Alex Petersen
SALVADOR, BAHIA.
Good winds off the coast of Bahia sent four boats Heineken Cape to Bahia race breezing into Salvador, three in the graveyard hours, and the first at 10 pm local time on Tuesday, giving Race Director John Martin a long night delivering Heineken beer to boats as they approached they crossed the finish line.
All in the cruising fleet, first in was Brazilian yacht Angela II, skippered by Paulo Oliveira and a crew of four. How was the crossing? "Fantastic," boomed owner Renato Plass. "What do you want to know about, the wine, the food or the wind?"
"The entire leg from St Helena was good for us. We had the spinnaker up, that was the key, and in the last three days very good winds, 18 to 22 knots." Angela II also did well on the food front. En route to Cape Town from Porto Alegre, their home port, the 50-foot yacht stopped at Tristan da Cuhna for a large cache of rock lobster to put in the freezer. It came in handy on the leg from St Helena, garnished with South African white wine.
"We had a great welcome in Cape Town, and now we have had a great welcome in Salvador, and a hug from a lady in traditional costume. Great! Royal Cape have done a superb job in organizing this event," Plass added.
Cape Town yacht Avanti was next at about 3.30am local time, to place themselves top of the log in the handicap stakes. "We worked the boat hard," said owner skipper Grant Saunders. This is his third South Atlantic race, and he reckons the stopover in St Helena is a definite plus, along with the addition of the World ARC fleet of international yachts. Cocktail hour at sixish each evening was spent in a chat show among the fleet on single-sideband radio.
Next in was the big catamaran Extasea, a Leopard 47. Skipper Make Blamey's wife Lesley said they had dodged the rain storms for the last two days, and hooked many fish en route, including a 50 kg marlin, but let the others go.
The racing fleet was also enjoying the breeze, with Jacana reporting an unusually good 24 hour run of 235 miles, while MTU Fascination of Power logged 198 miles. Voortrekker had 187 miles, despite phoning by satellite earlier to report a slight crack in the mast below deck. But with advice from John Martin, skipper Marcello Burrick and crew appear to have the problem in hand, but they are likely to sail the 336 miles to the finish at less than full throttle, and should be here some time on Saturday.
