We finally made it to Cape Town after a stormy start and a stormy finish, but in between enjoyed fair winds and generally good weather and cold nights at sea. Our tactics didn't work out so well this time as on the race to Rio because the anticipated wind hole between the boats to the south of us and CT never materialised in time and everyone sailed on to the finish. Unfortunately our own arrival was delayed by very light and fluky winds off the coast of Africa which meant we spent 24 hours looking at Table Mountain as we covered the last 40 miles to the finish line crossing at around 11pm local time. Bizarrely some of our crew were talking to family and friends in port on their mobiles and we could even shout to the Jamaica supporters on land but of course couldn't see anything. Despite our low finish on the leaderboard we all felt we sailed well and fast but sometimes it, in this case the weather, just doesn't work out. Every boat made it into port safely which is the most important thing and you can tell by the way that all the crews turn out to applaud the later boats in a shared respect and experience.
We got a fantastic reception in Cape Town at the Victoria and Albert Marina from the prize giving to the crew reception - a great way to finish my Clipper adventure.
Now that my time aboard Jamaica is over I said my goodbyes to the crew and they are now on their way to Albany, Western Australia. All I can do now is watch the race viewer and worry because this is going to be a tough leg with big seas and strong westerly winds.
Go Jamaica Get All Right.
