Surfing the www on a project today, I came upon the extraordinary information that a yacht “Real Pathfinder X5” turned up in the wrong place altogether at the end of the first leg of the Volvo Round the World Yacht Race that is visiting Galway next June.
Apparently on Thursday 13 November 2008 the yacht turned up, first, just the way racers like it, at Cape Horn, and found the place all to themselves.
Because of course, everyone else was at Cape of Good Hope, southern Africa.
It seems they borrowed a Garmin car-kit Sat-Nav and inputted the wrong data. Once at sea for months, why was anyone to notice ?
They figure that by the time they get to Cape Town everyone will be long gone, so the crew is now considering doing a “Wrong Way Corrigan” sort of thing and racing everyone home, only going the other way (“see you all in Delhi”!).
And not just for the crack; apparently the sponsors have zoomed in on them big time.
But kayakers will notice the obvious dangers of new fangled devices and stick to map and compass from now on ?
DWalsh