Ready for the off

Portimão Global Ocean Race sets sail from Cape Town tomorrow

With the start of Leg 2 of the Portimão Global Ocean Race less than 24 hours away there is an understandable tension in the air. For all of the skippers except Michel Kleinjans, skipper of Roaring Forty, this is unknown territory where they are heading. Kleinjans, the only Southern Ocean veteran, raced in the Whitbread Round the World race in 1985. He alone among the 10 sailors knows what the vast ocean between Cape Town and Wellington holds.

“To be honest I can’t remember much about my trip as it was a long time ago,” he said. “But what I do remember clearly is saying to myself that I never want to go back there again!” Kleinjans laughs at his comment and with a wry smile adds, “for now I am not nervous at all, but I am sure that as soon as the first big wind hits us it will all come back to me in a rush. But I am looking forward to the challenge and ready for the start tomorrow.”

Among the rest of the skippers the one newest to sailing is Jeremy Salvesen, skipper of Team Mowgli. Salvesen has a big personality and an even bigger laugh but he turns serious when asked about the upcoming leg: “I have read just about everything there is to read about the Southern Ocean,” he said. “In some ways I feel as if I already know what we are getting ourselves into. David and I are very respectful of the ocean and we will treat the deep south with the same respect. Having said that I think that speed is our friend and we need to keep pushing hard to position ourselves with the approaching weather systems. We must have faith in our abilities and our boat and I think that we learned so much on the first leg about both of those things that, yes we are nervous, but also confident that we will have a fun and competitive leg to New Zealand."

The forecast for the 10:30 local time start is for a moderate northwesterly wind. There is a weak front moving across the region and the wind will move into the southwest by early Monday morning.

“It’s actually a very good forecast for the fleet,” said Race Director Josh Hall. “They need to get south and the wind direction will allow them all to get away from the cape as quickly as possible.”

The local forecast is for the southeasterly to start blowing again by Tuesday but the sailors should be well away by that time.The winning team on Leg 1, Beluga Racer, seem very relaxed and confident as they look toward the next leg.

“I think that there is a bit of a myth built up around the Southern Ocean,” Boris Herrmann, skipper of Beluga Racer said. “That’s not to say that we are not going to get a lot of wind but I will not be intimidated by what I have heard and read. We are going to push hard and enjoy ourselves.”

Boris and his co-skipper Felix Oehme exude confidence but there is also some nervousness under a brave exterior. “What I really worry about the most is the boat being flipped over,” Boris said. “We have done a lot of planning around how to survive a capsize but even so it still has me worried and we will be very careful to place ourselves where we can’t get into too much trouble with cross seas and the like.”

For now the scene at the Royal Cape Yacht Club is festive. Portimão flags flutter in the light breeze while some last minute provisioning is being done. This morning a local priest came to bless the fleet. Most of the boats have taken advantage of the good conditions to continue to look at new sails and tune masts. The sun will set this evening and rise tomorrow morning on a new day for all the Portimão Global Ocean Race skippers. The real guts of the challenge is about to begin.