Amer Sports Too finished leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday, ghosting in through early morning drizzle to a warm welcome at Cape Town.
The arrival of the all-woman crew was none too soon. The gas ran out as they heated the last dinner at sea and the yacht motored
to the arrival pontoon on its emergency diesel supply.
One more day at sea and they could not have heated food or run the generator.
Amer Sports Too finished at 3.20 am local time. It took Lisa McDonald and her crew - including New Zealanders Sharon Ferris, Keryn Henderson and Bridget Suckling - 37 days 11 hours 20 minutes and 12 seconds to cover the 7350 nautical miles from Southampton in England to South Africa.
The yacht arrived 6h 20m after rival djuice, with whom they had fought a match race that lasted almost 4000 miles from the Equator to Cape Town and took nearly three weeks.
Team SEB also joined the tussle from time to time.
Hopes of pipping djuice rose again yesterday when Amer Sports Too started reeling in the miles as its rival wallowed in light winds.
The deficit was cut to just 15 miles in less than 24 hours.
McDonald said the shipboard diet of freeze-dried food, although palatable, became tedious, day-in, day-out for 38 days.
The crew will have a few days off before returning to work on Sunday to star in a TV commercial being shot for sponsor UBS and to prepare the yacht for the next leg, an estimated 25-day dash to Sydney that will take them far south into the Southern Ocean.
Times for the leg: illbruck 31d 06h 19m 49s, Amer Sports One 31d 08h 20m 56s News Corp 32d 15h 57m 17s, Team Tyco 33d 16h 37m 49s, ASSA ABLOY 34d 18h 11m 59s, Team SEB 36d 19h 35m 47s, djuice 37d 05h 00m 53s, Amer Sports Too 37d 11h 20m 12s.
