Cape Town - Strong winds blew out trans-atlantic rower Zirk Botha’s plans to embark on his 7 000km journey from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro, and he had to return to dry land after just one day out at sea.
Botha began his solo ’Row to Rio’ journey on Saturday with the aim of completing the challenge in approximately 100 days.
Botha said: “I have returned to Cape Town, temporarily in the face of extremely adverse wind conditions. My decision to depart on Saturday was based on a small weather window, which required me to be able to get away from Cape Town and far enough offshore to avoid the northerly wind predicted to come through on Saturday night. However, the wind conditions deteriorated early.”
He said during the night, the northerly wind pushed him all the way back to the south of Robben Island.
“Due to the prediction of south-westerly winds for this week and an ongoing northerly wind, I soon realised that it would keep pushing me onto shore,” he said.
The National Sea Rescue Institute Table Bay duty crew launched the sea rescue craft to assist him.
NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said: “It appears that he had initiated his voyage on Saturday, hoping to make best of a brief weather window to allow him the opportunity to get to the deep sea, but the weather prevented this effort. North of Robben Island on Sunday, he aborted the voyage choosing to turn around and head back to Cape Town instead.”
NSRI were tracking his progress at the time and noticed that he turned around, this is when NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) investigated.
Member of FleetMon a vessel tracking App, Schalk van Bosch who will also perform weekly reports of Botha’s movements said: “The Cape always has some kind of wind blowing and the direction and speed can change in seconds.
“In Botha’s case, the wind caught him from the front which means he is going to exhaust himself fighting against the wind. This will then push him towards the shore which could put him in great danger.”
He said that it could have been a disaster if the wind pushed him to shore because he would land up on the rocks with a possibility of losing or damaging his vessel.
“I personally feel that Botha made the right decision to return to Cape Town. When in the open waters the wind is with you or against you and can change with a blink of an eye,” he said.
Cape Argus