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1980, I was hired to deliver a 58' S&S (Frers) sloop from Rio to Capetown. Last 800 miles sucked.... Southern route approach to South Africa (as it was during Aparthied.) Two lows combined around our position... Four days of steady 30k winds, 20 to 30 footers with the rogues thrown in every couple of hours just to keep you interested.Storm trysail and triple reef just to keep steerage in the troughs Won't guess the height of some of those monsters. but they were steeper than the others so the ones we saw (in daylight) were just huge, breaking before we could reach their crests. Reflecting on this almost thirty years later... we were very lucky to have been able to steer through that system and survive. After arrival in Capetown, we were fed, we showered, and caught the first flight out. Spent just eight hours on SA soil. I have always regretted not seeing the fabled beaches of South Africa, but was different times. I didn't fish back then either, another regret. All my pics from back then just kept getting wet on subsequent deliveries.
(doesn't exactly answer Mike's query but...there it is)
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