JML Rotary Scout – Rio Update two: 7 January.

Just had a nice chat with Grant via the sat phone. He reports that everyone is well on board and morale is high. The storm is abating and the yacht is now experiencing 12 to 20 knots of breeze. Cloud cover is 90% and the seas are flattening. They are sailing goose-winged on a dead run, making 6 to 8 knots. I guess it won’t be long before they get the spinnaker up. Grant thinks they have reached the edges of the trade winds now, which is great.

He joked that my record has been shattered – and that was my surf of 20.2 knots set in the 2010 Governor’s Cup Yacht Race. Well, with Chris at the helm they hit 22.8 knots surfing down a wave, which is eye-popping speed for JML Rotary Scout. Ha ha – records are meant to be broken, well done Chris and crew!!

The guys are struggling to get the email working. I’ll chat to our friends at Cape Maritime Electronics who can hopefully troubleshoot the problem.

Cape Talk News is keen to chat to Cathleen Hughes via the sat phone this afternoon – to chat about her matric results and hear first-hand about the race so far. They will be linking up at 14:00 SA time. (Once again, thanks to Shana Coetzee at Sat-4-Rent for the generous sponsorship of the sat phone)

More news as soon as it happens! Hopefully the email on board will be working soon and we can hear from the crew.