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INSIDE SCOOP with Team Manager, Frans Loot. We talk windvane, hull cleaning, rigging, and sails for the Southern Ocean. Over the past few days, we saw two entrants retire from the GGR due to windvane issues. Pat Lawless retired and pulled into Cape Town due to the failure of his Aries self-steering gear, or what…

A radio chat with Jeremy. Kirsten was also on the call and the two of them had another conversation after we got all the messages and questions out of the way. Does he have a wetsuit? Yes – he dives with two Does he have a mask and fins? Yes, he does. What tools will…

Jeremy is enjoying celestial navigation, staying determined, and looking forward to getting to the southern ocean as soon as possible. We have another chance to listen to James and Jeremy have a chat. They cover topics like old friends around a cup of coffee – from weather forecasts to how” slow sailing” influences your mind…

Jeremy is coming into Cape Town as part of the race rules to do a film drop (although he has been experiencing issues with his data cards). He has also been struggling with barnacles on the hull and will be doing a hull clean in Simonsbay, Simons Town. The idea is to scrub the hull…

As the saying goes, some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue! Today is definitely a statue kind of day! We’re thumping along to windward trying to make some east direction and the wind has veered from the NE to due East. On paper, I only have 86 miles to Horta, but…

I was feeling a bit despondent yesterday with the thought of total calm today and then a walloping on the way into Horta but, although this is not off the cards, I’ve received help from an unexpected quarter. There must be a big depression N & W of me because the swell from that direction…

Overnight the wind just disappeared and left us wallowing. Déja vu all over again? So it’s me and Olleanna racing thousands of bluebottle type floating creatures that cover the sea around here like nature’s version of bubble wrap. I think they’re floating faster though. 430 miles to Horta, but it may as well be 4300…

The good news for me is that from around midnight, local time, the wind started to veer into the SE and then to the S. It stayed light and maybe dropped a little further but Ellen needed no encouragement and took the lifts towards Azores. At dawn this morning, we were headed directly into the…

It’s very seldom that a sailor is able to just point his boat at the place he wants to sail to and arrive there by sailing in a straight line! This is partly due to the design of sailboats which preclude them from sailing directly in the direction that the wind is coming from. Destinations…

One thing that happens as one spends time at sea, is that one becomes far more aware of, and in tune with the sky, the sea and the seasons they define. I left Cape Town at the end of April as it was starting to get into the Cape winter and the most natural thing…