Message from Michèle Paret on 19 May 2011

Having attended the magnificent and emotional awards ceremony in Barcelona, we turned our attention to finalising the details of our new mast in order to start the build process.  Southern Spars in New Zealand built our previous mast and will also build this one.
Meanwhile, in parallel, our thoughts are never far from Mirabaud’s homeward progress. On Friday 13, the yacht arrived in Livorno, Italy, where it will spend a week before being loaded onto a second cargo ship for the final trip home to La Rochelle. We were on site to greet the boat and to make sure that it was offloaded safely.
It was reassuring to see the yacht again, it has weathered its trip on the cargo ship very well. The Italian dock workers were a little taken aback by ‘the beast’ and asked us lots of questions!
I have to admit I am itching to get back on board along with the team to take out all the tool boxes and get everything in shape for the next trip to Costa Rica at the end of the Jacques Vabre.