How was your Christmas? The Volvo Ocean Race teams had wildly different festive experiences.
For Leg 3 winners MAPFRE, it was a case of home, shower and bed before a Christmas Day surrounded by good food, a chilled drink, friends and family. Xabi and co might even have found time for a spot of festive shopping.
Dongfeng followed suit, arriving in plenty of time for a Christmas down under, and were joined by Vestas, who completed the podium, and Brunel – both teams were running late for the Christmas party but made it on time.
Scallywag and Turn the Tide on Plastic missed out on the turkey but made it in time for the Boxing Day leftovers – and poor old team AkzoNobel, slowed by boat damage, must have been wondering if they’d even get to see in 2018, arriving days after the rest of the fleet.
Either way, Melbourne has been the perfect place for R&R after a brutal Southern Ocean leg – and it’s time to head off again, to a first-time Volvo Ocean Race stopover, Hong Kong! Here’s how you can follow the action which takes place early afternoon on 2 January in Melbourne, which is the early hours of 2 January for Europe…
© jesus Renedo/Volvo Ocean Race
How to follow the Leg 4 Start in Melbourne:
Leg 4 begins at 0300 UTC on 2 January / 1400 local
Watch it on the website:
Head to www.volvooceanrace.com at 2225 UTC (Jan 1)/09:25am local time on Jan 2 for interviews from the sailor’s terrace and the dock-out parade and 0245 UTC/1:45pm local for the racing, to catch a live stream of the action.
Check out Facebook Live:
We’ll go live at 2225 UTC (Jan 1)/09:25am local time on Jan 2 for the sailor’s parade and interviews and 0245 UTC/1:45pm local for the Leg start – you can visit our page to schedule a reminder so you don’t miss it.
Join us on our live blog:
We’ll be blogging all the moves and news from the racetrack on our live blog, including the best of clips and social content, from 0100 UTC/1200 local. You can find it at www.volvooceanrace.com
Make sure you follow us on Twitter:
We’re at @volvoooceanrace… and we’ll be live tweeting the action, as well as sharing the best content from the teams, stakeholders and fans on our feed.
Download the app:
It’s all-new, full of great content and fits on your mobile phone. Why wouldn’t you want the official Volvo Ocean Race app? Head to the App Store or Google Play to download it. It’s called Volvo Ocean Race.
Come down to the Race Village:
Based in Melbourne’s iconic waterfront, there’s a fantastic Race Village and it’s jam packed full of music, food, entertainment and loads of exciting things to do.
Play the Game:
Test your skills against some of the best virtual sailors in the world with the Volvo Ocean Race Game. Play it here.
