VOR: Kicking and Screaming

Bowman Casey Smith (AUS), onboard PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (USA) at the start of leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston. Image copyright Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race.

by Rick Deppe

If it is possible to drag yourself kicking and screaming down the dock, Saturday was that day! I am very sad to be leaving Rio. I was just starting to recover from Leg Five and get into the Rio way of doing things, more about that later. It sounds as though I'm going to have some time for a bit of writing in the next day or two as fairly light winds are expected.

It's great to see Delta Lloyd and Tele-Black back in the game - no doubt a huge effort by their teams to get the boats and crew back in top shape. For sure they'll be a threat from here to the finish and will definitely have a huge influence over the outcome of the remainder of the race.

In true Rio style, the race committee gave us a later than normal start today. When the gun finally went off at 1500 local time, the sea breeze was already starting to die out. It’s going to be a long night getting away from Rio. As usual, we got a great start on il mostro but were quickly run down by the Tele boats and E4, which was a little annoying but a definite high point was close tacking around the base of Sugarloaf Mountain and along Copacabana Beach. Currently, we are in fourth place and sailing east at a slow speed in close company with the whole fleet.

Another highlight of the day was having Dani Monteiro onboard the vessel for the first few hours of the race. She's a Brazilian windsurfing champion turned TV Presenter who specializes in adventure sports. The guys were in awe as she pointed out all the local landmarks that she has either climbed or jumped off. They tried talking her into staying on the boat and coming to Boston with us even going as far as offering to swap her out with me (I was up for it and don't blame them), but in the end like everything wonderful, she had to go, making a very graceful jump accompanied by a loud Brazilian yelp, as she jumped off the back of il mostro. Kimo (Worthington) and the boys were on hand in the speedboat to pick her up, say their goodbyes and head back in to the TGTG party (Thank God Their Gone). Ken joked that they can bring out some fried chicken and Caiprihinia drinks because we won’t be going to far tonight as the breeze continues to die out.

PUMA Ocean Racing
Volvo Ocean Race