MYKONOS RACE

Race 1: Cape Town to Mykonos.

Wwe started in fickle southerlies. We got away to a good start and promptly powered away. Round the first buoy and the kite went up. We then worked down to Robben Island with the smaller boats holding on. The winds then swung to a SW. We peeled to Code Zero and carried to Dassen Island, After Dassen the winds went forward and died so we sailed at about 3 knots, we went outside Jutten to pck up some currents. As we got closer to Mykonos the winds picked up nicely and we were sailng in on a full beat nicely powered up. Unfortunately with the finish line a few hundred metres away and in sight midnight had come. Midnight being the cut off time. We calcualted that we would have finished within another 8 minutes. But that is how racing is. We missed the cutoff. Lots of sailors are outspoken about this however, it was in the rules and therefore it is fair as that is what we aggreed to sail to.

Race 2: Pursuit race in Saldhana Bay.

This race was held in lightish conditions, in our opinion we sailed a flawless race, getting every shift right. Crew work was supurb. The only mistake was a short a sheet on the "codey" which hampered the last gybe. We came second, just behind "No Promises".

Delivery back:

Ian Coward, Sarel van der Merwe, Siger Smink and Asaaf Yechiel delivered the boat back. They left at around 7:30pm. According to them they motored most of the way back as there was very little wind and lots of fog. Just after Robben Island they picked up strange noises from the "iron sails" so they sailed the rest of the way and only used the engine to get into moorings. They arrived at 4am. We have had the engine checked and it would seem to be the coupling on the shaft that was making that noise. It is currently in repair.