Last weekend in Alicante the Volvo Ocean Race 2008/2009 started. It was quite bad weather the entire weekend, so there was no point in going there to see it.
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!
