The next leg of the VORG is a short one, to Boston and after that we cross the Atlantic again, on our way to Ireland.

In the previous Volvo Ocean Race that leg turned out to be disastrous for the ABN AMRO 2, when Hans Horrevoets, a Dutch sailor, washed overboard and drowned.

Hopefully this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race can stay without such disasters!

From the Volvo Ocean Race Game website:

Sun 09 Nov 2008
We were tens of thousands rushing behind our computer screens today trying to take the best option over other competitors.
A veritable tornado hit our servers which went immediately into ‘Stealth’ mode.
More seriously, rest assured that to preserve the fairness of the game during this unfortunate blackout, the race has been put on ‘pause’. Racing will resume once the service has been restored online.
Our team apologies for this failure and we are doing everything in our power to ensure that the weather forecast become favorable as soon as possible
Thank you for your patience and fair wind to all!
Sebastien Destremau

Since around 4pm on Sunday the Volvo Ocean Race Game has come to a standstill. The servers on which they run the virtual sailing game have collapsed under the pressure. The smart-asses who developed the game are hosting another virtual sailing game, the Vendée Globe Virtual Race that started today from Les Sables d’Olonne, on the same servers.

The Vendée Globe Race is a round-the-world sailing regatta, without stopovers or assistance for monohulls.

That is more than 80,000 virtual sailors for 2 games with numerous variables that need updating every 10 minutes on 1 server. That is bound to go wrong, which happened today.

A lot of people are unhappy as they have been spending the last 24 days checking their positions on a very regular basis (that means a couple of times per day) and are getting very close to the finish of the first leg in Cape Town, now unable to make course adjustments or anything!

What I don’t really understand is how Volvo, a brand known for it’s safe and robust cars, can and wants to be associated with the developers of this virtual sailing game.

From the Volvo Ocean Race website: …Volvo‚Äö√Ñ√¥s three core values ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ Quality, Safety and Environmental Care…

Here we go, one of Volvo’s core values is Quality, yup with a capital Q.

Well after all the problems with the game, server downtime, non-communication, bad design, “Quality” is not a word that quickly comes to mind!

In the Volvo Ocean Race Game, the leader is getting close to the finish line with only 382 nm to go. There are now more than 48,000 virtual boats participating in the game and I am happy that I finally made it back into the first 9,000. At the time of writing my position is 8,710.

After I left the Doldrums, crossed the equator and rounded the buoy at Ilha de Fernando de Noronha, which is an official scoring gate that cannot be missed, I arrived in strong winds that took me south and east in the fast lane! On the screenshot below you can see the distance I covered in the past 48 hours.

[singlepic=122,320,240,,center]

Last night I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and with a bit of luck I can stay in the current depression taking me further to the southeast, leading eventually to Cape Town, where I hope to arrive within the next 5 days orso.

However it is very exciting to follow the race online!

As in the past edition they have set up a lot of interactive tools to enjoy the race around the world from “up-close”. They have:

• The official Volvo Ocean Race website with regular news, interviews, photos and podcasts
• A live tracking system with updates every 3 hours and optional replay from the start
• The official Volvo Ocean Race Game website

Now this last one – the game – is highly addictive. Playing it is simple: you choose the color of your boat and sails, you choose a name for your vessel and late starters do not have to start all the way back in Alicante, but will be placed in the last 20% of the yachts, so it’s still very interesting to actually race!

Every 12 hours you get an update on the wind (direction and speed) and this update forecasts the current conditions and those of 12, 24 and 36 hours ahead. You will be able to see the boats that are sailing in your direct surroundings, you can join groups and make friends with other skippers. Also you can change your sails and you can choose your heading. The game updates every 10 minutes, so you can see immediate result from your actions.

I was a late starter, discovered the racing game 3 days after the actual start and I was placed just outside (west) of The Strait of Gibraltar. My position then was somewhere around 24,000 and in a mere 1.5 day I have climbed up to position 13,575, still 10,914 km away from Capetown…

[singlepic=96,304,228,,left] [singlepic=97,304,228,,left]

I am approaching the Canary Islands now (in reality the 8 yachts are approaching the Cape Verdean Islands) and have to make the big decision whether to go through them or sail around them via the west. The wind forecast is a bit different from the one this afternoon when I was basically planning to go through them. Now however it seems better to opt for the west side.

All in all a very exciting online game and I am highly recommending it to anyone that has even the slightest interest in sailing!