Vasco Da Gama - Wild Coast, Force 12 – the 1984 Vasco da Gama Storm

•“The morning after…” – on a relenting ocean, Magic Carpet heads back to Durban on Friday 27 April 1984, having heard the race was abandoned. At sunrise, the wind was down to less than 30 knots so, after running under bare poles since midnight, we turned Element back into the wind and raised the J3 and double-reefed mainsail to resume racing. Close-hauled again, the wind felt cold and we were shattered.

•Later that morning, we heard the RCOD Reaction calling for help on the VHF. They had been dismasted when she pitchpoled and were seeking standby assistance in case anything more went wrong. The wind was back up to 40+ knots, but clear and sunny. We eventually spotted Reaction, but they were much further offshore and far upwind of us. Over the VHF, David Cox and crew aboard Magic Carpet, now far astern, confirmed they could make a relatively easy downwind course correction to reach Reaction.

•We were amongst the lucky ones that survived the deadly ‘84 storm off North Sand Bluff in the ocean race to East London on South Africa’s Wild Coast. Behind lay the carnage of a fleet beaten hard after a forecasted suppertime gale burgeoned to a hurricane-force storm. Instead of slogging through a typical buster and racing on, we were treated to a force 12 front that howled for 8 hours, sustaining 60 knots, peaking 76 and serving up 60-foot seas.

•It would be long days before news would trickle in from more and more boats, and we’d learn of the capsizes, pitch poles, foundering and loss suffered across the fleet. The storm claimed the lives of five experienced sailors. Eight yachts were dismasted by rollovers, three sank and one wrecked on rocks.

•'This was the last time I saw 90 knots on the 1984 Vasco - Durban to East London - we took a walk on the wild side’