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Within 24 hours Shuten Dojhi II sailed by Japanese sailor Minoru Saito will finish in Cape Town. For both skipper and yacht this will be their 3rd Leg 1 finish in Cape Town. In 1994 Shuten-Dojhi sailed Leg 1 in 58 days and 20 hours. In 1990 when Leg 1 went from Newport to Cape Town Minoru made it in 63 days. By finishing tomorrow Shuten-Dojhi will have a time of 55 days.
Another yacht with good fortune is Paladin 2. At last report Paladin's ETA is November 28th @ 1225, meaning that she would beat the deadline. This would enable Paladin 2 to sail Leg 2.
Paladin 2 skipper Neil Hunter is experiencing good winds. He reports that while reefing due to an increasing breeze: "one big wave thumped the boat (and me) side on and before I knew it I was across the boat with my head through the life lines watching the waves fly past. Harnesses are great things."As for other things, he passes on a sage saying from a friend: "He said that when sailing your whole perspective and outlook on life changes and there are really only two things of interest worth talking about. Weather and food. How true." At last report Paladin 2 was making a speed of 6.6 knots.
The other yacht which may not make Cape Town in time for the 28 November deadline is Modern University for the Humanities. Her current ETA is 29 November. MUH is also experiencing stiff winds and Fedor Komioukhov says: "The main problem is that the wind strength is moving from 22 knots to 38 and it's very difficult to tune the boat by the sails." Hopefully Modern University for the Humanities can keep this breeze and make the deadline.
Continuing to press on towards South Africa is Robin Davie and the rudderless South Carolina. 388 miles are what's left on South Carolina's Leg 1. Her current ETA is Monday.
From Cape Town two of the already finished skippers report in on their land based doings. Recently Brad Van Liew and his wife spent a weekend on safari. As for getting Balance Bar ready: "As time before the restart ticks away the "to-do" list of preparations is quite a long one." Brad's prepatory efforts have two main aims. One is to fit new rudder bearings. The other is to have the preparation done well before the last minute pressures of the restart.
Neal Petersen describes his time in Cape Town this way: "The last 48 hours have been hectic." Hectic can be summed up in this way as Neal has done the following: radio interview, visited his old high school, filmed his visit to his old home, done more TV filming for a program to be broadcast this Sunday throughout Africa, worked on www.no-barriers.com, done a conference call answering questions from students back in South Carolina. Not surprisingly, Neal says: "I am tired. The adrenaline has worn off and I am starting to run low now."