By Brian Hancock
I will come back to Explorer and Godspeed at the end of this update, but because the start of Leg 2 is this Sunday and we are getting close to the end of the week and could use some humour, I have a story to tell.
When I did the Whitbread on Drum back in 85/86 (Drum, by the way was owned and funded by Simon Le Bon, lead singer of Duran Duran and the two managers of the group who also raced on board), but I digress (ADHD). We took a crew outing to Cape Point to see the view and have some fun. Now there are a lot of baboons at Cape Point that roam the parking lot looking for meal opportunities, so to speak. My step-son actually got mugged twice by a baboon but that came later than this story). We left the car unlocked and walked up a steep hill to see the awesome view and it is spectacular, but when we got back to the car there were three baboons inside the car eating our sandwiches and drinking our beer. There were also a half dozen sitting on the ground alongside the car.
So it was a bit of a dilemma. What to do? One of our crew volunteered to open the car door and yell at the baboons so he crept forward, opened the door, yelled at the baboons (in Swedish which might have been an issue because South African baboons only speak English, Afrikaans or Zulu). The baboons just looked at him with indifference while they enjoyed our cold Castle Lagers so he bolted out of there, but left the van door open. All the baboons that had been sitting on the ground just climbed into our van. They only left after all the beer and sandwiches were gone and we were left to drive back to Cape Town in a van full of baboon sh*t, True story. It’s all part of the life of a sailor.
Now back to the McIntyre Ocean Globe Race. The competitors are readying for one of the toughest legs on the race across the Southern Ocean to New Zealand. It’s daunting and preparation is key. The start will be this Sunday and for sure there is going to be a bit of a bash to get around Cape Point; it always is. Then the teams will have to deal with the Agulhas Current, a current that has been known to break ships in half but more about that in later updates.
Back to Godspeed and Explorer. They are going to find the next few days a challenge, Explorer especially. The Southeaster is pomping (another nautical term) and it’s going be a bit of feeding the fish time until they make Cape Town. By the time Godspeed gets there it may have calmed down a little, god willing for their sake. Both boats have to stay a minimum of four days in Cape Town for safety reasons before they can start the second leg. There may just be a little time for them to go to Cape Point but I urge them to make sure that they lock the car.
