Storm by Peter Moni

This takes me back to 1980 when I joined a family friend, Lee McGregor. He was a Springbok swimmer in the backstroke at school and his career began when he was still 15. In the days because of sports isolation, he did not go to the Olympics or any major sporting competitions. But when allowed he excelled and did well. Lee left school at the end of standard eight, coming from a tradesman family. His father, Bill owned a very successful excavation business. He levelled the playing fields at school gratis and for nothing. This was my alma mater St. David's College, Inanda in Sandton. From this point onwards Lee became a professional swimmer. Taking part in events in the US at the university level, and he achieved great success.

I was to run into Lee about 15 years later, when he had returned to Cape Town with this yacht, Stormkaap. This was an ocean-going keelboat, with a wooden hull a classic racer. This yacht did leisure cruising in the Caribbean. The cruising season in the Caribbean is a full summer fun program. Families charter the boat. The guests decided the route and itinerary. Lee and his wife and crew did the rest. Normally, you collect the guests in Miami and the cruise begins.

During the winter, he would sail up and down the East Coast of the US sightseeing with his wife and family. In 1979, during winter, he returned to Cape Town with Stormkaap, to refurbish the butt. Up to that period, there was a fair bit of work that they need to do to bring the yacht up to standard. Lee McGregor's father Bill was getting on in years, and he wanted Lee to come into the business. Still financed by his dad he was now at the crossroads. Sell the yacht and return to Durban to take over the reins of the business.

It was at this point that I met up with Lee again, one of the dreams he had was to take part in the Cape to Rio race of 1980. A precursor of this race was the Cape Agulhas race. A successful Cape Agulhas race would mean automatic entry to the Cape to Rio. We prepared for the race and took part. As always in those days of keelboat racing, the favourite yacht was Voortrekker. Sailed by the Bertie Reed. This yacht also had a long history of success in ocean-going racing. A yacht prepared by the SA Navy and always very competitive.

The race started at midday in Cape Town and we set sail to round the Cape of Good Hope heading for a turnaround beacon in Mossel Bay. The Cape of Good Hope, otherwise known as the Cape of Storms was very calm that he and he decided on a course where we would sell close to landfall and was his experience. He guided us through some very tricky waters, avoiding the rocks as he rounded the Cape. This did give us a decided advantage, Voortrekker had decided to take the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope and we gained a big advantage.

In preparing for this event and knowing where we were sailing. We had to prepare for the worst weather conditions. So we packed all our heavy weather gear and prepared for the worst. The sailing went well and at nightfall around 20h00 hrs we could see the black clouds gathering out to sea and the wind started to pick up. Within half an hour we were now faced with a raging storm and thank goodness for the heavy weather gear. As the night went on, it raged with all hands on deck. We worked with the hatches battened down to avoid any water flooding into the boat. This carried on until about 04h00 hrs the next morning. If you're a good sailor in a storm, you have a great advantage. Lee understood this heavy weather and handled it well. We were well on course, but as quick as this storm came up, it disappeared. Come the sunrise and the wind went with it. Leaving us completely becalmed off Cape Agulhas, the crew one by one disappeared.

We had to forgo our dinner in this stormy weather. The crew exhausted, wet and hungry went to eat before retiring to bed. They all one by one disappeared. Leaving me to watch the sunrise and I was quite shattered with this responsibility. Now having to navigate this yacht further with no wind, and no one to help. The sunrise dried the boat and it started to warm up and I was now able to remove my heavy weather gear. When the crew came back on board, they had no idea what happened whilst they were sleeping. They looked at me in astonishment when I said I was hungry and I needed to rest.

The weather for the rest of the race was great. The wind returned. The rains disappeared and we rounded our buoy in Mossel Bay, at 20h00 hrs. - Third in line and we were about two hours ahead of Voortrekker. This meant another 20 hours of sailing and we needed to keep this advantage. We made sure that we keep ahead of Bertie Reed. He was also keen to catch us. And so for the rest of the race, we concentrated and whilst Voortrekker reduced the margin. We still happened to finish the race in Simonstown, about an hour ahead of Voortrekker.

© Peter Moni