Cape Town Surfski along with Fenn, Vodacom and host of sponsors made it possible to set up an awesome race this year.
A week before the Cape Point Challenge Cape Town Surfski hosted a world class downwind event. For the first time in a long time we had the most classic conditions for a downwind race, it was perfect. I arrive in Fish Hoek on the Friday before the race – which was due to be held on the Monday. As I arrived I got changed and hopped onto a downwind, the famous Miller’s Run. Which was also the race course for Monday’s race. The course would take us from Miller’s Point upwind to Partridge Point and the downwind to Fish Hoek, the upwind section was about 3km…..then it was one of the best downwinds I have paddled in a long time 🙂
Check out Cape Town Surfski for the results.
During the next week I did a few Miller’s runs to get to grips with what would be the final 12km of the Cape Point Challenge. Also during this week I took time to catch up with friends, what I love about racing around the world is seeing everyone at different locations throughout the year.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to do over 50km and I didn’t think I had done enough distance, quite worried I would hit the wall before I got to the end. Anyway there was huge swell predicted so hitting the wall was the last of my worries….also the wind was forecast to be a pumping South Easterly. Pete Cole had the difficult call of whether to let us go around the Point or to keep us in False Bay. He made a decision on Friday and we gathered Friday evening for the briefing and the decision was to stay in the bay and the course would start at Simon’s Town go out to Cape Point and then back to Fish Hoek. This was a tough but great decision by Pete, a very good call as the swell on the Atlantic side was huge!!
5:45 am was my start time and so we headed down to Simon’s Town early, waking up and trying to eat breakfast at 4am is not easy!! When we got to Simon’s Town – Long Beach – it was quite sheltered but you could see at the harbour wall that it was going to be a tough race. The wind was blowing about 20kts (gusting about 25kts), 25km headwind was going to be hard and the only way I could do it was to break the whole race into sections. The pace at the start was “friendly” and we all just got into the race. I felt quite good so I decided that as my downwind is not as good as my competition I would go for a strong paddle into wind. So I put my head down and paddled. We hugged the coast quite tightly and following these guys through the kelp and close to the rocks was an experience!! I was pleased to reach the buoy at Buffels as I knew we then only had about 3-4km to the point….but that was 3-4km of brutal headwind!!
Once we got to Cape Point there was a marker buoy to round and it should be downwind home….after banging into a headwind for 25km there wasn’t much of a downwind to start. The sea was very messy and it took a lot of energy to find and get on the runs. I caught sight of Nikki Mocke as we went to go downwind and basically aimed for a similar line. The runs really picked up at about Partridge Point (+/-15km to go) and from there I just concentrated on getting as many runs as possible and hoping to put my paddle down to rest as often as I could. I was so amazed that with so many paddlers on the water once you all take your own line you hardly see anyone else until you come into Fish Hoek. So I had no idea of where I was in the field, maybe a good thing as after 40km going at your own pace is good. I finished in 4th and it was a result I wasn’t expecting, very happy with my race 🙂
Thanks to Nikki Mocke and her crew for a great couple of races!!
Photo courtesy of DrumBeat Photography
Top 10 Ladies
- Nikki Mocke 4.24:43
- Bianca Beavitt 4.29:55
- Michele Eray 4.29:56
- Chloe Bunnett 4:45:12
- Nikki Russel 4.52:50
- Kim van Gysen 4.54:56
- Eloise Horne 5.00:20
- Kerry Louw 5.09:36
- Angie Mouden 5.20:30
- Ale Adie 7.15:23
Check out the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ42tN3VNyY
Thanks to Knysna Racing for your support.
Happy New Year to everyone, see you in 2014 🙂
Chloe Bunnett 