paying his four-hour false start and ‘silly mistake’ penance in the beginning, he’d moved up 20 positions and, now that the pounding headwinds of the past six days were finally quieting, he was hoping to make further progress in the standings.  But,…

Donald headed northwest this morning into the new front.  “Just tacked over…, low came a bit early, so was heading too south.  So, what the heck, off into my last low of the voyage, I hope 😃.” It was a tricky decision, but when it was all said and done, he just wanted to get…

Donald called late this morning to say he’d spent most of the past 24 hours working on his battery issue.  They aren’t charging quickly enough, making his Efoy, the backup generator, an important alternative.  Despite trying everything, the Efoy simply isn’t working, which is a worry because he intentionally brought less fuel knowing he had…