After three days of being largely out of touch with the world, the nine-man crew of the Volvo Ocean 65 Vestas is now back on Mauritius after running hard aground this past weekend on a remote reef in the Indian Ocean.
For many sailors the prospect of sailing in a Newport-Bermuda Race remains the stuff of dreams, an adventure for “other” sailors who are somehow more worthy–which is too bad. In fact, the Newport Bermuda is about whole lot more than just a gathering of the world’s racing elite.
The good news for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet is that for Leg 2, which starts today, the boats will be able to sail the entire 6,125 miles from Cape Town to the finish in Abu Dhabi.
Pity the poor Volvo Ocean Race sailor. While it may seem like forever since the fleet arrived in Cape Town after 24 days at sea, in fact it’s only been a little over three weeks.
Typically you only expect to see extreme sailing footage from the offshore legs of the Volvo Ocean Race, with the in-port racing providing a much more “civilized” form of competition. Not in Cape Town.
During a recent conversation with retired Coast Guard rescue swimmer Mario Vittone, I asked for his take on safety equipment for sailing offshore, and he responded with an answer I’d never heard before.
Abu Dhabi has prevailed in Leg 1 of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race edging out Dongfeng by the slimmest of margins in the opening chapter of what is looking to be one of the most competitive VOR’s ever.
After spending a full week in first place following their speedy exit from the doldrums, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing has fallen behind Team Brunel. However, Brunel’s advantage may prove short-lived as the fleet picks its way through or around the light winds in the South Atlantic as they work their way toward the finish in Cape Town.
A week and a half into the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, the competition has been even tighter than anticipated as the fleet makes its way south in a tight bunch. Although the all-women SCA team was the first to exit the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar, the other boats quickly reeled them back in as they sailed into a calm.
Chinese-flagged Dongfeng sustained the first major damage of the race when it hit an unidentified submerged object that destroyed the boat’s port rudder.
As the Caribbean Multihull Challenge (CMC) kicks off a sixth year, race organizers have a one-word mission statement: soul. “At the beginning, we wanted to
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