Team Alvimedica took time out from their round-the-world sailing race to meet Archbishop Tutu at St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town. The sailors even received a special blessing from the Nobel Peace Prize winning human rights campaigner:
“God bless you in your adventures around the world. May the wind be at your back, or from wherever you’d like the wind to come from!”
“As you can tell, I don’t know much about these things!”
Indeed, the team do now have more options based on wind direction after security experts downgraded the threat level of the next leg of the tour. Unlike the previous race, the Cape Town – Dubai leg will go ahead, as piracy activity in the Indian Ocean has decreased markedly. Exclusion zones will also be less restrictive, giving the navigators more options to take advantage of weather conditions.
In reply to the warm gesture from the Archbishop, skipper Charlie Enright presented the Most Rev. Tutu with a signed Team Alvimedica technical t-shirt.
On Saturday 15th November 2014, the team will compete in an in-port race at Cape Town, giving South African sailing fans the chance to see some of the world’s best crews compete close to the shore. The team were victorious in the first of the in-port races in Alicante, Spain, and will be looking to make it a double.
