Allicante October 9-11...lots and lots of boats BIG Boats!

We both had an air of anticipation on our 7:40 a.m. departure from Cartagena. We were heading to Alicante to see the beginning of the 2014-15 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. Blair has been following these races since before they were sponsored by Volvo, knows all the players and of coursed sailed one of these boats last year from Cartagena to Lunenburg. So a bit of a dream to finally be in Alicante.

One of seven identical 65' boats, the idea is for the race to be about sailors skill rather than technology, they all have the same technology.

There is every bit of history here as in Cartagena and even a huge castle overlooking the city, but Alicante is more of a Mediterranean beach town with great resorts, so we chose to view that side of Spain, we have had quote a bit of history over the last month-plus :)

View of castle overlooking Alicante, kind of reminds us of the Great Wall of China.

The Race Village is where we spent most of our time looking at the boats actually in the race and as this is the "Grand Prix" of ocean races, the many sponsors, their CEOs and of course the wealthy are on hand often with their "boats."

Race village is open until midnight with spotlights circling and lighting up the boats.

We thought that it was apropos for us that the guide boat was named "Peregrino"

Portion of the 66 m Aglaia out of Grand Cayman, google it our pictures don't do it justice. One of her winches is worth more than our boat! Note the size of the crew member on the deck.

 

Team Brunel out of Holland brought this three masted schooner in for its guests. The boat was built in early 1900s and fully restored in the late 80s. The Pro-Am race is going on behind.

Day two, was a great day, we were able to watch a Pro-Am race from the restaurant, very civilized, we thought. Later, we had booked a time to go through the race museum, and after that Blair was able to meet Chris Nicolson, the skipper of the Vestas (Vestas makes all those huge wind turbines) boat, who was also the skipper of the boat Blair sailed last year. He asked Blair if the bunks were still as uncomfortable as in 2001. It was one of the things he had input for the boats in this race. When you only get to sleep in 4 hour shifts you need to have some comfort.

The Pro-Am race, one of the teams, SCA, is completely women.

Blair with Chris Nicolson, skipper of Team Vestas.

On our way to the Pension to shower and change before supper (we are still not used to the late suppers we are usually the first ones to the restaurants at 8:30 or so) we stopped for beer and chips on the beach, watched all kinds of sail boats enjoying the late afternoon breeze and walked back through the surf, trying not to be mean here :)

Beach view from restaurant.

The race start was not until 2 pm on the 11th. So we decided to check out the museum of contemporary art which was an almuddin grain silo) turned into an ultra modern building. Again this is an art gallery that is based on a donated collection of art. The basis of the collection was a group of prints that included works by Picasso, Chagall, Christo, Kandinsky and many more famous artists, quite impressive.

Little street on way to Art Gallery.

It was minutes to the race site from the gallery and as we arrived at 11:45 the first of the boats was pulling out to get into position for the 2 pm start. It was very crowded by the dock and the overhead walkway was quite empty, so we picked our spot and held it, was great.

Walkway after it got busy.

If you get a chance to see the start of the race on TV we are on the elevated metal walkway along the breakwater. Sharon was wearing a black and white ball cap. The helicopter got quite close a couple times and we were waving :)

Helicopter taking our picture. Notice swivelling TV camera off the nose.

The boats went up the beach,back, and around then left, it took an hour, was hard to see exactly what was going on with no jumbotron to watch, so hoping we can catch the start again on TV when we get back.

All seven boats starting the in port race.

It was really amazing to see all the boats big (Navy ship) to small (paddle boards) out to watch the beginning of the race and accompany them out of the harbour, they are now well on their way to Gibraltar, this leg ends in Capetown.

Abu Dhabi was second out of the harbour notice the destroyer and Aglaia forming a path for it.

 

SCA was last out...

After that we went to find lunch and it was tough as the cafés were all packed. We ended up sitting beside the Mayor of Newport RI and the head of tourism there. They are hosting the American stop of the Volvo Ocean Race in Newport in May and are quite excited to get the contract.

Sharon waiting for a table, very hungry and cranky, after the race.

We left Allicante on the 6:30 train bound for Valencia (pronounced Balenthia).

 

 

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