Novices make their mark in round-the-world yacht race

WHEN 20- year- old Rveida “Ruru” Mthethwa from KwaZulu-Natal felt her spirits wavering in stormy weather between Rio and Cape Town, she thought of how proud her one-year-old daughter Aphelele would be of her, and picked herself up.

“Sometimes I wanted to give up when the sea got really rough, but she inspired me,” Mthethwa said at the V& A Waterfront yesterday. “I thought ‘Let me do this for my baby girl’.”

Mthethwa, of Durban, is one of eight young previously disadvantaged South Africans chosen to compete in the gruelling Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. She sailed on the second leg of the race between Brazil and Cape Town aboard IchorCoal.

The leg was won by the yacht GREAT Britain, which crossed the finish line outside the Waterfront at 10.30pm on Wednesday. IchorCoal came in seventh, on Thursday afternoon.

Eight of the 12 yachts have now berthed; four more still vie for places.

In the 40 000 nautical mile race, 12 teams of mostly amateur sailors under the command of professional skippers race identical 70-foot yachts to compete across the toughest oceans between six continents.

Before a stint of intense training in the UK, Mthethwa had never sailed before.

Yesterday Mthethwa and her 22 fellow sailors were hard at work scrubbing the decks and giving their yacht what sailors call a “deep cleanse”.

Taking a break, she said: “Even if you are in port you still have to work on the boat.”

Mthethwa described the experience as life-changing, in spite of suffering from seasickness for the first few days at sea after she set off from Rio on October 7.

“I wasn’t feeling that great. But then as time went by I felt better after taking seasick tablets.”

Like other sailors, she did her bit in the rotational tasks that keep the yacht going, like cooking and disinfecting everything in sight. Sailors fear getting sick, as germs can spread quickly in the cramped conditions.

Mthethwa, who hoped to study education or start her own business, said a personal highlight was taking the helm in bad weather. “It was very hard to control,” she said. “But I did it.”

Another South African among the crew of IchorCoal is Colleen Carstens, 41, of Origin Wine. The winemaker’s Stormhoek brand is the official wine partner for the race.

Carstens said she felt immense pride when she saw Table Mountain after two weeks at sea.

She said the crew would spend a few days repairing the sails, fixing ropes, disinfecting floorboards, scrubbing the yacht and airing their “foul weather” gear.

● A race village at the V&A Waterfront opens today at 10am and will be open daily until next Saturday, when the fleet departs.