Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Volvo Ocean Race lands in Auckland




The Volvo Ocean Race has race arrived in Auckland. I sketched them at the event base yesterday morning where they were already up on cradles for service. Elevated like this I thought they looked  more aeronautical than nautical.

The yachts set off on Leg 4 of the race from Hainan Island, China, on February 8th. From what I can tell they then traveled east across the top of the Philippines before heading southward, past exotic sounding Micronesian islands like Pohnpei and Kosrei, then the Melanesian islands of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

You would have to wonder if after 3 weeks without a shower they would have been tempted to stop off at a coral atoll for some cerviche and a hot shower.

Interestingly they all arrived in port within hours of each other. First in port was the Spanish yacht MAPFRE, followed 4 minutes later by Abu Dhabi (the overall leader) and Dongfeng (that's Dongfen in the sketch top left).

They'll all be back in the water on Saturday morning for an in-port race, before leaving on March 15 heading around Cape Horn for Itajai, Brazil.

5 comments:

  1. Did they remove the masts? Also, I keep looking at that guy (scene stealer) in the middle.

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  2. Yep, masts and all rigging has been removed by the look, they seem to be sanding the hulls back too, they must be going to repaint.

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  3. Brian, funny you should mention the scene stealer, it is the kind of guy that stands behind the interviewer on TV. However this one has a broader smile because he more chuffed to be a scene stealer in a sketch. Not many can dine out on that.

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  5. without the masts definitely more aeronautical, is good to see what's happening in Auckland through your sketches, nice one Murray,

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