Entries by Paul Cayard

TAKE TWO

We are at one of those rare moments in life where you completely relive the same day. As we crossed the international dateline yesterday near the end of the day, it immediately became the night before…”last night”..if you know what I mean. So today, we are having another crack at February 21 and it has […]

TECHNICAL EXPERIMENTS

RATS (rapid action technical seamen) Salter Ferris and Clougher were in an instant lather, upon finding the keel gauge string potentiometer had broken its flexible attachment to the keel head. This is an ESSENTIAL gauge for boat maneuvers, so was immediately set upon. Operations were directed by RAT Superintendent Chief of Everything Williams, who was […]

Crossed the International Dateline

Crossed the International Dateline today. That is a big one. Along with the Equator, it is the most significant line on the Map. It means that we are about half way round the planet and 180 more degrees to go to get back the Greenwich or 0 Degrees of Longitude. It also means that we […]

We had a great start, and we are out of there!

We had a great start on the Pearl and we are out of there! It is always fun to win the start of these offshore legs even if it probably doesn’t mean much over the three weeks that we have ahead of us. But is it the time when you are in front of the […]

An Ode to the Pirates

The Australian arm of Buena Vista International organized a spectacular barbeque for the Pirates and the local team, with a guest appearances from Mark Zoradi, Jeff Foremann, Robert Crockett and Donald Evans.  Peta Ascham, National Marketing Director of BVI, presented Paul with this heartfelt ‘Ode to the Pirates’. Download the Poem Here (Adobe Acrobat required)

Pirates of the Caribbean Ready for Rio

Wellington, New Zealand After a three day pitstop in Wellington, New Zealand the Pirates of the Caribbean will start Leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race on 19th February. On Leg 4, the Pirates of the Caribbean team will race 6,700 nautical miles from Wellington, New Zealand to the finish line in Rio, Brazil. “Our […]

Surf’s Up for Black Pearl Crew Member

Date – 11 Feb 06 The day before the start of Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race, Anthony Merrington or Youngster as he is known onboard The Black Pearl, joined pro surfer Nathan Hedge at Bells Beach for an early morning surf. Upon returning to Melbourne, the native Australian exclaimed ‘It’s every guys dream […]

Three hours until the start of Leg 4

With less than three hours until the start of Leg 4, the Pirates are busy with final preparations. Martin is filling in paperwork and taking newest crew member Jeremy (DB) to the dentist, Rikard is on his way to the only pharmacy in town open on a Sunday and Mark is in search of the […]

Approaching Wellington

We had a good run yesterday afternoon. 25-30 knots of wind and hit 34 knots as our top speed. Plenty of fun for the drivers as we surfed big waves off the west coast of the South Island. The Kiwi’s chirping got a little louder at first sight of the big mountains of the South […]