Large crowds for an emotional start in Alicante of the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. Ahead, approximately 24 days of offshore racing between Alicante and Cape Town.
Finally the day arrived. As expected, at exactly 14h00, the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race started in Alicante and the first few miles of “MAPFRE”, the only Spanish boat in the starting line of the around the world race. After an eight-mile coastal race in front of the city of Alicante, Iker Martínez’s team heads towards Cape Town and in first place.
According to the last position report, released today at 18h15 Spanish time, Iker Martínez’s “MAPFRE” leads the fleet at a speed of 15 knots, followed by “Brunel”.
Large crowds for an emotional start in Alicante.
Internal farewell at “MAPFRE’s” base, where the whole team met before leaving the dock. Pedro Campos -General Director of the Spanish team-, Antonio Nuñez -Vice President of MAPFRE- and Iker Martínez -skipper- dedicated thankful words to all the members of a team, who put their hearts and efforts to be on the starting line, and that was put together only three months ago.
But the most emotional moments came with the farewell before docking out, especially with the families of the nine crew members on board “MAPFRE”.
Also the “Ñetifans” red tide stood out. Friends and family coming from different parts of Spain flew to Alicante to support Spaniard Antonio “Ñeti” Cuervas-Mons and “MAPFRE”. Cuervas-Mons lived today in Alicante his third farewell and confessed he was “much calmer than usual, but at the same time you can start feeling the pre-departure nerves”.
For others, like Carlos Hernandez, this is his first start in the round the world race, although the sailor from the Canary Islands showed to be “calm but eager to start this new experience. I’m looking forward to leave, start competing against the others and see how it each boat does, that is the biggest intrigue that I have”.
Ready, set… Go!
The first leg began in front of the Postiguet beach, with a wind speed of 10knots from the east-southeast. Before heading to the Strait of Gibraltar, first key point of this leg, the fleet had to complete a course between buoys. More than 1,000 boats in the water, according to the start organization, followed the fleet during their course.
“MAPFRE” started next to the race committee boat, and kept on improving during the coastal course. The team started fifth but after the third mark Iker Martinez and his crew decided to bet for the left side of the race course, opposite to the other teams. This move allowed them during that beat to win one place and another in the next beat. This way they managed to leave behind the last mark of the course in third place, with Dutch “Brunel” in the lead, very consistent, followed by “Abu Dhabi”.
Ahead of them, “a difficult leg” as Xabi Fernández defined it before docking out. “It will be a very difficult start in the Mediterranean, with little wind at first and then westerly wind in the Alboran sea, so we’ll have to be very careful from the beginning. The goal now is to be with the entire fleet in Gibraltar and not stay behind, because if you stay behind then can have a very rough time later”.
The first points for the general classification of the Volvo Ocean Race are already in play.