The start of the Vendee Globe saw a gathering of nearly 150,000 people at Les Sables d'Olonne.
This large audience came to encourage the sailors, who are going to take on the most exciting, but also the most dangerous, nautical race of all.
The start of the seventh edition of the Vendée Globe took place last Saturday at 13.02pm, when the sound of the start gun marked the start of the race for the nineteen competitors.
Unfortunately, this was without the boat of the Finistère skipper Bertrand de Broc, whose boat fell victim to damage in the hull before the start of the race. The disappointed but confidant skipper will instead start in the evening, after repairs to his boat have been made. On the other hand, Marc Guillemot, the Safran skipper, was forced to pull out of the race early Sunday morning, and so holds the shortest amount of time spent out on the course.
The only woman in the 2012-2013 race, Samantha Davies, who finished fourth in the race four years ago, hopes to fare better at the helm of her monohull. And 19 of the 20 skippers will have to cover 44,450 km to complete one of the most beautiful sporting competitions in the world.
Up until now the Vendée Globe has seen communication of the fleet reduced to an absolute minimum during its average race length of ninety days. But this year, the organisers are supporting the use of communication through social networks. After all, it's not all that simple for these extreme sportsmen to make a phone call whilst piloting their Open 60 monohull on so little sleep.
So, Twitter should be quite an asset in providing a few more updates on the sailors. To do this, the skippers all have an account at their disposal and will be able to post tweets of up to 140 characters, along with photos.
Twitter has also created a special page for people to follow the race in real time, which has the hashtag #VG2012. The page shows a list of accounts which can be followed and a Twitter feed of Tweets relevant to the race so that you don't have to miss any of the event.
The supporters will be able to consult the race's official account at @Vendée Globe or the website of the Vendée Globe 2012-2013 which covers, among other things, the goings-on since the PC race, as well as all the latest news, rankings, photos and videos.
Notes
[1] Credits : Sylvain NGR - Z. Gutkowski sur Energa au départ des Sables 2012-2013 (CC By-3.0)
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