received 17.11.08 0952 GMT
The morning of the start I woke up at 0500, I tried to go back to sleep but it just didn’t happen. The sun was shining through my window and I made the most of my final few hours in a nice luxurious bed! I did the final check around my room before leaving, to make sure I hadn’t left anything behind, and made my way to the Waterfront. I had packed my bag for Singapore; you have to have a lot of forward planning on this trip. Our containers, which are used by the team at every port, leap frog each other around the globe.
This bags we put in the container in Cape Town will be the bags we will see again in Singapore. It¹s really important to put the right bag in the right container, there have been a few instances when someone on the team is looking quite frantic and then realises that they have put something fairly important in the wrong container and it is thousands of miles away!
After checking my equipment several times, I was happy I had everything I needed onboard. The time flew by and we were all soon on the dock and awaiting our team song to be played, our names to be announced and the lines to untied. The V&A Waterfront was filled with people coming to see us all off. The crew’s families were all there as well, and it was really moving for them all to say goodbye. Saying goodbye to the children was clearly hard for many of team and I know that some of them won’t be seeing them again until we arrive in Singapore at Christmas.
The initial forecast showed some perfect weather conditions as we headed south. We face two days of gales and, quite a contrast from the send off we saw in Cape Town, blue skies and hundreds of spectators boats it was truly amazing. For some of the team, the last few days have been long, after breaking the spreader on Thursday the team has been working around the clock to replace it. It was a crucial repair, but we are all very glad that it was completed and that we are once again out here racing with the best of them!
PUMA had a fantastic start off the line, but Table Bay threw in a little surprise for them as they were stopped in their tracks, allowing the fleet to overtake them. Before we knew it, we were waving goodbye to the beautiful Table Mountain, which vanished gradually in the distance. I guess this is goodbye to Cape Town, see you all again in India!
Guo Chuan – Green Dragon MCM
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