American Boat Leads in Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5
As the six-strong fleet Volvo Ocean Race continued to endure a helter-skelter ride toward Cape Horn in the Southern Ocean, the American boat Team Alvimedica took the lead, reports AP.
The Volvo Ocean Race fleet in the wild Southern Ocean was fighting two battles on Sunday – for bragging rights to lead the fleet round Cape Horn, and the race to win Leg 5.
The Turkey/USA crew of Team Alvimedica (Charlie Enright/USA) is currently narrow favourites as they led a group of five boats at 1240 UTC on Sunday.
Should Enright’s crew achieve either, it would be a major achievement for a team that is the youngest in the race and led by a 30-year-old Volvo Ocean Race first-timer who first dreamed of entering a team on the film set of the Disney movie, Morning Light some eight years ago.
Anderson Reggio, Team Alvimedica Navigational Shore Support wrote that by the time Team Alvimedica rounds Cape Horn on Monday afternoon, the Volvo Ocean Race crew will have completed what they will likely describe as the most exhilarating 950-mile drag race of their lives.
The boats managed to avoid huge icebergs on the route so far and three of them crashed to their sides midweek before returning to vertical as winds reached 75 kilometres per hour (44mph) and waves approached 30 feet.
The fleet is expected to round Cape Horn — one of the key landmarks of the nine-month marathon offshore event — on Monday and bragging rights, but no points, go to the boat that leads at that point.
