Cape Town to Saint Helena Island
Posted by Graham Cox
After a slow start, the 2025 MGR fleet were soon barrelling their way NW towards Saint Helena, 1700 miles away through the fabled South Atlantic trade winds. Once clear of the Cape of Good Hope, this passage, all the way across to NE Brazil in the SE trade winds, is perhaps the most benign of all. In recent years, with the world’s climate becoming more volatile, occasional storms, especially close to the coast of South America, have been known to occur, but they are extremely rare. It is certainly an easier body of water to cross than the volatile Indian Ocean!
The first night out of Cape Town was a rough one for most of the MGR fleet – apart from Keri on ORIGAMI, who was still working his way out into open water, having been becalmed in the lee of Robben Island and subsequently caught up in a windless low-pressure cell. Keri prefers not to use his electric outboard motor. The others started their motors 5 minutes after the start, as allowed under MGR race rules, and puttered west to find the breeze. They can’t motor too far, due to other rules limiting battery and solar-charging capacity, but it was enough to send them on their way.
Keri eventually found the breeze, and by 06 January had worked his way back into 10th position. He has been consistently sailing faster than most of the other MGR yachts, though it remains to be seen how this setback will affect his overall ranking.
Since the slow start, the passage has provided some intense racing, with the five leading boats very close to each other on 05 January. Renaud was 25 nm ahead of Dan, with Jakub a further 20 miles astern. Adam and Jakub were basically side by side, with LITTLE WREN only 2 nm astern of BIBI. Pilar was neck and neck with Adam, although her PETER PUNK was 27 miles further east than Adam’s LITTLE WREN.
A cheerful Renaud posted a video online of his NYE preparations, with good food and wine carefully laid out. He said, “Three days away from Cape Town. Coming back from the heat. Nice breeze between 10-20 knots with a following current.” In the background, CAPUCINETTE’s wake streamed out, as the boat flew north across a moderate tradewind sea.
An hour before midnight on 04 January, local time, he elaborated, “So the first week on the ocean is good. I prefer to be on the ocean, of course. We had the start with not much wind. Then we had a good blow the first night, pushing us quite fast, with the Benguela current helping. Since then, the wind blows normally between 12 and 20 knots.
“Tonight, the wind is about 20-25 knots from astern. It’s a bit difficult to go fast now because the waves are coming from just about everywhere. I think the mixed-up sea-state is caused by ocean currents – they are changing a lot in force and direction during the day. You have two options in these conditions, either you hand-steer, or you put the electric tiller-pilot or Hydrovane on. But when the boat is self-steering, CAPUCINETTE does not go so fast.
“For the moment, I need to have some rest, so CAPUCINETTE is self-steering. But if the others (MGR skippers) come back too close, then I will have to steer, of course. It’s fantastic to race like this.”
Asked about sail combinations, he said, “When the boat is self-steering, like now, with the wind I currently have, I have the mainsail set with three reefs and the jib in butterfly (poled out). If I hand-steer, I can easily put the A7 and the jib in butterfly. And if the wind goes down, maybe use the A5 instead of the jib.”
He has only experienced one squall so far. “Yesterday morning, I was inside the boat and it was not blowing more than 12 knots. A bit of rain, just small showers. And the wind just blew, I don’t know, maybe up to 35. CAPUCINETTE was on the side. I managed to furl the A5, still with the boat on the side, and then I took my mainsail down to the second reef. 10 minutes later, the wind stopped!
“But most of the time the wind is moderate. For example, now we have about 18-20 knots regular wind, with gusts to 25. It’s not a big difference between, so it’s easy sailing. It’s just the waves that are a bit complex to manage.”
“CAPUCINETTE is in perfect condition. The ropes and the sails have 21,000 miles in the legs, but the boat herself, no problem at all. I took care of my sails at each stop. I make the repairs by sailmaker, so I think they can go to Antigua if we don’t have too much strong trade winds.
“The boat is dry down below. It’s sunny during the daytime and not too windy, so I can open the companionway and sometimes the small hatch on the roof. It’s not like in the Indian Ocean, where you sail with the boat closed all the time. It’s very pleasant sailing.”
He said he thought he would reach Saint Helena Island in another five days, as the winds were predicted to ease a little. “I think I will be there on Saturday, as usual.” He has a tradition of arriving after dark!
He has good anchors and plenty of rope for anchoring in St Helena’s deep roadstead, though was concerned about reports of seabed conditions. “I have a 10 kilo Rockna anchor, plus my second anchor is 6 kilos, and I have maybe 200 m of line. But they told us there are concrete blocks on the ground – ropes do not like to be on concrete blocks (due to chafe). But some fantastic man from the club there is organizing some anchors for us, so I’m not worried about this anchorage.”
The Saint Helena anchorage has a notorious reputation for fouled anchors, but Renaud has arranged a trip line for his anchor, with a fender on top, so he has a reasonable chance of retrieving it if it gets stuck on the bottom.
Dan reported that it took a bit of time to adjust to being back on the ocean after having such a wonderful time on land in South Africa with his partner, Nikki. They conducted a lightning tour of most of Southern Africa before returning to Cape Town and making final preparations aboard IMMORTAL GAME.
Around midnight on 04 January, he said, “It’s a little bit breezier tonight than it has been for the last few days. It’s about 20 knots. I have the poled-out jib up and one reef in the mainsail. It’s probably touch and go for a kite, but the sea-state is a bit messy, it throws the boat around. I haven’t been pushing too hard since I left – although I haven’t had to, really. The weather’s been quite reasonable.”
He hasn’t been hand-steering much since Cape Town apart from that first, rough, night, even though he could make the boat go a little faster if he did. “I haven’t done a lot of hand-steering at all since then. I do a few hours around sunset, and then only because I enjoy doing it. Depending on the weather, I’ve had either the Hydrovane or the tiller-pilot doing the rest. I’m still trying to get back into the swing of things, just trying to enjoy my time out here more than pushing myself too much and pushing the boat.
“I’ve had the kites up quite a lot during the day, depending on the sea state. The nights have been a little bit heavier, so I’ve just had the jib up most nights so far. It’s looking like the weather will die off again a little bit around 8 o’clock in the morning, so I’ll go back to using either the A3, A5 or A7, depending on how light it gets.”
He is also husbanding his sails. “I’ve been really lucky – I’ve had no issues with any of my sails – I’ve just had a few tiny little holes. They’ve had a lot of sunlight, so there’s a lot of UV wear, but fingers crossed, I’ve had no major tears or anything yet.”
He has consolidated his 2nd place in the overall ranking, barring misfortune, and he knows that the chance of overall victory, no matter how hard he pushes IMMORTAL GAME, are next to impossible, barring something happening to CAPUCINETTE, which is unlikely, given the superb way Renaud has handled his campaign. All Dan has to do now is cover whoever is in 3rd place. It would be foolish, with the gear beginning to show how many the miles have been covered since leaving Portugal in December 2024, to tempt fate.
The MGR is a marathon event and it has been interesting to see the evolution of the skippers as the months roll by. Dan was a highly-competitive and successful endurance athlete before he signed up for the MGR, but the enormity of this race has affected his outlook. “I’ve changed a lot, I think. Some of the guys, like Jakub, have found their racing side. And those guys (Jakub, Adam, Pilar and Christian) have got a race between them. They’re pretty close in their positioning.
“I think I’ve found, particularly since Cape Town, that I’ve lost my competitive nature. I’m just sort of realising a few things that I’ll probably reflect on, look at my feelings, and talk about down the track.
“But I’m really happy and at peace with myself at the moment. I’m just going to enjoy the rest of this race as much as possible and look forward to seeing my family at the end. So rather than push myself on the tiller and be tired all the time, I want to take the opportunity to think about where I’ve come from, and where I’m going after this race.”
He is also taking the time to sift through memories and logbooks, making notes, for the book he plans to write about IMMORTAL GAME’s race. “I’m going to write a bit about the build process, and also some of the things about the lead-up to the race, including a chapter about riding across Mongolia with my son. I’ve written a few chapters already, and I’ve got my son helping me.”
IMMORTAL GAME is in excellent condition. “I had a lot of issues in the Atlantic, with the forestay and those sorts of things, but I have had not one single thing go wrong since. The boat has just been so solid, apart from a bit of fraying on the ropes and things like that.
“I got my spreaders reinforced back in Panama, and I’ve had no issues with them since. I’ve got a spare set as well in case something happened. They squeak a bit, which is a bit annoying, but other than that, they’re really good. I guess I’ve got used to the noise now.
“The most annoying noise for me is when there’s a can or a loose item in a locker somewhere, and it’s rolling backwards and forwards, and you can’t find the damn thing. It might be just a small thing, a nut or a bolt or something that’s dropped somewhere, and you can’t find it, and it’s in the middle of the night – you want to sleep and it’s just the most annoying thing.”
Now that Dan has sailed half the world since the rule came into force in the Marquesas that Hydrovanes could not be linked to the main rudder, I asked for his retrospective opinion on the issue. My memory, after watching the leading boats sail west from the Marquesas Islands, is that it did not have any impact on boat speed.
Dan responded, “I’ve played with different setups now, and I’ve sort of figured out what works in different weather systems. I found that if you had the Hydrovane linked to the rudder in fresh winds, it oversteered too much. I only linked the two together in light weather, when I set up the tiller-pilot.
“It’s better to lock off the tiller, so that the rudder acts more as a blade that stops the boat from spinning out of control, and let the Hydrovane steer the boat. The only thing I miss is that I liked to link it up when going into a marina, or manoeuvring at the start line, because it can get a bit annoying trying to hold both tillers at the same time.”
Jakub reported that he started this leg with his head in the clouds – a mix of emotions, from happiness, loneliness, homesickness, enjoyment and excitement vying for space in his brain. He said that Cape Town, with its buzz had made it hard to relax during his time in port.
On New Year’s Eve, when he was lying in 5th position, he said, “It usually takes a few days for my sea legs to return. The first night was a bit rough, with irregular seas. It was very hard to keep the course steady. Now I am about 350 nm NW from Cape Town and sailing fast. The weather is fantastic, and the Atlantic Ocean gets bluer with every mile.”
By 05 January, BIBI had moved up into 3rd position, ahead of Adam at last! “I’m just doing what I do all the time, keeping my boat happy, and sailing at my own pace. The last two days have been dreadful -it’s like being in a washing machine. Lots of currents making waves in different directions. It’s extremely hard to keep the boat on course. I did some hand steering, but that is very difficult too.”
And yet BIBI has been sailing consistently fast, holding a straight course, as seen on the YB Tracker. Jakub thought this was due to his dagger boards. “My dagger boards are very strong. Their housings are also massive, and they hold the boards well. Sometimes when I’m looking at how the stern behaves when the waves come from the quarter, I see that the boat tends to slide sideways, like drifting the car. But when I put my dagger boards down fully, they seem to hold the boat on course much better.
“At this moment, my course is 310° T true and the wind is south by east. I’m on a very broad reach and the sails are goose-winged. I have the jib on the port side, angled a little bit forward, with the A7 to starboard. The storm jib is set on the baby-stay, sheeted flat fore and aft, which helps to keep the bows going downwind.”
Under this sail configuration, the WindPilot servo-pendulum self-steering unit has no difficulty steering the boat. Jakub says it does a much better job that when he hand-steers! “It took me a while to trim the sails to help it. For the last few hours, I managed to sleep a lot.
“For the first few days, the mornings were beautiful. Sailing during the day was amazing, like a dream, like being in heaven. In the afternoon, the wind tended to get a bit stronger, and then much stronger in the evening and night. That was before we reached the tropics. Since 2115 UTC yesterday, BIBI is in the tropics, officially! I passed the Tropic of Capricorn. But the nights are still a little bit chilly. If I’m outside, I need to wear my beanie.
“Yesterday the wind was fluky. Because BIBI did not have much speed, the steering was dreadful. The waves weren’t big – they were rarely exceeding 1.5m – but there was a lot of current from different directions at different times. At this moment, it’s blowing around 25 knots, so I’m making good speed again, and when the speed is good, the steering is much better through these messy waves.”
BIBI’s sails are still in reasonable condition, despite the miles under the keel, largely because he always puts the headsails below when not in use, and also because the mainsail is always covered when on the boom.
“My A5 and A7 are a bit tired. I can see that the upper part is stretched. Sometimes when I furl them, I need to do this twice, because it creates some airbags. But another thing is, you know, a stitch in time saves nine, to quote John Guzzwell. If any of my sails need stitching or patching, I do this straight away. My sails have lots of patches, but no major damage.
“My A3 is like brand new. The last time I used it was in the calms by the Galapagos. It’s been down below all that time. I don’t use this sail because I don’t like it much. It puts a lot of stress on the rigging.
“Though I have sort of started to like racing, and I’m doing everything to make my boat go faster. However, I have family and friends, I have people who love me, and who I love, and I want to get back in one piece to where I started. I’m not doing any stressful or risky business while sailing.
“In Durban, one older guy came on my boat and we were chatting. I was doing some jobs to make BIBI lighter – I was trying to cut some screws, I think, shorter.” (He’ll be cutting the handle off his toothbrush next.)
“But he said that in the ocean racing, tactics are the most important thing, and also keeping the course steady. An interesting fact is when I was sailing in company with Christian in Mauritius, back up to Grand Baie from Port Louis, he had a full main, A5, and jib, whereas I only had my jib up, and three reefs the main. The wind wasn’t strong, but there were very strong gusts, and Christian was broaching a lot. I had less sail up, but I trimmed them well, my course was perfectly straight, and I was able to pass him by.”
Asked about boat trim, moving weights around down below, etc, Jakub said, “My life raft is in a fixed position, in a designed space under the companionway. My step holds the life raft in position in case of a capsize. And all my stuff is packed in a way that I don’t need to move it much. Sometimes I move my body. I go inside, because then I put some weight forward, or I go to the cockpit to move weight aft.
“When I’m in the cockpit or standing in the companionway, I can observe how BIBI’s bow behaves. If the bowsprit starts to touch the water when the waves are steep, that’s a sign that I need to move weight aft.
I have some water containers that I can move from the forward cabin back to the main cabin. Plus, I have a toolbox up there, quite heavy, and I have an engine battery I can move aft as well.
“The biggest factor is the shape of the waves. The boat goes faster when the stern is high, because the transom does not drag water behind when it is not submerged. But the potential danger, if the waves are steep, is that you can bury the bow. This is something you cannot allow to happen.”
In five or six days, BIBI should be anchored at St. Helena Island. “I’m looking forward to that,” Jakub chuckled. “I’m going to sit on Jacob’s Ladder and take a picture.” (Jacob’s Ladder is a famous 699-step staircase that leads from Jamestown, Saint Helena’s main settlement, up the side of Ladder Hill to the fort above.)
A number of boats became entangled in kelp in the early days of this passage, including Jasmine. She found that a big branch of kelp was wrapped around her keel, trailing out behind the boat. “She tried a few manoeuvres, such as changing direction, in an to attempt to free it,” her mum, Susan, reported, “but in the end opted to drop the sails, climb in and pull it off from the swim ladder, avoiding going fully under the hull. She was tied on, of course, and also told another MGR sailor of her plans, as well as checking that she wasn’t going to be breakfast for some hungry shark. The water temperature was ok, but she swallowed lots of sea water. All told, not an easy task – nor without risk.”
Later Jasmine reported, “It feels like we are mid-ocean again, no shipping, no land, and sunshine! There is much less plastic in the sea, too, which is a nice change.”
On 05 January, she added, “It took me a while to settle in, and then I spent a day going slowly and couldn’t figure out why. I ended up speaking to Adam, who sent me a video of his sails, and I realised that I was just sheeting my sails in to tight. As soon as I set them the way that there were in his video, I picked up a knot, a knot and a half.
“I also had up more sail than he did, so dropped the main and a headsail. I think they were blocking some of the wind, and then I just let the sheets out. Right now, I have my A5 and a jib set wing and wing.”
Although NUMBATOU is sailing towards the Caribbean, Jasmine is delighted to have crossed her home meridian once again. They have now crossed every meridian on the planet. “I think that’s really cool. I’m excited to be back in UK Territory.
“We’re nice and dry (down below), although little bit of seawater came in the other day, and then I also spilled two litres of fresh water. I’ve still got some bread and eggs. Yesterday I read about seven-eighths of Dan’s book (From Sands to Sea). It has been so calm that I can lie on deck in the cockpit and not get rolled off.
“Other than that, there’s been a lot of figuring out the sails and trying to sort out the steering. Yesterday the steering just wouldn’t settle, so I was trying to use the autopilot as well, plus hand-steering. I think the problem was caused by a mixture of the sea-state and balancing the boat, because sometimes it helps if I move and swap sides.”
Asked if deploying NUMBATOU’s dagger board helped (she only has one, as the Hydrovane is on the other side of the transom), she said, “No, because yesterday the dagger board kept on falling out and it made no difference to the boat other than the fact I could hear it banging on the back.”
The only gear failure has been NUMBATOU’s spinnaker blocks on both sides. “A shackle that’s holding one of them came undone, and on the other side, the pin holding the block together fell out, so that’s redundant as well now.”
Jasmine is looking forward to exploring Saint Helena. It is just her sort of place, with lots of hills to climb. Maybe she can start by running up and down the 699 steep steps of Jacob’s Ladder. Perhaps she and Jakub can have a race to see who gets to the top first! (They are the MGR’s two fitness nuts.)
Jasmine and Eric (the youngest and oldest entrants, respectively), have been tussling it out for 7th place, with SUNBEAR slipping past NUMBATOU a few days after the start, before Jasmine rallied. At dawn on New Year’s Day 2026, local time, Jasmine was three miles ahead, but Eric had once more overtaken her by the evening of 04 January, local time and was 5 miles in front. The following day, NUMBATOU had once again crept up, narrowing the deficit to just 1 mile.
Eric reported that SUNBEAR covered 130 miles the first day out, though the next morning he discovered a small hole in his A7 that needed a patch. All the fleet’s sails are showing evidence of the long way they have come, and will need to be nursed to get them to the finish line in Antigua. It adds a new level to the challenge. Eric filmed himself toasting absent family and friends with rum and pringles on New Year’s Eve. He felt a bit lonely, he said, but noted that soon the race would be over and he would be back home.
Later, he reported, “Enjoying the great conditions at the moment, making good ground. Lots of Humpback whales about, and a few ships. Boat and skipper are well; had a wonderful party on New Year’s Eve!”
On the morning of 06 January, he posted an update. “The conditions have changed from pristine to variable winds and poor sea-state. Not much good for sleeping. Still moving along and all is well. It is cloudy today, and there are showers about.”
On NYE, Adam, who is sailing extremely well and holding onto 4th place, said that he had settled into his sea routine after a couple of days, and was enjoying some of the best sailing conditions he had known since setting off on the MGR. That morning, he spotted a very long fish, which appeared to be a false killer whale (melon dolphin) leaping out of the water at least 10 times.
Pilar said that she was getting her feel for it again (being at sea), and trying to find a good rhythm, but that the ocean had gifted her a squid for her NYE appetizer. She later posted a short video of herself in PETER PUNK’s cockpit, preparing to open a bottle of champagne to welcome in the New Year. PETER PUNK was then in 3rd position. Pilar has long coveted a podium finish, and was working very hard to consolidate her advantage.
Unfortunately, on the morning of 06 January, PETER PUNK had slipped back into 5th position, though Adam, in 4th place, was only 1 mile ahead, and Jakub, in 3rd position, 7 miles further north. Pilar wryly posted, “I hope you have all been good, because the Three Wise Men brought me coal.”
Christian got kelp wrapped around his keel twice the first night at sea, which cost him a lot of miles, allowing Jakub, that wily pirate, to slip past with BIBI, relegating ARGO to 6th place. He was still averaging over 6 knots, however, in near ideal conditions.
He reported that he was happy with the repairs to ARGO’s mainsail, which had the entire port side covered in a black-toned, sticky-back Dacron laminate by UK Sailmakers in Durban. This added an interesting minutiato a colour scheme that already had a touch of camouflage to it. He says the sail still has a nice shape and is setting well.
Later he reported that his A3, a sail that had never been exposed to sunlight when not in use, had suddenly developed a big hole. He was also trying to solve electrical problems with his outboard motor battery. “At least we have smooth and stable sailing conditions, with a gentle breeze and sunshine,” he concluded.
Ertan also reported getting tangled in kelp. He was happy to be underway again and said that TREKKA was in her element, but that the friendly kelp did not want them to leave Cape Town. Later, he said that TREKKA was having a relaxing journey so far.
“Life is wonderful. It’s just been one of the nicest cruises for a long time. I had 24 hours of slow winds after leaving Cape Town, but then the winds arrived and it’s been very pleasurable all the time, apart from some small issues.
“I damaged the A3, but that was my fault. I left it on the deck and the top of it fell into the water during the night. I can’t do anything about it till I’m ashore. I’ve also had kelp wrapped around my keel several times. The last time, the weed was nearly as big as the boat, and it took me nearly all day to get rid of it. I cut the tail end in the morning with a knife, but I couldn’t get rid of the section in front of the keel. Eventually I stopped the boat and went backwards and managed to get it off that way.
“This morning, I just put the A7 up which I should not have done. It’s less comfortable now. It’s too much really. I’m going to go back to jib and mainsail shortly, with three reefs in the main. We are going a lot faster, but comfort is more important than speed. Getting that extra knot, or half a knot, of boat-speed really makes the boat uncomfortable.
“It’s been mostly sunny since we left, except yesterday morning. The seas are about 2-3m, but coming from the quarter, so it is not so bad. If you reduce your speed, the boat runs steady, looks after itself, while I stay below. I spend hours on the internet, watch stuff and talk to family, do a little bit of business, etc.
“I’ve still got loads of fruit and vegetables. Because the sea-state is good, I’ve been eating well and looking after myself – having a shower every other day at least, and wearing fresh clothes. The temperature is a little warmer now, but I still have to heat up a litre or so of water to make my shower more pleasant.
“I dress up before the night comes, so I’m always warm. I never let myself get cold. By 10 o’clock in the morning, the weather is warm enough for me to start undressing again. Inside the cabin it is lovely. I have the hatch open.
“I rarely go outside during the day unless I’ve got something to do, because it’s too sunny. I tend to go out in the morning for a short while the sun is coming up, and in the evening when it is setting. For many days now I have not seen anything, any ships. At the beginning, yes, we all did, because we were in the shipping lanes. When I switch on the internet, I always look at the Marine Traffic website to see what’s around. There’s nothing around for 100 or so miles right now. I sleep the entire night every night.
“Because of the sunny weather, my batteries are well-charged. I had 92% in the battery bank at dawn this morning. By lunchtime it is up to 100%. I have two iPads running at all times, plus my AIS receiver and the VHF, and STARLINK is switched on for 12 hours a day. I turn the latter off when I’m sleeping, although it only uses about two, two and a half, three amps.
Ertan is one of the skippers who bought extra ground tackle for the deep, open roadstead at Saint Helena. “I’ve got 20m of 10mm chain, 60m of 12mm anchor rope, and a 6kg Rocna anchor. I’m looking forward to anchoring the boat and staying in a hotel for seven days.
“And now I’m going to have some breakfast (it was 0500 shipboard time), have some olives and bread and tea.” Without a doubt, Ertan is one of the most relaxed skippers in the MGR fleet.
Josh is another laid-back sailor, just mooching along, doing his own thing. “This is by far the best sailing we’ve done yet. The wind has been predominantly south, south-southwest. Today it was pretty strong, I’d say probably 20-25 knots. But other than that, it’s been everything from 10 knots all the way up. But it’s been just beautiful sailing, the best you could possibly hope for. Blue skies every day and a moderate sea state.
“Even today with it being windy, the waves weren’t very big, maybe 1.5m. For the previous two days straight, I had the A3 up all day and night. I’ve been hand-steering a bunch. Just trying to go in a straighter line. SKOOKUM doesn’t seem to go any faster if I’m hand steering but I go a little bit straighter.
“I’ve been hand-steering around four or five hours a day, in the afternoon usually – because the sailing’s been so good. It’s really fun. We had several days where we were just reaching, anything from a close to a broad reach. I had the A7 on the end of the bowsprit, with the jib set inside of it, like a cutter rig. Oh man, it was just beautiful. I really like that arrangement.”
When Josh was in the South Pacific trade winds, heading towards the Marquesas Islands, he had difficulty getting SKOOKUM to broad-reach along the rhumb line while self-steering, because the boat kept trying to round up. He sailed deeper during the night (further off the wind), because the boat self-steered better that way, didn’t round up, and then hand-steered during the day, beam-reaching back up towards the rhumb line. It was interesting to see how he is handling similar conditions in the South Atlantic.
“I’ve definitely gotten better at using the South Atlantic windvane, but I’ve also gotten better at just letting the boat sail. You know, there’s a certain way that it wants to go. As long as we’re kind of heading in the right direction, I just let it sail wherever it wants to go now. If we’re a few degrees off, that’s fine. And it works out better for me that way. Less turning and stuff.”
This is the wisdom of a veteran deep-water sailor.
He is still working the ship to best advantage, though. “Today, I was just trying to get the boat to move. The wind was strange today. I think I had a current against me, because it felt like sailing through Molasses. I tried every sail combination, A7, A5, then A3, to get the boat moving. I also have to get it to steer itself so that I can get some sleep. If I have to reduce sail, then I will. But lately, I haven’t had to. The windvane’s been doing such a good job. And the wind has been so steady and consistent that I’ve been able to carry more sail and still be able to sleep.”
He is a little tired of boat food by now, though continues to cook nutritious meals every day. “I still have the same meal plan, just because it’s easy to shop for and it’s easy to prepare. I’ve brought onions and potatoes with me, so I’ve been making breakfast burritos. I got some eggs and stuff. The stores in South Africa were really good. I’ll open an instant rice packet, and then add a can of chicken, maybe some sweet-and-sour sauce, some bell peppers and onions, and stuff like that.” That sounds almost as good as his famous Pacific dish, ‘Poor man’s fish tacos’!
He was in a reflective mood on this last passage back to Antigua. “Now that we’ve passed Cape Town, it definitely feels like the end is approaching. We’ll only get to hang out with each other again in St. Helena and Recife. After that, once we get back to Antigua, it’s all over. Everybody will go their own way.
“But it feels pretty amazing to realise we have sailed almost all the way around the world. I look at the chartplotter and zoom it out, ruminating on where I am in the world – where I have been. Rounding the Cape was the thing. Now that we’ve done that, it all feels downhill. I think about what all those passages were like – there’s a lot of ocean out there.”
Asked about how this adventure compares to his earlier mountaineering expeditions, he said, “This feels a lot easier, because I don’t have to do as much. I am pretty much just sitting around, even if I’m hand-steering. You have to change sails and endure discomfort at times. The ability to endure discomfort is probably where it’s similar, but sailing around the world is just like staying in the tent and still getting to the top of the mountain!”
Josh brought a unique perspective to this race. It is very noticeable – his approach is measured, organised and calm, and SKOOKUM is always immaculate and ready to go.
“One of the strongest things I learned from the expeditions I made was managing logistics. I really enjoyed that aspect. Like, ‘how do you make everything work?’ I’ve obviously sailed very conservatively – I think my time in the mountains made me a little more apprehensive about the consequences of breaking things. Some entrants have more experience with sailing boats hard, and they know what it can take, whereas I’m like, Ah, I’m just not going to break it.”
Josh has always said that he was pacing himself, that he was aware of the long haul. Nobody has dropped out the race because they’ve broken their masts or rudders, or whatever. That is a testament to the design of the 580, the quality of build in the fleet, and to the skippers’ skills. Nonetheless, there’s an element of chance involved when you push your boat hard. The 2025 fleet has been both skilled and lucky.
Josh’s approach to this adventure is reflected in his boat. When you look at SKOOKUM, it’s always immaculate, all the gear is in the right place, and everything is sorted. One of my favourite memories of Josh is his arrival interview in Cape Town. Relaxed and suntanned, he was asked what needed to be done to SKOOKUM for the last leg up the Atlantic. “Nothing,” he said, with a big smile.
