Spirits high and water-tanks freshly topped up, the last of the Mini Globe Race 2025 fleet is setting off for Stage 3 of Leg 3, a 1,500 stretch from the Cocos to Mauritius.

Their departures were as follows:

18 September: Renaud Stitelmann / Capucinette
19 September: Dan Turner / Immortal Game, Keri Harris / Origami, and Pilar Pasanau / Peter Punk
21 September: Adam Waugh /Little Wren
22 September: Jakub Ziemkiewicz / Bibi, Christian Sauer / Argo
23 September: Eric Marsh / Sunbear, Jasmine Harrison / Numbatou, with Ertan Beskardes / Trekka and Josh Kali / Skookum soon to follow.

Stitelmann remains the frontrunner, closely followed by Dan Turner, Pilar Pasanau, and Keri Harris, who have stayed hot on his heels throughout.

“These four are the contenders,” affirms race founder Don McIntyre. “Barring unimaginable misfortune, the winner will be one of them.”

Stitelmann’s choice to continue following the shortest possible line brought him to arrive first in both Leg 1 and Leg 2. He’s been logging impressive days of up to 145 miles, pushing the boundaries of what boats of this size can do.

We have only to remember that in 1958, John Guzzwell’s Trekka took 28 days to sail from Thursday Island to Cocos. The feat that took Renaud a full week less, with his crossing lasting just 21 days!

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The one-design, home-built ALMA Globe 580 yachts had arrived in the Cocos early in September with 40 knot winds and heavy seas, with the fleet a few boats lighter.

When we last caught up with the Mini Globe Race 2025 fleet, Dan Turk and the Blenkinsop father and son duo had just joined Gary Swindail in retiring from the race after they failed to secure a sponsor.

With four out of fifteen entires on their way home, there are only eleven boats still racing.

Dan Turk’s Little Bea had already been sailed extensively around Lake Superior and across the Atlantic before embarking on the Mini Globe Race. Credit: Dan Turk.

Dan Turk, who left to address pressing health concerns, has since made the difficult decision to list his Mini 5.80 Little Bea for sale out of Vuda Marina Fiji.

The boat is fully certified for racing and equipped with Quantum Sails, a Selden rig, Coppercoat anti-fouling, ready for another adventure in new hands. Let us know if they end up being yours!

All smiles from Spanish entrant Pilar Pasanau on her boat Peter Punk. Credit: Mini Globe Race.

Conditions in the Indian Ocean haven’t been easy.

Stage 2 of Leg 3 had exposed the Mini Globe Race 2025 fleet to near collision misses with fishing boats, shipping vessels, and even a run in with a UFO for Jasmine Harrison and Numbatou which left minor damage to the hull.

Dan Turner documented nasty squalls on social media, while Pilar Pasanau has reported “a lot of wind, a lot of waves, a big swell,” from onboard Peter Punk.

Keri Harris has been opting for a more southerly route. “I’m just seeking the best of the equatorial current for the time being, and also wanted to get some reasonable speed across the seas.”

He has stayed cautious in his sail choice, sometimes keeping three reefs in the mainsail to stay ahead of violent squalls, switching between windvane steering and hand steering in rough waters, to swap comfort for course precision.

“My track’s been quite erratic, largely because of the seas,” he explains.

In Stage 2, “The first two days, I didn’t hand-steer, because it was unpleasant in the cockpit, just being hit by waves all the time. There was a risk of being knocked overboard or something like that. I chose to take shelter down below and peer out through the hatch, leaving the Aries (wind-vane) to do the brave stuff outside.”

Numbatou was raced to first place in the inaugural Globe 5.80 Transat. Credit: Jasmine Harrison

The remaining fleet had a chance to catch its breath in the Cocos, enjoying barbecues, sightseeing, bike explorations, and a birthday dive-tour for Renaud with some of the other skippers.

The stopover was a chance to rest and relax, but also to reflect on environmental threats facing coastal communities. Sailors witnessed the devastating effects of plastic pollution firsthand.

“The quantity of litter is mind-boggling and really sad,” said a post on Jasmine Harrison’s social media. “The litter is mainly comprised of single use plastics washed ashore by the ocean currents having been deposited in the ocean from countries thousands of miles away.”

Sailors were shocked by the amount of plastic pollution she encountered in the Cocos. Photo: Jasmine Harrison.

Her posts highlighted a survey on the Cocos from 2017-19 which recorded 414 million pieces of litter entrapping and killing 508,000 hermit crabs each year, as well as 713 pieces of litter per square metre, 977,000 shoes/sandals and 373,000 plastic toothbrushes.

She called the numbers, “a big wake up call for everyone to reduce consumption and especially plastic waste.”

The Cocos are beautiful islands, Eric Marsh of Sunbear said, “But the big problem is that I think the Cocos Islands are subsiding. There’s a six-inch gun on Horsborough Island, put there 70 years ago to protect the entrance during the war, and it’s actually underwater now. It was two metres higher 70 years ago.”

The fleet has been sharing their catches as they sail along. Credit: Jakub Ziemkiewicz / MGR2025.

Spirits are high, but this marine marathon is starting to take its toll on both the skippers and their vessels.

In addition to a waterfall of technical problems with electrics, masts, engine troubleshooting, they have been reporting sail issues, including several spinnakers shredding due to sun damage. Replacements will cost them a 48 hour penalty, a time tax that could prove determining for the race’s top contenders.

Still, with Stage 3 of Leg 3 underway the Mini Globe Race 2025 sailors will soon be back to fishing and reading in the cockpit (Jakob Ziemkiewicz), charity fundraising (Adam Waugh), harmonica playing (Eric Marsh), and leisurely swims, Netflix, and fresh-caught sashimi (Ertan Beskardes) in becalmed waters.

Their biggest concern?

Dan Turner marks 150 days at sea aboard Immortal Game. Credit: Dan Turner / MGR2025.

The lack of human contact, says Keri Harris.

“You’re just stuck with your thoughts going around in a circle. In the end you think, ‘I am going crazy here.’ It definitely has a knock-on effect to my feeling on board, or generally morale. That lack of human contact gets quite significant over the course of two or three weeks.”

The Mini Globe Race is a remarkable game of endurance, with emotional resilience playing just an important a role as technical skill.

What’s next for the Mini Globe Race 2025 fleet?

The remaining stages of Leg 3 will see the solo skippers stopping in Durban and Cape Town before taking a long rest ahead of Leg 4.

“We’ve still got thousands of miles to travel. It’s not like we are tourists – you’ve always got the next leg looming,” said Adam Waugh of Little Wren. “We’ve still got the Cape of Good Hope to get around.”

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