A different kind of sailing altogether!

We're avid followers of the amazing Volvo Ocean Race, where seven identical 65ft racing boats have already covered over 40,000 miles around the globe. Makes our pace on Maunie look a tad slow but there you are.

Anyway, for the first time in ages one of the stop-overs was in the UK this year so last Saturday we drove over to Cardiff to visit the race village and see the fleet.

We were really delighted to meet Dee Caffari, the amazing skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic. We last met her in Auckland 3 years ago when she was one of the crew of an all-women team on SCA and this time she's led a young and pretty inexperienced crew in the world's toughest yacht race.

Dee's boat - rather wider than Maunie!

The following afternoon the boats left Cardiff for the start of the 1300 mile race to Gothenburg  in almost flat calm. In the early evening we could see a couple of their sails, moving very slowly on the horizon, from our garden. They have been moving rather faster in the last 26 hours as they race across the final miles to Sweden.

The website for the race is here: https://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/home.html