The Story So Far....

Tuesday 18th December

After six days here in Durban, we are still waiting for the first official race to take place!! Over the past couple of days, the wind has been regularly gusting up to 45 knots and this, along with the destruction of the moorings, mean that we are unlikely to race until tomorrow.

Crews are amusing themselves in any way that they can. Boats have been fettled, beer has been drunk and rubbish has been spoken - pretty much an average regatta then! Four races in total need to be sailed in order for the regatta to be classed as official and it is hoped that we will definitely get that.

The event started for Windgat last Thursday morning at 0400. Being a fine and upstanding member of society, I was unaware that there was actually a 4am as well as a pm. Paraphrasing Robin Williams in "Good Morning Vietnam", what does the "0" stand for? 0 my God, it's early. As expected, on arrival at TYC, neither Steve nor BJ were ready. However, after much chuntering on the part of the small, hairy fella, we got the boat hitched up and were on our way.

Those of you that know us from previous regattas will be unsurprised to hear that the journey did not pass without incident. After a fuel stop, the Land Rover started to judder and swerve rather unpredictably. Fearing that this was a recurrence of the famed Solihull "reliability", we pulled over as soon as we could. It turned out that a wheel bearing on the trailer had failed. Cue colourful profanities from our skipper. With three wheels on our wagon, we continued on our way.

We actually made it to Durban ahead of schedule and, after picking up an indecipherable map from Point Yacht Club, we made our way to the Naval yard where measuring and weighing were to take place the following day. After touring most of Durban trying to find the place, we were eventually spotted by Dom Provoyeur and Penny Alison from MACS. Despite (or maybe because of) being German, they had rather efficiently discovered the yard already and guided us in.

To be continued......