Volvo Ocean Race

While some of us were enjoying a slow race to Vallejo last weekend, the 70-ft Volvo Ocean Race boats were mimicking the same conditions only on a much larger scale. Once out of Itajaí, Brazil, and on the way to Miami, Ken Read’s Puma got out in front and never looked back. Actually they looked back often with Camper and Telefónica biting at their heels the whole way. Several times the boats were within sight of each other.

The conditions varied from nice reaching drag races to slow agonizing holes. “It’s been a high risk game of chess,” said Camper skipper Chris Nicholson. Tom Addis on Puma added, “If someone gets a squall and picks up some wind for a few hours that could turn the fleet inside out. That makes it more tense on board, no question." The fleet also had to negotiate some Caribbean Islands that were in their way and one final hole before the finish. Puma finished first at 14:14:00 Miami time on Wednesday, 17 days after leaving from Itajaí, with Camper about an hour behind to take second.

The only boat that did not start was Sanya, which had to be shipped from New Zealand after being damaged two legs earlier. Her crew plans on a short shake-down sail from Savannah, Georgia, where they’ve been fixing her, to Miami for the in-port race on May 19, followed by the start of leg 7 to Lisbon, Portugal, on May 20.

The leader of the back was a disappointed Abu Dhabi, and while a debate is going on about the Farr design lacking in speed, skipper Ian Walker chose to bring less food to save weight on this leg, resulting in some hungry crew as they finally finished in Miami on Thursday. If that happened in our Vallejo Race most crews would jump ship.