18.04.2006
Pirates on the podium
The Pirates of the Caribbean invaded Baltimore, Maryland today at 1122 GMT (0722 local time) finishing third on leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race after 15 days, 19 hours and 12 minutes at sea.
Paul Cayard, the Captain of The Black Pearl happily reported minutes after his team finished, “This result is tough to get use to, we are all very competitive and we all want really want to win. On the whole, we are happy with third, we are still on the podium.”
Pirates of the Caribbean fought fiercely throughout leg five to be first into their home country and began the leg in style by leading the Volvo Ocean Race fleet out of Rio de Janeiro. By day two they had fallen back to second but were chasing ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) down hard, close on their heels.
After a brief spell in fifth, The Black Pearl managed to avoid a few more rain clouds than the rest of the fleet and moved into second again behind movistar (Bouwe Bekking). They held this position for three days with the southeasterly trades finally giving them the chance to increase their speed. Second was theirs until the night of the fifth day out at sea, when ABN AMRO ONE powered over them en route to the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha.
By day six, The Black Pearl had passed through the scoring gate collecting two and a half points for third place but Ericsson Racing Team was only seven nautical miles behind them.
Cayard’s nightmare came true on the night of day eight when Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) crept up, snatched third and carried on extending her lead until the wind lifted, giving Cayard and his team a chance. This wind shift allowed the team to hoist a different spinnaker, which was faster and retook third on the afternoon of the tenth day at sea and the Pirates never looked back.
- Further information can be found at www.volvooceanrace.org.
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