I thought I had completed my last blog for this trip.

We woke to rain, rain, rain. That put paid to travel today. There is nothing worse that travel in the rain.
I don’t do rain at all.

Son Jamie is here in South Africa filming and we haven’t seen him for months now. He's just a few hours away and I thought we could finally make the connection today. But he was working and we had to finish some last minute things…
It didn’t happen and I was feeling as if we had let him down.

We completed our shopping, the last minute gift buying..

A hat for my collection, beads, bracelets and two more grandies gifts.

Walking on the dock at the V&A waterfront we decided to go and photograph the 6 yachts that were competing in the round the world race.

The air was electric.

Crowds gathered along the shore to catch a glimpse of the boats and their crew. All in all, it was rather spectacular.

The yachts are huge, the colors fantastic and I appreciate the beauty of the sails…..

Boats of all types laden down with people craning to catch a glimpse of their heroes.

Media of all persuasions cameras large and small.

We were unexpectedly offered a trip to see the start of the race.

“Nooooo” said Keith

“Yes please” I said, Keith shrugged and so it was set.

We had to race back to the apartment get my big lens and we were ready to go. The rain disappeared, the sun shone high in the sky. The colors, the music and noise was exciting. At two pm, the boats left the dock in a fanfare.

And we followed. I was so excited.

100’s of crafts followed us. It was a flotilla.

The waves were high and the yacht bobbed and dumped about 6 feet at a time. Spray washed over the hull and I hung on tightly by wrapping a rope around my arm. Finally I climbed up near the sail and used that to support me as I took photos.

The yachts circled each other vying for position and at at 3.00 pm the gun went off and with sails touching the sky they surged forward.
Like the other 100‘s of craft we were jockeying for the best position.

The yachts disappeared into the distance and an eery silence descended on us all.

It was short lived.

They actually had to do a circuit and come back past the buoy we were near…..!!

Suddenly they were upon us. Helicopters hovered dangerously low, I thought of Jamie… his is what he does..!!!! My Son, My son.

A fly over dashed passed and I managed to get a few shots off. But then it happened.

We were off too.

Keeping up with the Yachts and you can see how close we were.

Water sprayed over the hull, we sank 8 feet and then rose with alarming speed. But I hung on and managed the shots.

We followed them for about half an hour until they out ran us and then we turned and made our way back to shore.

How amazing… you never know where you are going to end up.

We finished off the day by attending a couple of concerts in the plaza and having our first hamburger for the trip.

Home tomorrow.