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| Photo: Andres Soriano/Volvo Ocean Race |
The second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, which runs from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi, got very interesting early this morning.
The overall nine month, 39,000 nautical mile race was being led during this sprint by Team Sanya - that is, until they suffered damage to their rigging earlier today.
Volvo Ocean Race, Leg Two Update
Team Sanya were forced to sacrifice their Leg two lead and detour west to Madagascar for emergency repairs on Monday, leaving CAMPER, Telefónica and PUMA’s Mar Mostro to fight it out for first place within two nautical miles of each other.
Mike Sanderson and his crew on board Sanya continue to sail cautiously to Madagascar where they will assess options to repair their rigging, which was damaged in the early hours of Monday. They are expected to arrive at Madagascar tomorrow, where they will survey the damage and continue to make plans to resume racing as soon as possible.
Yet another detour is planned for the contestants, but we couldn't tell you about it even if we knew more details. The fleet is heading towards an undisclosed safe haven port in the Indian Ocean as part of the race’s anti-piracy plan for Legs 2 and 3. The boats will be loaded onto a ship and transported to a point off the Sharjah coast, where they will resume racing with a sprint into Abu Dhabi.
Team Sanya is the Chinese entry in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011/12. Skippered by Mike Sanderson, a world class sailor from New Zealand who happens to be a two-time winner of the Volvo.
Check in with the Daily Boater for continued coverage of the 2011 - 2012 Volvo Ocean Race in our regular posts, and in our World on Water video coverage each Friday...
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