It was immediately clear that there was an outstandingly large boat whose sails were even visible even when that boat was sailing behind a tanker at anchorage. Soon after, my binoculars confirmed that this was an absolutely incredible sighting. Imagine, there was a new Volvo Ocean Race VO65 racing yacht not far from us.
The Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) is a round-the-world regatta which has started last time in 2014 (first edition in 1973). The better news is that the starting day of the next race will be October 22, 2017, form Alicante. The VOR circumnavigates our globe within eight month. There will be eleven stops on six continents, before the teams will arrive in Den Haag, in June 2018. Needless to say, I became a big fan of the VOR in 2014, and I will follow the 2017/18 edition whilst on our way, as good as it goes.
Some of our crew however didn’t understand my excitement about that ‘raft out there’. That ‘raft out there’ was extraordinarily slow, especially for a vessel that was designed to sail faster than the wind blows. It was actually so slow that we were quicker, which allowed us to catch up and shoot some pictures.
That boat of the team “Turn the Tide on Plastic” will perhaps become the most special VOR boat and crew in years. Firstly, it will be the first VOR boat staffed with mixed and youth crew. This is actually not so special because YUANA also sails with a young and mixed crew. Secondly, the foundation sponsoring “Turn the Tide on Plastic” wants to make aware of the immense amount of plastic garbage which poisons our oceans. They care for clean seas, and we can see almost daily that it is really important making a strong point here.
The Volvo Ocean Race certainly want to be not only one of the toughest events on sailors agenda. For sure it selfishly wants to be a successful marketing machine, in first place. And as much as I usually think that I am immune against any marketing campaigns, I wonder why I suddenly want to buy a Volvo as the next car?
At the time of handing over the keys for YUANA the previous owner Henk clearly mention that we were now becoming Volvo owners, too, because of the Volvo Penta engine built into our boat (he even had one for the sea and one for the road). Here we shouldn’t forget his smiling face when saying that, to a convinced Volkswagen owner ;-). Yes Henk, meanwhilst I am totally convinced of the native and authentic sailor’s image of that brand, and of the reliability of the propulsion system of our boat as well.
I’m not sponsored by anyone, haha…!
Atlantic accomplished. Twice. 