After a great stopover in the Maldives, the ‘Majan’ A100 trimaran and the 75-ft ‘Musandam’ set off yesterday morning, heading for Cape Agulhas and Cape Town. There is now just under 4,000 nautical miles to go before reaching the second landmark of the Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race. “Earlier today I met Mohsin coming back from the buffet, with a second healthy plate brimming over with curries, flatbreads, and chicken legs. I joked with him that tonight’s menu would be freeze-dried dehydrated vegetable broth. He turned and put another chicken leg on the plate” said Mark Covell yesterday just before the start of Leg 2. With lunch finished, the two crews waddled their way to the end of the jetty knowing they would very soon burn the large meal off. “This second leg of approximately 4,200nm (7,800km) will complete our first Cape-to-Cape connection” added Mark Covell.

“Our start time was just after 15:00 local time (10:00 GMT) at the mouth of the Malé Lagoon. Our timed run was well executed and we crossed the line with good speed on a compass course of 165 degrees. The 14 knots of wind blowing from 040º meant that we had great speed down the track, quickly losing sight of the low lying atolls to starboard.

Now back on Majan all that ‘mucking about’ in boats is over. This is business and it looks like this leg will throw up some real challenges for the Omani recruits. The weather charts are indicating that we may have a sizable tropical storm ahead of us that will test both the crew and Majan. Naturally, our navigator is monitoring it closely!

The sun has now set and Mohsin has just boiled the water to re-hydrate his dinner. This time I don’t think he will be back for second helpings!”

Mark Covell