| Why turn around now. We are on a good course for Rio, by Alex Mamacos.
When someone says that on the qualifier trip, you know that it is working. Never mind that although the direction was good, the track that we followed was not ideal for going to Rio.
It is better to keep north in the trade winds, as opposed to heading south west like we did. Well, nothing wrong with a contrarian approach and at least we completed our 520.8 nm. But turn around we had to because it was only the qualifier.
 
It was long enough to test the boat (Faros, you rock), the crew (a quirky bunch in the best possible way), our ham radio skills (when last did you transmit a colour photo over SSB?), the crew’s cooking skills (it is going to be a yummy trip), celestial navigation (Jupiter and Venus can look like a 50+ m vessel bearing down on you), vocabulary (you can use loquacious in every day sentences) and our bird watching prowess. We saw seabirds all along the way, but the best viewing was saved for the last day during the best sailing just after sighting the top of Table Mountain during dawn. We saw three types each of Albatrosses, Petrels, and Shearwaters as well as one flying fish. This also made us realise that although we knew that sunset is special, sunrise can even be more so, and then there is also the moon.
Faros will cherish every sunrise, moonrise, and sunset from Cape Town to Rio.
Click here to read about Lexi’s entry and boat specifications for the Cape2Rio2023 |
