The past 24hours have been spent mourning the loss of someone really special. Rob Meek, a very good sailing friend, lost his life whilst on holiday in the Transkei. You couldn’t have met a more salt-of-the-earth, kind, loving and humble gentleman. The Meek family are very dear to us, and we can’t even imagine the pain they are going through. Di, Louise, Claudia, Steve and Geoff, we are so sorry.
The news of Rob was devastating. Royal Cape has been very sombre, with a flag at half-mast. With everyone upset about the news, we left the yacht club and went for a walk in Newlands Forest, followed by lunch at The Vineyard.
With race day looming, we are forced to continue with the boat preparation. Our punch list, which at the start of our campaign had 300-odd items on it, is now down to 18. Slowly but surely, things are coming together, and bits and pieces are being hit off the list.
Yesterday morning we overcame a large hurdle, which was that of communications. Courtesy of Xtra-link, we have a world class communication system, which will make communications from the middle of the South Atlantic that much simpler. Followers will also be very chuffed to know that The Stig, who co-ordinated all the communications during the last race, has agreed to do it again. He did a champion job at keeping all our followers up to date, and we are so thrilled to have him part of our on-shorecrew for this year’s race.
All our new sails have also arrived. These included three beautiful Investec-branded spinnakers, and a large asymmetric spinnaker. Trevor Wilkins took some great shots of us out on the bay, and we will hopefully be able to upload some of these later today.
The weather continues to look rather average for the race day. A 14knot windfrom the North West is predicted, and itis only due to shift around to the Southat 08h00 on Monday morning. We’d obviously prefer to kick-off with the wind coming over our shoulder, but this is yacht racing so you take what you can get and try to make the most of it.
Kathryn out.
https://plus.google.com/app/basic/photos/+TrevorWilkins/album/5963439748490113121
ReplyDeleteHi! Am sorry we missed the start of the race yesterday - heard Mike talking on RSG and thought: I know this guy, I know this family! We've settled in Cape Town now, and will be rooting for you from here. Good luck, smoke the opposition (or whatever the sailing equivalent is), and have fun!
ReplyDeleteLou Pistorius