Photo credit: Marc Bow, Volvo Ocean Race
Hometown Heroes Sent Off from Newport Amid Sea of Orange
Team Alvimedica enjoyed an incredible hometown stopover making it bittersweet for skipper Charlie Enright and crew to point the bow toward Europe this afternoon leaving a sea of orange in their wake.
The thousands of spectators on shore and on the water got what they came for as the fleet went head-to-head on Narragansett Bay in an aggressive display of close-course racing on a stunning summer-like day. Hundreds of spectator boats lined the course perimeter, providing an arena setting for the first hour of racing that took the fleet under the Newport Bridge, before the teams sailed back down the Bay past Castle Hill and into Rhode Island Sound.
“It’s been a great stopover and everyone’s been absolutely awesome so it’s tough to leave,” Enright said before leaving the dock where family and friends were cheering loudly dressed head-to-toe in the team’s signature orange. “It’s been an awesome week. It’s been nice to be home but it’s time to go back to work.”
The cumulative number of race days remaining in this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race is less than the number of days that it took the fleet to get from Brazil to Newport, yet one-third of the points remain on the table. Enright and crew are determined to turn up the intensity to move their way up the standings as the race returns to Europe.
“There are three points left on the table – three big ones – and not a ton of miles, so it will be really intense. We are going to be pushing really hard,” Enright said.
The 2,800 nautical-mile transatlantic leg to Lisbon promises to be complicated. “The first half of this leg is dominated by a low-pressure system, the second by a high-pressure system and the ice gate in between, so it could get pretty interesting,” Enright said.
Team Alvimedica navigator Will Oxley agrees with Enright that while the transatlantic leg will be the shortest in distance of the race so far, it has the potential to be complicated. “There will be a lot of thinking on the fly. Navigators will earn their money this leg.”
Team co-founder and watch captain Mark Towill says the team is in hot pursuit of some podium finishes in the final third of the race. “We set out from the very beginning of this campaign to be the young team and to have the greatest rate of improvement. Now is our time to perform. When we sail well, we can hang with the leaders. There’s still a third of the points on the table, but only 5,000 miles to go so some short, sharp legs – we are ready for the challenge, ready for the opportunity – hopefully we will put together some podium places and wrap this thing up with a bang,” Towill said.
