Rounding Cape Leuwin - Finally!

As I write this we are crossing the longitude of Cape Leuwin thus effectively rounding the first of the three "Great Capes" that make for a Circumnavigation. The next will be Cape Horn followed by the Cape of Good Hope. It has been a fairly uneventful day with a decent breeze that has been backing from ENE to NNE making us sail in the direction we want to go at a healthy pace. The wind has been picking up for the last couple of hrs and is expected to back further which will allow us to gradually starting reaching and  picking up speed without slamming around too much.

     The mystery of the broken clew of the Genoa and subsequent shredding was finally solved by John Sharpie, our good host at Fremantle and an experienced sailor. He reckons that a big wave must have hit the Genoa as we were slamming through the waves making the clew part. We were, when the incident happened, sailing upwind in a fairly large sea and had waves washing over the boat. One wave too big and that was the end of the sail!

     On the day I left Fremantle I met an old friend Timothy Ettridge. We had worked as part of Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's support crew during his Velux 5 Oceans race in 2006. It was quite a coincidence that he arrived at Fremantle the night before I was leaving and was there to see me off! Giving a link to his blog (here) for some photos & philosophy!