CAPE TOWN // "All right, take two, except we're going to bloody get there this time," Ian Walker, the skipper, barked to the crew, and with that Azzam edged out yesterday from the gentle dockside of the V&A Waterfront with its Ferris wheel, toward the untamed gruel of Leg 2 with its unknowns.
Within an hour with Table Mountain as the backdrop and the sun as company, the second of nine legs of the Volvo Ocean Race had begun, and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing had begun it with a whoosh.
As the official clock counted down and the watch leader Rob Greenhalgh called out increments, the six entries suddenly found a starting area shorn of breeze.
Walker noticed the fluttering flags on the Race Committee Boat in the distance, and made the call to start at that end of the line. He cautioned the crew not to "telegraph" it.
After some edgy time spent on the wrong side of the line moving in the wrong direction, then a second 180-degree turn, Abu Dhabi surged off.
It soon caught the wind Walker had suspected and left the fleet trailing by a yawning distance. The positive start in the 11-mile in-shore course set Azzam off on the 5,430-nautical-mile leg toward Abu Dhabi.
That leg is expected to end in early January, after its detour into an undisclosed port for the loading of the boats onto a ship because of pirate concerns.
If it ends well for Abu Dhabi, it will carry added gratefulness, after the nascent team's first leg from Spain died of a broken mast.
After 10 days of rig-curing for the back-up mast at base camp here, Mike Danks, the shore team technical manager, felt "apprehensive, but confident".
He said: "I wouldn't say brimming with confidence, but I'm happy where we are with the boat and the rig.
"After our incident, I think we've made the changes required. You can't do it the same way. You have to change something."
Of a cramped stopover with all the work and only one day between the in-port race and the leg start, he said: "I think it went pretty well. The team's probably tighter than ever. It hasn't broken the team, that's for sure. It's made us a better team."
As the crews said goodbyes to wives on the decks yesterday afternoon, the Spanish entry Telefonica led on 37 points, with Camper in second with 34 and three of the boats resuming after retiring from Leg 1.
One of those three skippers, Puma's Ken Read, pointedly walked alongside Azzam's Emirati sailor Adil Khalid on the docks and said to the 23 year old: "This is your moment."
Abu Dhabi, Puma and Team Sanya all carried curiosity about new parts.
The first two broke masts, with Puma getting the rare turn of learning the cause (a rigging section made of improper material) and Abu Dhabi perhaps forever unsure of the breakage sequence.
With the first night weather tamer than it reserves the right to be, Gonzalo Infante, the race meteorologist, noted the 25 to 30-knots couple with a three to four-metres," and called it "a good test for the new rigs and bow".
cculpepper@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Match info
Liverpool 4
Salah (19'), Mane (45 2', 53'), Sturridge (87')
West Ham United 0
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
THE SPECS
Engine: 4.4-litre V8
Transmission: Automatic
Power: 530bhp
Torque: 750Nm
Price: Dh535,000
On sale: Now
Schedule for Asia Cup
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)
FA%20Cup%20semi-final%20draw
%3Cp%3ECoventry%20City%20v%20Manchester%20United%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EManchester%20City%20v%20Chelsea%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E-%20Games%20to%20be%20played%20at%20Wembley%20Stadium%20on%20weekend%20of%20April%2020%2F21.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
The%C2%A0specs%20
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%20Ramez%20Gab%20Min%20El%20Akher
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The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
I Care A Lot
Directed by: J Blakeson
Starring: Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage
3/5 stars
Sweet%20Tooth
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The figures behind the event
1) More than 300 in-house cleaning crew
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000 social distancing stickers
4) 809 hand sanitiser dispensers placed throughout the venue
