Last year, we left Squadron Member Steve Maguire safely ensconced in Cape Town (Mainsheet 2022, pages 42–43), in crisp, bright sunshine after a lively coastal passage along South Africa, the Indian Ocean determined to have the last weather word. Readers may recall Steve’s life-long desire to live a trans-oceanic cruising dream was much-thwarted by the pandemic before he was finally able to leave Manly in mid2022, crewing aboard the 57-foot Simonis Voogd design SV SKY on its interrupted westwards circumnavigation. Last edition, we tracked his progress around northern Australia and across the Indian Ocean. This edition, he reports from atop Table Mountain, the heights of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast and the exiled Napoleon’s tomb, before an unexpectedly balmy trans-Atlantic crossing to the noisy Carnival delights of Brasil and the end of his passage in Trinidad and Tobago — with a Cape Canveral visit and rocket launch to conclude his adventures! It’s an amazing tale — one accompanied by almost 700 stunning images and videos very generously shared by Steve! Space precludes showing any more than a select few in these pages, but he’s got the full story on an electronic device, and live commentary is available for the price of a drink (or few) at a catch-up chat. For now, let’s pick up the tale in Cape Town. Atlantic adventure starts on a high “The Big Sand Hills here have got nothing on the almighty heights of the dunes of the Skeleton Coast in Namibia: rolling desert one side, Atlantic rollers on the other.” 61
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