Whoaa!! We’re racing again! I’m not sure what we’re more excited about – the whole fleet being back on the line together, the two wins we had coming out of a spectacular stopover in Abu Dhabi. Or maybe the end of the shipping mission that has soaked up a significant amount of time and effort from everyone involved. However, for what was achieved, and the excellent conditions in which the five VOR 70s arrived in, hats off to the race organisers and sponsors for making it as painless as possible.

It was an action packed few weeks back in our homeport; each guy seems to have at least a story or two about the many varieties of craziness offered throughout the stopover. Whether it was the Ferrari World theme park, dune boarding in the desert, or even riding a camel down to the dock before the in-port race. I think it’s safe to say that we were all blown away by the success of the event in Abu Dhabi.

Now we just have to focus on keeping Azzam rumbling ahead towards China. Our last sched saw us gain .3 of a mile on Puma, and .2 of a mile on Sanya. The rest of the fleet we have had very slow losses to.

Ian Walker explains; “It’s quite frustrating at the moment, we were hoping to be a bit quicker than a few of these boats at this angle and wind speed. Even our current position relevant to the fleet doesn’t really allow us to do the subtle mode changes that one would usually benefit from in side-by-side racing.”

With roughly another 250 miles until the fleet reaches the Bay of Bengal, Jules and Ian remain confident that we can slowly take distance out of the leaders by sailing smart and capitalising on other’s mistakes. Not to mention the eminent re-start that the fleet faces in the Straights of Malacca.