Volvo Ocean Race
The fleet departed from Rio De Janeiro at 1500hrs local time on Saturday 11 April for leg 6 to Rio De Janeiro.
Leg 6 was won by Ericsson 4 at 21:05 GMT, 26 April 2009 after 15 days, 10 hours and 31 minutes of sailing, click here to read more about leg 6.
USEFUL LINKSRead the Leg 6 PreviewDownload the Leg 6 sailing instructions (PDF 590 KB)Download the Leg 6 crew lists (PDF 83 KB)
It can be hard to leave Rio, and not just because of the people, the music, the beaches... light air often envelops the city. Once they escape, the teams are faced with the problem of how close to cut the corner of Brazil at Recife. If they go offshore the breeze is generally stronger and steadier, but they will have to sail further.
The south-running Brazil current is also a factor here, and they will be keen to avoid it. No sooner is that hurdle behind them than they have to recross the Doldrums for the fourth time (thankfully they are narrow this far west), before locking into the north-east trades.
Finally, some easy miles, working to position the boats to skirt the western edge of the Azores High. They will have to cross the Gulf Stream, but whether or not there is any direct gain to be had from the swirl of warm water and eddies heading for Europe remains to be seen. And as they close on the finish, they will have to deal with low pressure systems departing America for their own trip across the Atlantic, especially as this will be late spring.
Looking further afield, the race organisation has put in place an exclusion zone to the east of Boston on the approach to the Leg 6 finish. It is shown in grey on the Race Viewer and has been installed in conjunction with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a known haunt for whales in that part of the world.
Due to speed restrictions in the sanctuary, the fleet has to sail around the exclusion zone before they can turn south to enter Boston Harbour.