Doing It Again.

Given the opportunity to do the race again, would I do it? No way. Not only
were there plenty of compliance rules that I thought added nothing to the
safety of the boat, but there were far too many hidden costs which we would
not have had to pay if we'd simply sailed across the pond. And I am fierce
critic of sailing to a schedule - I think it is positively dangerous being
forced to leave at a fixed time and date, no matter what the circumstances
are eg foul weather or lack of availability of parts because all the
suppliers are closed for the silly season and so on.

Would I like to cross the South Atlantic Ocean again? For the sake of
crossing an ocean, it's an easy sail. The trade winds are gentle and there
are no tricky continental shelves or nasty currents. Unless you arrive there
courtesy of a cattle-class seat in a Boeing 747, the biggest problem is
getting to Cape Town before setting off. The South African coast is nasty in
the worst possible way and that is a stretch of ocean that I would not like
to do again.