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.