Cape Town - A week into their long journey in the Cape2Rio sailing race, the crews – including the Alexforbes ArchAngel crew from Masiphumelele, Khayelitsha, Grassy Park and Athlone in Cape Town – updated their supporters on how they were faring on the gruelling sea odyssey.
This is the 50th anniversary of the race between the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) and the Iate Clube do Rio De Janeiro, and it started on January 2 with 16 crews competing in the 3 300 nautical mile and 22-day long race.
The Alexforbes Archangels vessel, with six young sailors trained by the RCYC Sailing Academy, made history as the first complete crew from marginalised communities to compete.
On board was skipper Sibusiso Sizatu, 30, first mate Daniel Agulhas, 29, Renaldo Mohale, 29, Thando Mntambo, 23, Azile Arosi, 22, and Justin Peters, 21, who said they had a good slow start to the race with time to settle into their shifts and adjust to being at sea for a long period.
The crew's challenges included first trying to get out of Cape Town due to a diesel spill in the boat that was tough to deal with, spinnaker issues and problems downloading weather forecasts which made it difficult to place the boat in the right wind conditions.
However, the crew was determined to move forward to the best of their ability.
Sizatu said: “We have all gotten into the flow of four-hour shifts. Justin has battled with sea sickness, but just kept fighting during his shifts.
“We have been sailing for a week now and everyone is very happy, although Renaldo lost his phone and instead of playing his music, is entertaining us with jokes.”
South African singer Ard Matthews was also participating in the race and used a historic sailing vessel, The Impossible Machine Sailing Vessel (TIM SV), that originally took the trip to Rio 50 years ago in the inaugural race.
However, Matthews relayed that their journey had come to a stop as the vessel’s rig had parted and despite the crew’s best efforts at repair, they had to retire from the race and make for St Helena Bay to replenish, repair and reassess the situation.
“We drove her hard and she responded magnificently! We may have, in our eagerness and sheer joy under sail, not listened close enough when she creaked and groaned, till finally her rig parted,” Matthews said.
The DHL Me2Me crew was taking advantage of having no wind, to swim and play around in the water.
They said: “Its weird to swim knowing the bottom Walvis Ridge is 5 000m below us!”