Volvo Ocean Race

[Jens Muysoms]

Any sailors or sailing fans here?

If you are and you aren't following the Volvo Ocean Race yet, now is the time.

The teams just arrived in Gotenburg in the penultimate leg with 3 of the 7 teams tied in first place after 45.000 nautical miles around the world.

You can follow the race on the  Volvo Ocean Race website with real life tracking.

For me personally I am rooting for Team Brunel, with skipper Bouwe Bekking that has sailed the race 8 times and never been able to win it but now within reach of the trophy for his very last Volvo Ocean Race. Making an impressive comeback after a slow beginning. And last but not least, the only team with a belgian on board.

let me know what team you are rooting for and if you might make it to the finish in Den Haag, the Netherlands.

[meepmeepmayer]

Followed the last edition, was fun! Now with the shitty new app (slow or not working) and their Youtube videos being worse/more jumbled (well, feels like this to me), couldn't be bothered to follow this one (also now I have this forum to waste time on). Maybe I should try again. Thanks for the suggestion! Sailing is very cool, even if you don't care much about the racing aspect.

[Jens Muysoms]

The app certainly has it's problems and I only use it to check the tracker every now and then when I am not at home. Otherwise I almost always have the tracker on the second screen of my pc. The daily live shows can be jumbled, fair enough, but today they have given a bit of an insight as to why the livestreams are so hectic. The racing have been so close this edition that between time of the start of the show and the end there is so many things developing that any prescripted preparation work just goes out of the window. Plus you have to consider the technical limitations of the inmarsat system with constantly dropping connections so they have to jump to any footage that they can get their hands on and improvise.

But that doesn't take away the impressive achievment and the hard work that the crews do to race those boats as hard as they can.

Also great to mention the boat Turn The Tide On Plastic, sailing under the flag of the United Nations, being skippered by the only female skipper Dee Caffari. Sailing with a 50/50 male/female crew with a lot of novice offshore sailors. Alltough you can't really call them novice  anymore after a lap around the globe and being able to race neck and neck with the top boats.

Do you have a boat @meepmeepmayer?

quick edit, Team Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag just crossed the finish line as the last boat concluding leg 10

[meepmeepmayer]

13 hours ago, Jens Muysoms said:

Do you have a boat @meepmeepmayer?

I wish but they're two orders of magnitude more expensive than EUCs otherwise I'd be sailing around on the high oceans

[Jens Muysoms]

As of yesterday, the final leg is on. Team Brunel, the ones that i am rooting for isn't doing great right now but on the previous leg they pulled up front from being in 6th place to taking the win in under 24 hours.

On 6/15/2018 at 3:33 PM, meepmeepmayer said:

otherwise I'd be sailing around on the high oceans

I am fortunate to do that as a job in the future. Been at sea for about a year as an internship. The only downside is that EUC's and air travel is not a great combo so taking my wheel on my next assignment won't be possible.

[meepmeepmayer]

2 hours ago, Jens Muysoms said:

I am fortunate to do that as a job in the future. Been at sea for about a year as an internship.

Nice! What kind of boat?

[Jens Muysoms]

I did my internship with Holland America Line on 2 of their cruise ships