Friday, November 07, 2008

Matthew Gregory ~ An All Around Ironman

It's dinner time in Cape Town, just thinking about lunch here in CT but lost all track of time while on a skype catching up with Team Delta Lloyd's navigator Matthew Gregory.


Sander Pluijm/Team Delta Lloyd/Volvo Ocean Race, Matthew at the helm.

Some of you may not know this but, but Matthew is a real deal Ironman, never mind America's Cup Sailor and now extreme offshore navigator...check this out!

I bombarded him with all the typical questions about, scariest moments, what was it like getting to Cape Town, yadda, yadda... he claims the most nerve wracking part of the leg was just getting out of Alicante!


Photo: Leg One Start, Alicante, Spain, Jennifer Langille

There was never a scary moment; nervousness, anxiousness but the only scary bit was reflecting back on the spreader failure and it's crashing to the deck, narrowing missing himself and fellow crew. The impact on the deck was proof, had fate not been on their side...well anyways, no need to dwell on "what could of!"

Here's a little "Matthew Video":



The team sounds to be in good form with three members, including Matthew being afforded a little time off, have a tour of South Africa's top sites planned this weekend.

When asked about the next leg, still early (it's always too early...) though explained the unique dynamics leg two brings due to the unusual "scoring gate", which is not really a "gate" but a line through the ocean (longitude 58 degrees East to be exact.) The nature of this line, shape of the earth have staying south being the quickest way to secure the scoring points, though this makes for longer distance to India after crossing the line...what is more important? That is surely the topic of discussion amongst the teams...

Matthew shares his hope to do some "shore-side" blogging before the restart next weekend...Check It Out!

Cheers!

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