Tiscali approaches Cape Town in Around Alone

by Brian Hancock on 10 Dec 2002 Last boat to finish Leg 2 of Around Alone is Open 60 Tiscali, skippered by Italian Simone Bianchetti.

He is currently 177 miles away and going at 10 – 11 knots average boatspeed, and expects to be in around mid-morning tomorrow 10th December in a good ‘Cape Doctor’ breeze.

The local south easterly wind is known as the Cape Doctor because it was thought to blow all the germs from the city out to sea leaving the downtown air fresh and clean.

For now though it is whipping up everything at North Wharf on the V&A Waterfront and making work on the boats difficult as the Around Alone fleet rocks in the breeze, while halyards clang against the masts.

Last night one of the docks broke free causing a minor panic as shore crews scrambled to run extra lines ashore. Fortunately there was no damage done.

It has not been an easy trip for the Italian circumnavigator. Simone was plagued by both autopilot problems and a dismasting during Leg 2 from Torbay, England to Cape Town, South Africa.

He & Tiscali nevertheless was determined to continue his race and pulled in to Northern Spain under jury rig, where he was welcomed and assisted by the Spanish Navy based at El Ferrol del Caudillo.

Fellow competitor Bernard Stamm, winner of both Legs 1 & 2, lent Simone his spare mast so he could complete this leg and be on the start line for Leg 3. Emma Richard’s sponsor, Pindar, offered to transport the mast to Northern Spain and did so in their converted fishing trawler ‘Hatherleigh’.

And yet again, in the true spirit of camaraderie, all the Around Alone skippers are back in town to welcome Simone in to Cape Town tomorrow.