Race 4 - Day 1
Crew Diary - Cape Town and Race 4 Start
18 November

After eight full days in Cape Town I was ready to get going again, I know some crew fancied a couple more days there. The food was outstanding value at the V&A Waterfront, and Table Mountain was spectacular as the cloud formations tumble off it.

The deep clean we undertook was certainly the deepest ever, with every cave locker emptied, and a complete stocktake of all provisions including cleaning materials. Jacqui Webb did a great job organising this. On the victualling front, we have a budget of £4 per person, per day, though the arrangement is that there is no carry over from Leg 3 to Leg 4 - as a result we have enough chocolate and snacks on board to feed an army, as well as Haz. The local supermarket was Pic n Pay and they couldn't do enough to help us. Packing our 65 litre freezer with the cooked chicken, mince, cooked stripped beef, fillet steak and sausages was akin to some sort of Japanese puzzle.

The new crew total nine people, albeit Mark is returning after doing Leg 1, it’s good to see him back. Time will tell but we believe we have a strong crew on this leg and we are playing our Joker so this will double our points relating to the race itself.

The Clipper Race has a well oiled marketing machine behind it, so the leaving ceremony is orchestrated for maximum impact with advertising and a big sound system pumping out the various team tunes. First boat went out at noon then three minute intervals. From a personal point of view, it was nice to see Messrs Pritchard, Coetzee, Jennings and Worrallo all touring golf professionals based out of Frilford Heath, Oxfordshire.

Race start was 15:00, though Terri and I were below deck on Mother Duty. Food preparation-wise, very easy, as a matter of making up shop bought rolls with ham and cheese for lunch, then warming up chicken and mushroom pies in the evening. As usual, the green monster visited, so no surprise at all for me to be chundering, though Australian Sam put in a great performance as did a few others - I think 6 out of 20 expressed themselves and potentially a few more overnight as well.

We heard that there had been some sort of accident between two of the boats, Visit Sanya, China and Punta del Este, though no injuries. Information is sparse, though word is they have had to return to Cape Town and it could be a full 10 days before they are repaired and set sail again. This must be devastating for all concerned.

I think we are currently ranked 3rd out of 11 in the overall standings and every one of us would have willingly accepted this before Race Start, the mantra 'slow is fast' resonates in terms of getting things right the first time, though equally it only takes seconds for everything to change, be it an injury, a sail ripping etc.

We said goodbye to Wombat in Cape Town. He is a star man and will be missed by all though has his reasons to say cheerio, we are all looking forward to seeing him again in London next year. Also, this is the final leg for multi-leggers Wangy and JB so we are all really keen to go out with a bang in terms of delivering a good result. The Wangy Report has been written about previously though not his father, you'd think he was a member of the crew by the amount of work that he did in the Cape Town Stopover so thanks from all the crew to him.

Hatch Open