Yachting journalist Paul Gelder covered the whole of the BOC Challenge 1994-1995. He felt a special admiration for the amateur sailors who were there just for the experience of taking part. None more so than his friend 70-year-old Harry Mitchell, making his third attempt to round Cape Horn…
Two hours after David Scully sailed across the finish line in Punta Del Este, Harry Mitchell was 12 days away from his goal of Cape Horn when one of the polar orbiting satellites circling the earth every 102 minutes at an altitude of 500 miles picked up a signal from one of in that desolate stretch of the Southern Ocean. The signal was relayed to a ground station in New Zealand. It was 2200 GMT on Thursday 2 March, the 32nd day of leg three. The last satellite communication with Harry had been six hours earlier. The decoded satellite signal from Harry’s EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) gave the name of his yacht and his position, 56º 35’ south and 114º 20’ west. It placed him approximately 1,450 miles west of Cape Horn. The New Zealand rescue authorities immediately notified Race HQ in Charleston who went into their well tried emergency procedures.
