Through the storm in Ukuwela: The Crossing

Ukuwela: The Crossing takes us on an incredible journey aboard the yacht ArchAngel, as South African skipper Sibusiso Sizatu leads his determined crew of students from the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) Sailing Academy to a podium finish at the 2023 Cape2Rio yacht race. At around 24 days and covering 3300 nautical miles across the South Atlantic Ocean between Cape Town and Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, the Cape2Rio is the longest continent-to-continent race in the southern hemisphere. For this crew, though, it could be the calmest stretch of their personal journeys. 

Ukuwela: The Crossing won Best Documentary Feature at the 2023 Los Angeles Independent Film Awards. Executive producers Viresh Maharaj and Colette Van Dyk call it, “a powerful story of crossing between worlds, not just oceans,” adding, “It is inspiring and will open the eyes and minds of young South Africans and anyone else, anywhere in the world, who face extreme life challenges, to see opportunity and hope where they believe none exists.”

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Welcome aboard

Co-directors Leigh Pohl, Alberic Vollmer and Sam Tengani knew that they had set course for a great story when they met the crew of the ArchAngel – skipper Sibusiso Sizatu (30), first mate Daniel Agulhas (29), Renaldo Tshepo Mohale (29), Thando Mntambo (23), Azile Arosi (22) and Justin Peters (21) – at RCYC. 

“We’re not sailors. In fact, many of us have a deep reverence for and fear of the open ocean. Anyone who takes it on, regardless of their station in life, has our respect,” say the directors. 

“These sailors are heroes – not just because they completed the race and finished on the podium, but because life could have been so different for them if they hadn't taken opportunities when presented, that they persisted relentlessly despite their world working against them, and that they want their pioneering success to give hope and opportunity to many more youngsters just like them,” they insist. “Their crossing, their victory is not just theirs, but everyone’s.”

Meet the ArchAngel crew

Skipper Sibusiso Sizatu

Sibusiso was born in Qumbu in the Eastern Cape and didn’t go to school until he moved to Cape Town’s Masiphumelele township (near Fish Hoek) at the age of ten. Sibusiso first tried sailing in 2005 with a Simonstown-based NGO, but it didn’t click until he joined a friend who needed a partner for Nationals, and they came in third! “I didn’t even know what a tack or jibe was; I just wanted to have fun with my friends,” admits Sibusiso. 

Soon he was sailing three days a week, through all kinds of stormy weather, including the financial difficulties that forced him to drop out of school in Grade 10, and the fact that he didn’t have an ID book or birth certificate, which nearly ran him aground before 2013’s 470 Junior World Sailing Championships in France. 

“I was sailing for an organisation called Race Ahead, and my coach’s father took me to Home Affairs numerous times. It took a month, but finally, at the age of 20, I was recognised as a South African citizen, an amazing feeling,” says Sibusiso. “Sailing was my refuge and offered an opportunity to earn an income while doing what I loved.”

Now the senior instructor at RCYC Sailing Academy, Sibusiso teaches 45 kids from Cape Town’s townships how to rule the waves, and acts as their guide to jobs in the maritime industry.

First Mate Daniel Agulhas

Even his name is an ocean current! 2023 marked a third Cape2Rio race for First Mate Daniel, who started sailing at Zeekoevlei Yacht Club when he was 13 years old, and joined the RCYC Academy in 2008. “My current job is building boats for a company which does electronics on yachts,” he says. “Sailing is about the experience. It is never the same – you have different conditions, wind directions and there are problems with the boats. It's always a challenge. If you put your all in, you will get the reward at the end of it. No matter what you do, never give up.” Daniel hopes his success will pave the way for others in his community. 

Crew: Azile Arosi

Azile – who was born in Engcobo near Mthatha and now lives in Khayelitsha – couldn’t swim when she first took up sailing through the Emagqabini Education Academy. Six years later, she became part of the first crew ever drawn from the townships to tackle the Cape2Rio yacht race, and the only female sailor aboard ArchAngel. 

“When I was told about this sport called sailing, I knew nothing about it. To this day, I am scared of the ocean and I can only swim in a life jacket, but I love water,” says yacht racing fanatic Azile. Azile recently completed her diploma in Entrepreneurship at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Crew: Renaldo Mohale

Renaldo started sailing in 2006 at the Simonstown-based Izivunguvungu Sailing Project. “I saw my friends going off together and became curious to find out more about the sport. I thought I was going to find treasure under the sea!” he reveals. 

There he met fellow crew member Thando Mntambo, and skipper Sibusiso Sizabtu, who lives on the same street as him in Masiphumelele. Renaldo left school in grade nine to work to support his mother and siblings after his father died. He is now attending night school to finish his Grade 12 year.

“I joined RCYC Sailing Academy in 2018 after Sibusiso asked for my help fixing the boats. Soon they organised kids to sail and we started teaching. Today, I am still an instructor and enjoy teaching foredeck and trimming the most,” says Renaldo, who’s hoping to teach his six-year-old son Tumelo to sail.

Crew: Thando Mnthambo

Masiphumelele resident Thando joined Izivunguvungu at the age of eight. “I was first attracted to the swimming aspect, and only after that did I get into sailing,” he says. It also gave him his first father figure, Kader William. “He taught me to fish, gave me small jobs when I was out of work and motivated me not to give up,” says Thando, who matriculated in 2018, but had to drop out of SA Maritime College when he couldn’t afford the fees.

These days, while working as a rigger and teaching at the Academy at weekends to support family members, Thando continues with his own qualifications through the Academy, completing his Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper licences. Next up, his Yacht Master qualification, Watchkeeping course, and more. “I never knew what I wanted to do in life until Grade 10 when I discovered the position of ship’s agent. That is my dream,” says Thando.

Crew: Justin Peters

Justin has dreamed of competing in the Cape2Rio yacht race since he joined the Royal Cape Yacht Club (RCYC) Sailing Academy in 2018 with his brother, Cameron, despite neither of them knowing anything about sailing. 

Justin has been working on boats ever since he matriculated in 2020, and now takes tourists on chartered sailing trips on catamarans from the V&A Waterfront with an eye on working on superyachts in the future. 

“Boats are my everything,” says Justin. “I love water and being on the ocean, and sailing brings you closer to that. It is the teamwork aspect which attracts me the most. Sailing is about working together.”

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