2011 Freedom Swim

By Ryan

May

22

2011 was the 10th time the Freedom Swim was officially held. Starting at Robben Island and ending at Big Bay the swim distance is an impressive 7.5km of cold water swimming. This is the forth or fifth time we have taken part in the swim accompanying various swimmers across the channel. Including Natalie Du Toit on our older boat and more recently Luke – our resident swimmer.

Unfortunately the weather was not accommodating and infamous South Easter wind kept the sea swell too big to swim. The swim did not take place from the Island but rather from an altered route from Big Bay (see www.cadiz.co.za for more details). I have uploaded a video and you can see why it was unsafe to swim  in these conditions.

Freedom Swim Condition Highlights

Having said that, Zangetsu handled the sea conditions with ease although the skipper had to keep alert as visibility was not exactly 100%.  To all swimmers, hopefully next year will be better.and this was definitely the worst conditions I have seen in which a swim was potentially going to happen.

The Go team supporting our swimmer

So that was last week….

By admin

Mar

3

The weather has not slowed the pace of Zangetsu, as we managed to venture out in gale force winds. Unfortunately the fun and water (provided by the sea and wind) had by ALL, did not allow for many pictures to be taken. The waves were big and the speed was right.

In Hout Bay recently the South Easter provided some interesting challenges getting to Seal Island and the boss crane. But we managed and because sea water is the water of life, no-one really mied getting wet.
But because the pics are few i decided to post another upcoming weather forecast… to wet your appetite for the sea.

The Cape of Storms

By admin

Feb

23

What really bad weather we have coming up in the next week.

Weather forecast by www.weathersa.co.za
Looks like we in for some big seas in the coming days! Take care if you have to go to sea.


GO BIG OR GO HOME… we go forward

By admin

Jan

20

Cape Town “2008” was awesome!

We saw our fleet double from one to two boats. The slow build of “Zangetsu” was worth the wait! The awesome 8.5m Gemini really performs well and is more than capable of handling the rough seas around Cape Town (although we prefer NOT to test those capabilities). The weather was great making the boat trips fun and the tourists were really rewarded by a bumper whale season as well as a relatively mild south-easter.

Another reason to be joyous was the latest upgrade to “Zangetsu” – two brand new Honda 225 outboard motors provide massively more power. We are now able to keep up with the big boys in the industry. I guess it’s a case of go big or go home.

On the sea-side of things: on our recent trip to Hout Bay we spotted, not one but two sunfish soaking up the rays, a pod of dolphins and plenty of seals. Also a southern right whale off Sea Point (although we thought it was a bit late in the season). It might have been this one (follow the link) who ended up in the paper not too long after we spotted him. Well done to the brave divers who jumped in to help, one of them being the skipper who took the pictures of our Red Bull BIG wave experience (see below).

We look forward to 2009 and having you experience Cape Town the Conquest way.