Posted by Graham Cox
VINAKA VAKALEVU, Vuda Marina. NI SA BULA VINAKA, Fiji. Thank you very much, Vuda Marina. Farewell, Fiji.
On 26 July 2025, after a wonderful layover at Vuda Marina, Viti Levu, Fiji, during which the MGR skippers refitted their boats, partied, and explored the island of Viti Levu and beyond, the 12 ALMA Class Globe 580’s still competing in the 2025 MGR set sail on Leg 3, bound for Cape Town via the Torres Strait of Australia and the Indian Ocean.
At almost 10,000 NM in length, and encompassing numerous navigational challenges, this leg is likely to present the most gruelling weather that the 580 fleet will encounter during their historic circumnavigation.
On the morning of the start, the sky was an arabesque of swirling cloud formations, keeping temperatures and glare to a minimum, and there was little wind. The still waters of the lagoon shimmered like a lake. It looked like being another slow start to Leg 3, something for which the MGR is becoming famous.
Some skippers were still scurrying around doing last minute jobs, some looked relaxed, sitting at the tables adjacent to Secret Cove, where most of the 580s were moored, spending last precious moments with families and friends, while others were nowhere to be seen. The mood was electric.
A large Fijian choir gathered to serenade the MGR skippers, singing traditional farewell songs, as they have done for centuries when voyaging canoes depart for distant shores, accompanied by incantations, wooden drums, and garlands of flowers which were placed around the neck of each participant.
This was followed by much hugging and kissing. Fijians are a maritime people, they are bound together by the sea, and they took the MGR skippers to heart during their stopover at Vuda Marina. Likewise, the skippers had formed strong bonds with locals, and it was an emotional parting.
By the time Customs clearance was granted to all of the boats, and they began to move one by one out of Secret Cove into the lagoon, a slight NW seabreeze had begun to stir the branches of surrounding trees, and flutter the MGR flags and bunting that adorned the premises. On the western point of Secret Cove, a warrior, clad in traditional grass skirt plus black face paint, blew a ceremonial conch shell to honour each boat as they passed.
The short start line (150m) was just outside of the marina, and ran East to West. It was marked at the inshore end by the mast of the University of Fiji’s drua, a replica voyaging canoe, and at the western end by a yellow buoy and Captain Coconut’s sloop, the orange-hulled Golden Globe Race (GGR) veteran, COCONUT. Captain Coconut, aka Mark Sinclair, counted down the start on his VHF radio, then got underway behind the fleet to accompany them to Cape Town and beyond.
The MGR staff, plus family and friends of the skippers, were fortunate to be offered berths aboard four launches, courtesy of Vuda Marina’s friendly and resourceful general manager and CEO, Adam Wade, which conveyed them out to observe the start. Praise and criticism of a vessel’s conduct can always be sheeted home to the skipper, and the friendly and efficient crew at Vuda Marina are a credit to him.
Aboard the University of Fiji’s drua were the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Shaista Shameem, and Setareki Ledua (known as Seta), one of only two fully-trained traditional voyaging-canoe navigators in Fiji. He comes from a long line of voyaging-canoe builders and sailors, and was trained by some of the navigators who worked with Dr. David Lewis, to help him develop his seminal work on the subject, WE, THE NAVIGATORS. Immediately after Captain Coconut counted down to zero at the start of the race, Seta blew his sacred conch shell to send the fleet on their way with the blessing of the sea gods.
With the sea-breeze coming in from the NW, it was decided to stage a downwind start, since the spectacle of 12 boats, even 19-footers, trying to tack across such a short start-line was not to be contemplated. Even though they were not moving very fast as they crossed the line under full mainsail and jib, the racing was close, and joking calls to ‘put your fenders out’ reverberated around the boats. There was none of the screaming and swearing often associated with such a spectacle, as these skippers have formed close bonds. They are one big family, and it shows.
Immediately after crossing the line, the fleet hardened their sheets for a long beat to windward, having decided, one and all, to exit the lagoon at the northern end and set course for the top of Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu. Apart from Keri Harris on ORIGAMI, they all chose to put in a short leg on the starboard tack, westwards into the lagoon, before tacking north. Keri often chooses to go his own way, and on this occasion he set off on the port tack towards Saweni Beach, close to the coast, putting in a board offshore later.
Most of the boats were sailing under mainsail and working jib, but a few set their A7 cranked in tight, to try and build a little hull-speed. The price you pay is not being able to sail quite as close to the wind. It was interesting to see Renaud Stitelmann, aboard CAPUCINETTE, current leader of the MGR, under mainsail and jib, sitting well forward, near the mast, steering with a very long tiller extension. As he and others told me before the start, they had discovered that these boats go faster in light conditions when the boat is trimmed down by the bow, lifting the transom clear of the water.
They all tacked out to the west off Saweni Beach, before resuming their slog north. Most boats were out of the lagoon and into open water not long after nightfall. When nearing the southern end of the Yasawa Islands (I wonder how many of them longed to stop and cruise this fabled archipelago?) they peeled off WNW, and within hours sailed out of Fijian waters onto the high seas once again.
The seas may not have been particularly high (less than 2m), but they were boisterous, with 20-30 knot gusts during the first night, making it difficult to get the boats to self-steer, which took a toll on shore-softened constitutions. Adam Waugh reported that he had spent an uncomfortable and sleepless night hand-steering LITTLE WREN. He ruefully commented that it hardly reflected one’s dreams of cruising the South Pacific. Jakub reported from BIBI that the ear infection he’d been suffering from since going diving a few days before the start was troubling him, and he felt generally unwell.
Christian reported that he was unhappy with the way ARGO was handling and was trying to reorganise his stowage plan. His ongoing health issues would not have made things easier. Jasmine Harrison discovered that, despite conducting sea-trials, the bolts on NUMBATOU’s relocated Hydrovane had been overtightened, and the vane could not turn the rudder. After a day of struggle, hanging upside down over the stern, she managed to loosen them up a bit.
Dan Turner on IMMORTAL GAME, and Renaud Stitelmann on CAPUCINETTE, were drag-racing westwards, wrestling for the crown, with often with less than a mile between their vessels, while Keri Harris on ORIGAMI was doing his own thing as usual, further north than everyone else, hanging onto 3rd place. The rest of the fleet were bunched up still, with just a few miles between many of the boats. COCONUT, the Big Mama boat, was loping along SW of the fleet.
It is a long way to Cape Town. The MGR has been a transformative event for these skippers, and that will never be more obvious than when they arrive in the “Tavern of the Seas’, as Cape Town Harbour was known in the age of working sail.
Only a handful of boats the size of John Guzzwell’s TREKKA and smaller have been sailed around the world, solo or otherwise, and MGR skippers who succeed will join the legendary Guzzwell and his cohorts in this exalted status when they cross the finish line off Antigua in March 2026. In the meantime, they will face daily challenges that will test their mettle to the full. Weekly updates on this leg will start on Tuesday, 5 August, and continue without a break until the last ALMA Class Globe 580 reaches Cape Town. It is going to be a wild ride – hang onto your hats!
The attached image shows the University of Fiji’s drua, I VOLA SIGAVOU, at the eastern end of the MGR Leg 3 start line, with the leading pack of 580s crossing the line – from left to right, ORIGAMI (just her stern with Aries windvane is visible), CAPUCINETTE, and PETER PUNK. Image by Aïda Valceanu.
