Thursday 19 March 2009

VOR: GREEN DRAGON LEG FIVE DAY 33 QFB: received 18.03.09 0749 GMT


The crew of Irish/Chinese entry Green Dragon celebrate St Patrick's Day in the Southern Ocean, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Guo Chuan/Green Dragon/Volvo Ocean Race.

by Ian Walker (skipper)

It is sad not to have seen Cape Horn. Not only was it the middle of a pitch black night, but we were 20 miles away at the closest point. I guess that means I'll have to come back with my camera another time.

It was over 30 knots and quite big waves so we gave the Horn a very wide berth. We dropped the spinnaker for a couple of hours to ride out the worst of it.

We are going to celebrate with a special bottle given to us by Wallenius Wilhelmsen at first light - I'm not sure what the bottle is yet, but I hope it is strong. We should be in the Straits of Le Maire at the time.

It feels great to be back in the Atlantic and heading north again.

Everyone on Ericsson 3 has done a fantastic job and I emailed Magnus to tell him as much. They haven't beaten us to Rio yet though!

Volvo Ocean Race

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