The great legendary capes are those that man has not been able to cross without a good dose of courage - or recklessness in the eyes of the common man. They once marked the limits of the known world. Each time they were crossed was a step in the discovery of the World. The fleet of Vendée Globe competitors has already passed two of them: Cape Bojador in the first week of the race, then the Cape of Good Hope.
Cape Leeuwin does not have the same history, it has never witnessed tragic shipwrecks, it only marks the exit from the Indian Ocean and the entry into the Southern Ocean, although this characteristic is disputed. Nor is it the southernmost of the southern continent, just the most south-westerly and is said to be the highest in mainland Australia.
He was not baptized until 1801 by Matthew Flinders, an English cartographer and explorer of the southern coasts of the southern continent. He named it after a Dutch ship, the Leeuwin ...who in 1622 discovered this coastline.
This cape is becoming known and has acquired its status as a great cape since the skippers have been sailing and racing around the world. Golden Globe first, Whitbread with a crew, and especially since the first edition of the Vendée Globe in 1989. A first edition that saw Titouan Lamazou win in just over 109 days and also saw the capsizing of Philippe Poupon rescued by Loïc Peyron. To have raised this promontory to the title of great cape is in fact also a way of paying tribute to Australia and its navy, which is, along with the New Zealand navy, often solicited by competitors in difficulty in the immensity of the Southern Ocean.
