Cape of Good Hope, crossed around 5:28 p.m. UTC on December 12.
I had to wait half-hour more to open my bottle of champagne because I had some issue on the boat. Unexpectedly the port rudder’s blade has risen since its end broke. There was no shock. The fuse should have break because of "tiredness". I was able to slow down the boat, and tipping over the boat on the other side to allow the starboard rudder to steer the boat while I was putting up a new fuse.
I could resume my course and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the first Cap crossing of this fantastic race!
At the Cape longitude I saw many birds, far away from me. I felt it was young albatrosses, they were dark and without any white spots. Still at the height of the Cap of Good Hope I found a big flying fish on the deck. It finished in the pan with a little water from the ocean, parsley, little garlic, lemon and olive oil.
Sprawling in a gennaker last night I found a Portuguese caravel (a species of jellyfish)! This is a very small "copy" no more than one centimeter long. I put it in a sealed plastic jar with some alcohol to preserve it.
Next goal: crossing the Crozet gate. At the Cap crossing temperatures were very pleasant. I was at the helm in swimsuit with beautiful sunshine on the sails. But going further south for a few hours the temperature decreased by 7 ° C. But the boat began to do some beautiful surfs at 20 knots and the waves began to explode onto the deck. It's really nice to see the boat moving like that.
In general I can say that after a little more than a month of navigation, the situation on board is very good. I get lots of messages of encouragement and it makes me very happy, it warms my heart… I really thank you very much…
Alessandro Di Benedetto / Team Plastique
