Intrepid sailors home from southern seas
TWO Cape Town sailors have returned home after a successful four-month voyage around the southern hemisphere.
Gert van der Linde, 60, and Rudi Fisch, 72, arrived at the Royal Cape Yacht Club yesterday after embarking on their journey in November.
They sailed eastwards and south of the capes of all the continents except Antarctica and back to Cape Town, making stops at Kerguelen Islands, Dunedin (New Zealand), Puerto Williams (Chile) and Port Stanley (Falkland Islands).
They did so aboard Van der Linde’s boat, Faraway.
Van der Linde said he built the yacht six years ago, with the aim of taking it to places of high latitude, like Antarctica.
Faraway was designed by naval architect Angelo Lavranos and built in Cape Town by Veecraft Marine and Jacobs Brothers Boat Builders.
Van der Linde and Fisch are members of the National Sea Rescue Institute at Station 3, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.
“We wanted to complete a voyage that would not keep us away from home too long, but was still meaningful,” Van der Linde said.
He is an amateur sailor who has enjoyed the hobby for the past 25 years.
Obviously excited to see his family yesterday, Van der Linde remarked: “It was a difficult journey to make. We had lots of hard weather, like hail and winds of more than 50km/h.”