A small snapshot exit poll conducted at Cape Town International Airport by the Western Cape government has yielded overwhelmingly positive results, says Western Cape Tourism MEC, Alan Winde.
The poll was conducted on January 11 to measure foreign visitors’ perceptions and experiences of the Western Cape. Although only 25 people from 14 countries were interviewed, the Western Cape scored an overall holiday experience rating of 8,5 out of 10.
In the Volvo Ocean Race even the tiniest of advantages can spell success on the race course – and having a chance to work on their boats in port gave Abu Dhabi and PUMA the edge they needed for glory the in Leg 3 Stage 1 sprint, according to their skippers.
After triumphing over their latest setback, Team Sanya are set to rejoin the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday in what skipper Mike Sanderson says will be a “great day” for the team.
Having carried out tests on their new rig, damaged while they were leading the fleet on day nine of Leg 2, the Sanya crew are set to leave Madagascar at first light and race to the safe haven port in the Indian Ocean to complete the first stage of the leg.
Franck Cammas has vowed his Groupama sailing team will come back stronger in the next phase of the Volvo Ocean Race after missing out on a top-three position in the first stage of Leg 2.
At one point during the race from Cape Town to a secret ‘safe haven’ in the Indian Ocean, Groupama had a lead of more than 100 nautical miles, the result of a risky course to the east of the fleet that paid dividends.
All six Volvo Ocean Race boats are now back in the water for the first time in nearly a month.
Team Sanya was the sixth and final boat to hit the water in Cape Town, craned in at the V&A Waterfront around 1745 local time (GMT+2).
They joined their rivals PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG, who hit the water this morning, and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, lifted in yesterday, alongside Team Telefónica, CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand and Groupama sailing team dockside in the Cape Town race village.
It's been a testing week for the crew of PUMA Ocean Racing since their South Atlantic dismasting. While the sailors and their escapades have been in the limelight, behind the scenes the team's shore crew have been working flat out on the recovery mission.
In the latest blog from the PUMA camp, General Manager Kimo Worthington reveals what it's like to be pulling the strings in a race to get Mar Mostro to Cape Town.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Team Sanya have set themselves seven-day deadlines to get their boats ready to sail again once they arrive in Cape Town.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing is lifted onto a container ship bound for Cape Town, after retiring from leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa. Nick Dana/Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race
Both teams, forced to retire from Leg 1 after suffering damage inside a brutal first 24 hours, expect the ships containing their prized Volvo Open 70s to arrive in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Overnight Team Telefónica, led by Olympic gold medallist Iker Martínez, notched up more than 540 nautical miles in 24 hours. The distance is still almost 60nm short of the record, but the team are only just heating up.
Martínez, who on many occasions has backed the third generation Volvo Open 70s to set a new mark, said the team were heading into record-breaking territory with favourable weather fronts.
Cape Town - Table Mountain was named one of the "New 7 Wonders of Nature" by a global poll on Friday.
Final results will be announced early 2012, said the New7Wonders foundation, warning however that there may yet be changes between the provisional winners and the final list.
"South Africa will gain an additional 108 000 international tourists a year due to the increased exposure of Table Mountain as a New 7 Wonder," said local accounting firm Grant Thornton spokesperson Martin Jansen van Vuuren.
Groupama 4 and Franck Cammas/FRA, the leading team in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race, have two choices: move west quickly and take a big loss to do it, or hold their nerve and sail towards the triangle of doom, the no-go windless area that begins south of the Cape Verde Islands 600 nautical miles ahead, and then make the turn west.
