After sailing just 120 miles in 15 hours from the Portuguese town of Portimao, the Volvo Open 70 “movistar” arrived at 7 a.m. yesterday at the Bay of Cadiz.
The Spanish Volvo Ocean Race boat disembarked on the commercial port of Cabezuela-Puerto Real, across the city of Cadiz, where it will be boarded today on a freighter bound for Cape Town.
While the “movistar” sailed from Portugal, the shore team arrived in Puerto Real to prepare the loading area. The cradle in which the boat is now resting and the container for the rest of the equipment required for the journey were finished installing when the “movistar” was arriving in port. A large-size crane was used to lift the boat from the water and put her down on the cradle.
“We will pack her up and dismount the mast – said “movistar”’s Skipper Bouwe Bekking standing by the boat yesterday – Around noon, we will start to load the boat onto the freighter that will take her to Cape Town. It will sail on its own cradle, separate from the mast”.
These have been the first miles of sailing for the “movistar” since being repaired for the damages suffered on a collision on November 13, during the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. “We have just taken the boat to Cadiz – said Pepe Ribes, bowman - . We will return to our training schedule in Cape Town”.
“If everything goes as planned, the boat will arrive in South Africa on the 16th or the 17th. It will probably take us a couple of days to get her back into sailing trim, so we hope to resume our training schedule on December 18th”, Bekking concluded.