CRISTOBAL, PANAMA — Thunder Bay's Dan Turk is off to an excellent start in the Mini Globe Race 2025.
The local high school teacher finished the voyage from Antigua to Panama in third place in the first leg of the 15-boat, 28,000-mile competition.
All the sailors are using home-built 5.8-metre plywood yachts based on the same design.
Turk's race manager, Morgan Ellis, told Newswatch he's pleased with what he and his boat, Little Bea, have achieved so far.
"We are all very proud of his performance," he wrote in a message Wednesday morning.
The yacht is currently docked at a marina in the town of Cristobal, at the eastern entrance to the Panama Canal.
The next leg of the 13-month-long race will start on March 23, and will see the boat cross the Pacific Ocean to Fiji via Papeete.
In an interview with Newswatch in December, when he and Little Bea were in Portugal, Turk said sailing the ocean to exotic locations is an opportunity to experience "a huge amount of adventure."
