Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
My old mate from school and university sailing days, Donald Alexander, will be starting his second Route du Rhum race from St Malo to Guadeloupe, a distance of 3542nm, tomorrow. The race was due to start on Sunday, but was postponed due to seriously unfavourable conditions.
Fraught with problems after a massive storm in the early stages of the previous race, he persevered and finished, but not as well as he may have liked. This time round he has a new boat, renewed vigour, and determination to finish the course without incident.
A former dinghy racer, windsurfer and kitesurfer and extreme mountaineer, he completed the course in 2018 but only after having to stop in La Coruna, NW Spain to have repairs made to main bulkhead cracks. He finished 23rd in Class 40 after 26 days and 1 hour.
As is the case in so many races today, competitors champion a cause, and Donald Alexander is no different. His Class 40 yacht is named ‘Conscious Planet’ with SaveSoil his cause. He intends to raise awareness of the unprecedented floods and mudslides that took place earlier this year in Durban and at his beachside village of Umdloti. 450 people died, 40,000 residents were displaced and 1,000 homes were destroyed. Umdloti had a second occurrence just a month later and it practically levelled the beachside community as sand from the surrounding sugar cane fields collapsed and swept homes, bridges and infrastructure into the sea. Funds aren’t sufficient to mitigate the destruction and the shortfall for the sewage treatment repairs alone is over $270,000. Donald is trying to raise awareness and support on a global level through the website “Remember-umdloti.org”
“I see this as an incredible opportunity to raise awareness about one of humanity’s biggest but most under-the-radar threats – soil extinction” said Donald.
And just to show how seriously some people are taking his campaign, he has been asked to been asked to talk to the COP 27 Conference in Egypt via satellite on the November 16 as he will be at sea racing at the time.
Donald is self-sponsored, and the only South African competitor in the race.
Knowing Donald as I do, his determination alone will see him to the finish, and hopefully a top-placing too.
