Position: 23,8.63S , 42,22.76W

Speed: 9 knots, Course: 78 deg.

It was a very friendly send off at the dock this morning. Many fans were on hand at Marina Gloria to say good bye to the fleet. The Brazilians were great hosts and did a fantastic job with the stopover.

Onboard the Black Pearl the crew were wearing the yellow jersey’s (the official Brazilian national football teams jerseys complete with our names on them!) that the Brazilian children gave us last Monday after the conclusion of our traditional Pescanova kids day. It was our way of saying thanks to Brazil and taking a piece of Brazil onboard with us.

Maybe it was the jerseys and maybe it was us, but the Black Earl was the first boat around the mark at Copacabana and led the fleet off to the east. It is such a great way to start a leg. Even though there are 4900 miles to go, it helps mentally. Ericsson led the fleet out of the bay followed by the Pirates a couple of boat lengths back but we stayed further offshore going west up Copacabana beach and closed in on Ericsson. Then as they came out from the beach, we could not cross them so we tacked on their lee bow and they fell into our bad air. From there we just herded the fleet and led around the mark.

Initially we were very fast on the run out of Copacabana. At one point we had a one mile lead over Movistar who shortly after the mark passed Ericsson.just faster. We then picked up a large stick on our keel and tried many different ways to get it off but none were successful. So we are slowly loosing to the whole group for a couple of hours.

Then about an hour ago, all of us sailed through a cloud line and parked. Anthony Merrington dove in and got the stick off. However, Movistar got by us and so did ABN 2, not by much.

Currently we are very close to Movistar, ABN2 and Ericsson. There is only 5 knots of wind and the forecast is very light tonight. We are about 20 miles from Cabo Frio which present an opportunity to turn left about 30 degrees.

It looks like a long and slow couple of days ahead as we battle to overtake the wake of an old cold front. After that we will get the southeast trades and should make good progress.

Paul Cayard

Pirates of the Caribbean

The third Grumetes – cabin boys in Spanish, girls too we hope – and Pescanova Pirates Day of the race so far proved to be a lively affair with a cacophony of drum beats, roaring cheers and cannon fire, accompanying a spectacular display of dancing and gymnastics from the Circo Popular do Brasil and the bateria mirim of Unidos da Tijuca’s samba school.

It wasn’t purely about entertainment. Commander Cayard took to the floor, not to samba, but to tell the children about the Volvo Ocean Race and life on the high seas. The details of what his sailors wore, what they ate and what animals they saw along the way had an enthralled audience giggling and waving their skull and crossbones flags.

The spotlight then turned on Cayard himself, dressed up in bandanna and full Pirates gear, who was bombarded by questions about where the toilets were on the boat, why there were no women in his Pirate crew and how many girlfriends the crew had in every port.

The first Pescanova Pirates Day took place during November at Vigo, Spain where official partner Pescanova, the Spanish fishing company, have an Oceanic School of Sailing. The roadshow aims to teach children around the world about navigation, nautical sports and the marine environment and so far, around 5,000 children have attended the three shows to date.

It was a tough day for the Pirates today. The conditions on the Rio harbor were excellent with steady winds of 14-18 knots. The spectators were numerous and very enthusiastic

We had a very nice start and first windward leg and run to round the first leeward mark second to ABN AMRO One with Movistar close in third. We rounded the second windward mark still in 2nd with ABN AMRO One stretching out by now with their speed and Movistar about 5 lengths behind. Approaching the second leeward we missed the lay line and this forced a couple of extra gybes all while trying to take the spinnaker down. The main problem we had was that we got the jib twisted around the head stay and then caught on a hank. This cost us Movistar and Ericsson and a lot of distance. Unfortunately, the bleeding did not stop there. We managed to loose ABN AMRO Two and Brasil1 on the last lap to finish last. It certainly was quiet onboard as we crossed the finish line.

Bad days happen. You always think you are going to prevent them from happening, but they happen.

I gathered the guys and ran a short debrief onboard, really just to try to pull everyone together and acknowledge that we made some mistakes, I took blame for some of it, and to try to put it behind us. We will do a full review of the day on Monday make sure we make some notes on these things to review before the next inshore race in Baltimore.

The big picture is we are still the same team that moved from last in the standings to third and we have the same boat and we are still in third place overall.

Tomorrow the crew are off while myself and our PR staff prepare “Pescanova Day” on Monday. We will welcome 500 young people to Marina Gloria from 1000-1200 Monday to learn more about Pirates of the Caribbean and the Volvo Round the World Race.

Tonight is the prize giving for leg 3 and 4 where we did some very good work with a third place and a second place. Unfortunately we are not in a very happy mood right now. Hopefully that will improve in three hours so we can enjoy the evening.

The plan for the week is a full work day on Monday for everyone then I want the crew to take off for a couple of days and get out of the sun and heat.

We will sail on Friday to make sure all is well and ready for the leg and then take Saturday off. Jules and I will of course be studying the weather all week with our meteorologist Jean Yves Bernot.

I am heading back to the hotel for a shower and to put my feet up for a few minutes.

Paul Cayard

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Pirates of the Caribbean team celebrated their second place arrival into Rio de Janiero in style at an elegant cocktail reception hosted by Ermenegildo Zegna on 21 March.

Pirate cocktails and celebrity guests were the talk of the evening as the crew of The Black Pearl enjoyed stepping out in their Z Zegna suits alongside the Piratesses who were elegantly dressed in by Agnona.

Position: 35 North 85 W,

Course and Speed: 180, 540 knots

I have had a good week at home in San Francisco and am ready to get back into the Volvo Ocean Race. My week was a mix of work and rest, the perfect mix for me. The unexpected chore (forgotten might be more appropriate term) was to prepare my taxes. I came to this ugly realization on the flight from Rio to SFO. Talk about a bubble bursting revelation. For all Americans, this is an annual pain in the back side that occurs in April. Since I wont be home between now and April 15, I had to take it on last week. Done and gone.

I have never been as tired as I was last week. I don’t know….10 feet longer (the boat), 2 fewer people (the crew), and 8 years older (me). I don’t know whether you multiply those factors, add them up and divide by something or what, but the bottom line is that I was exhausted. I weighed 192 lbs. on arrival at SFO which is about 15 pounds under normal. My first run and first day at the gym were pretty slow. I feel pretty good now, back to 202 lbs., and have a base to build on for the next two weeks. I am into fitness as I believe it is key to physical and mental strength.something you need in this race.

I did get some good time in with my family too. My kids are 16 and 17, a son and a daughter, so we have it all going on at home. They went to Santa Barbara for a high school sailing team race this weekend. My wife, Icka, is doing an amazing job of holding down the fort which is not easy as a single parent. All in all, I am very blessed with family and a nice home. And it is all still there!

We had no major damage on the last leg so Rio has been the first stopover where our shore team hasn’t had to do a major repair. They have completely checked over The Black Pearl. Nothing surprising was found. Regular maintenance has been carried out with a special attention to the canting keel system as usual. We even had time to get some fresh paint on the deck to make her look pretty for her arrival in the USA.

Reflecting on the last leg and the race so far, I am pleased with how things have progressed for Pirates of the Caribbean. Before the race started, I predicted it would take until Rio for us to get our act together on the race course. With a 2nd in the Melbourne in port race, 3rd to Wellington and 2nd at the Corn and Rio, the results show that we are now running on all cylinders. It is satisfying to see what we have accomplished in 9 months.

A strong coalition of efforts by our designers-Farr Yacht Design, our builder-Green Marine Southampton, our keel ram manufacturer-Rexroth, and quality workmanship by the Pirates shore team, has dealt with the technical problems we encountered on the first couple of legs in a professional manner. The proof of this is that we have not had a repeat failure.

Everyone has problems, it is how you deal with the problems that defines you. The Pirates have scored well here especially considering we are the youngest boat in the fleet.

Our mast by Hall Spars has always been solid. Our sails by North are good and getting better. This is a key area of speed on these boats. Improving sails requires a coordinated effort by the sail designer and the crew.

Equally importantly, as a sailing team, we are getting stronger. We have learned a lot about how to sail this boat; sail selection, sail handling techniques, steering, and canard usage. Jules and I are getting well versed in deciphering the weather through various sources and then making our strategic decisions. We will change two crew here in Rio as Rodney Ardern and Curtis Blewett return to Alinghi. Jerry Kirby (USA) trained with us last summer and has always been slotted to be Blewett’s replacement. Jerry has won the America’s Cup, done the Volvo with Chessie Racing in 1997-1998 as well as sailing on Pyewacket which is a big version of the Black Pearl.

Jerry is taking over the “senior citizen” position previously held by Erle Williams and previous to that, held by me. I am gradually becoming relatively young again. Ian Budgen (GBR) is taking Rodney’s position. Ian is a 49er sailor with big boat experience from the America’s Cup and Transatlantic sailing. It will be good to get a bit of new blood onboard. I think we have one of the best crews on the race track.

That is where we are today. But as the saying goes; tomorrow is the first day of the rest of this race.

We need to collect everything we have learned to date and use it as a foundation to launch our effort for the second half of this race. There are a lot of points – half of the total for the race to be exact – left to be fought for. I am just as interested in trends as in scores. We have been on an upward trend since our last place ranking after the Cape Town in port race.

We are now in third place and I want Pirates of the Caribbean to continue its ascent. Where we finish, I don’t know. But the direction of our travel needs to be upwards for me to be satisfied.

So, it has been a nice week off for the sailors, but it is time to crank it up.

Paul Cayard, Skipper

Pirates of the Caribbean

Paul Cayard made a special stop at the St Francis Yacht Club for the annual Olympian Support Committee Dinner & Auction, during his brief visit home between Legs 4 and 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race. Paul updated the full house on the Pirate team’s adventures thus far aboard The Black Pearl. On display in the lobby was Paul’s winning trophy from the 1997-98 Whitbread Round the World Race. Together with fellow auctioneers Bob Billingham and Russ Silvestri, the auction raised funds in support of StFYC Members striving for gold in Olympic Sailing.

I’m writing this week’s report from the Pirate’s base in Marina da Gloria, Rio de Janeiro. Following on from our strong finish into Rio, the team is upbeat and determined to continue our move up the leader board.

The crew have now taken a few days off, either to go and visit the sights and sounds of Brazil or fly home for some rest and relaxation. They’re due back tomorrow when they’ll get to work on the jobs at hand.

The Black Pearl’s in pretty good shape, the best of any of the stopovers so far. We’re tackling a huge job list but there’s been a major change in this stopover. During previous stopovers we’ve had major repairs to carry out, but in Rio we’re ticking jobs off which are purely maintenance based.

The Black Pearl was out of the water for a week and just went back in this afternoon. Every element of the boat has been thoroughly cleaned and checked to ensure she is in peak racing condition. With a new coat of paint on the deck, The Black Pearl will also be looking her best for the Disney and Pescanova VIPs, as well as a number of journalists, coming out sailing with us this week.

As I sit here in the beautiful city of Rio, it’s extremely difficult to do anything other than go to the beach (not that we’ve had the chance yet!). The heat is sweltering, so much so that we’ve had air conditioning installed on the boat for the guys working down below. The team have consumed in excess of 2,000 bottles/cans of fluids and we’ve only been here just over a week! The conditions for working have been virtually unbearable, but they’ve stuck at it and powered on.

This stopover we’ve beefed up the shore team which has proven invaluable. We’ve learned by experience that it’s crucial to have the right people in place.

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to three valuable members of our shore team. First off is our most senior Pirate, Murray McDonnell who everyone knows as ‘Murph’. At 55, Murph brings the team a wealth of experience and boasts six America’s Cups to his credit. Murph also worked with Dennis Connor throughout the last Whitbread (97/98) aboard ‘Toshiba’.

Murph was a recruit of the ‘Pimp my Ride’ Academy, at the very beginning of the race in Vigo, when we enrolled the help of as many boat builders as we could, in order to get The Black Pearl ready for the start. Murph returned to help us when we had to divert to Portugal and then joined us again in Cape Town, where I asked him to join the team full time. Without a doubt, Murph has become indispensable to the team.

From the oldest to the youngest on the team, there’s Rikard Grunnan from San Francisco, who celebrated a milestone birthday this weekend. Rikard is a recent high school graduate and is taking a year off before heading to Arizona to study Mechanical Engineering.

Rikard’s day is as varied as you might imagine when it comes to maintaining a VO70. One day Rikard maybe doing carbon repairs and then he’ll hop over to maintain the boat’s many components. He also has his power boat license so he’s the official driver of the Captain’s Protector and in charge of getting some of the team from one side of the harbour in Niteroi to Rio.

I’d also like to introduce you to Craig Gurnell, a 30 year old sail maker from Whangarei, New Zealand. When it comes to sails, Craig’s your man – whether it’s repairs, shape changes or logos. Craig’s job is to make sure that the team sails as fast as possible – and that the sails stay in one piece. I say in one piece because the crew is only allowed 24 sails from start to finish. Craig started sailing when he was just ten and has worked in the industry for close to 13 years. This is Craig’s first round the world race and he hopes to crew on a VO70 in one of the upcoming VORs.

Last week the focus was on preparing The Black Pearl to go back in the water. This week we’ll be welcoming the sailing team back and looking forward to our events shoreside with Disney, Zegna and Pescanova.

We’ll keep you posted from Rio.

Kimo Worthington

General Manager

Pirates of the Caribbean

Seahorse March 2006

Position: 47,48.88S , 50,11.62W

Speed: 21 knots, Course: 56 deg.

My third rounding of Cape Horn was the best. We got to within two miles of the Cape and having been there before, it was all about enjoying the moment this time. There was one other person onboard who had been there with me in 1998, Justin (Juggy) Clougher, and there were four of us rounding for the third time. That made it special and we decided to live it up. We took plenty of photos, video, laughed and reminisced, and after we completed the second of two gybes in 33 knots of wind, we broke out the cigars and sat on the stack and really enjoyed the moment. That’s a far cry from how we did it on EF, but hey, that was then and this is now and I am older and smarter. We coughed up a few miles but it was worth it. It certainly was a different Southern Ocean leg this time, with the ice waypoints keeping the fleet north. No ice, no snow, only got the gloves on for the last three days. It was probably very smart of the organizers to keep this event safe and under control. These are very new boats and not all of the bugs are worked out.

This Volvo Ocean Race has been very interesting for me. From the first meeting with the Disney executives in Burbank last May, which captivated my imagination and passion, to the difficulties of getting the boat built and launched in 5 months, to finding a great team in short order, to living the breakdowns, and now finally, getting some traction and being able to race. What a fantastic 10 months!

The VOR 70’s are amazing machines. Very light at 14 tons and very powerful with lots of sail area, they are quick in all conditions. In big breeze, they are extremely fun to sail…like a dinghy. They plane incessantly at speeds up to 35 knots. We have hit 39 knots as top speed on the paddle wheel, which at those speeds is out of the water 50% of the time. The inshore races are a blast…the boats change positions very easily and downwind crossing situations with two boats coming at each other at 20 knots of speed is not uncommon.

In the ocean, they take quite a pounding at those speeds. With flat sections and almost no rocker, they pound shudder, creak, and bang along. You never know what is making the sounds you here. They sound like things that are breaking, like broken glass or breaking carbon, but obviously it isn’t because if it were, we would not have made it around the Horn. The ride down below, in the nav station in particular, is much rougher than in the 60’s. Violent is a polite way to put it. The carbon also makes the boats very noisy. The water rushing by and easing of winches are very loud sounds inside this drum. The whole package adds to the fatigue.

As far as the boats go and the fleet, it appears that Jaun K has hit it closer to the mark than the others. ABN1 in particular is a very fast row of seats….very well thought out from many aspects. Beam gives you form stability, that is obvious. But it also gives you sheeting angle, a wider platform for stacking, and more room inside. There is a downside to beam and that is drag. But it appears that they overcome their drag penalty at around 10 knots upwind and reaching and 20 knots running, again because these boats have so much sail area and are so easily powered up. ABN’s inner forestay system is clever as well. They have their number 4 jib on a roller furler that sets on an inner forestay that is tensioned with a hydraulic ram. This allows for easy deployment of that sail and it is used when changing sails which set on the head stay as they have no foil. Hanks are safer in these boats as there is so much water coming down the foredeck that it is easy to loose a sail, and or a person, overboard in a change. They also have two smaller rudder which works well when heeled and a lot of other details which are working very well for them. The complete package is very, very fast. Having said that, they are very sticky in light air. So we have to hope we will find some light air races like the Sanxenxo inshore or possibly the finish up here in Brasil in a few days time, and pack some points on those ABN boats.

I have really learned a lot form this project. Sails are a whole other world when sailing at tight apparent wind angles all the time. Sizing and shape is extremely critical to speed. This is something catamaran sailors have no doubt known for years. The engineering, materials and mechanics behind the canting keels is also very interesting and important for the future of sailing, not just racing but cruising as well. I am enjoying being challenged by these new things, working with my team, and learning so much.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a great team onshore and at sea. We have been very fortunate to get such a strong group of people together and I have really enjoyed working with all of them. To see 30 individuals come together as a team through hard work is really beautiful. The common denominator is the project, and the more experiences the project has, the tighter the team is. Obviously being linked to such a popular brand as “Pirates of the Caribbean” has been a lot of fun too.

This campaign will be over before we know it. June 18th in Gothenburg is little more than 100 days away. The long legs are over and I hope the big repair jobs are too. No it is about racing and scoring points. It should be a lot of fun coming down the stretch.

Position: 23,19.8S , 43,16.50W

Speed: 15 knots, Course: 8 deg.

What an incredible afternoon and night. I have never been in so much rain. It has been one squall after another with huge down pours. Of course this reeked havoc on the wind. It was a 15 hour work out-changing sails one after another.

We got passed by Brasil yesterday afternoon but we some how managed a little better in all the crazy conditions to grab second place back. We broke the watch system off at the point when Brasil passed us. No one wanted to go to sleep until we had passed them back. To have to sprint like that right at the end of a 6700 mile-three week leg- was tough for everyone.Brasil and ABN2 also.

We are happy to be here in Brasil and happy with our result.

That is about it for now. Too tired for more. Tomorrow.

Paul Cayard

Pirates of the Caribbean

Position: 26,7.36S , 44,19.28W

Speed: 7 knots, Course: 333 deg.

It has been very slow going for the past 24 hours. Added to that there seems to be no pattern to the weather. There is no trend. The wind is blowing basically directly from Rio so we are making very slow progress to the finish. If there were some pattern to recognize – it would be a lot less stressful. We could make a strategy and execute.

The GRIB told us that we would catch easterlies over the top of this high bubble and reach to the finish. ABN AMRO One appears to being doing that from the position reports. They have had to make some investing tacks on port (you can tell when they do this as their course is to the north east and they usually loose a bit of mileage) but it is working for them. However they are 80 miles more north than we. So seeing what they have we have invested a bit on port tack to try to get to the east and north. So far no luck.

Rather we seem to be blocked by the high bubble and if this is the case then there are a myriad of possibilities as to what will happen. So we have to try to stay between our opposition and the finish so that as they close in on us we at least have a chance of getting picked up by what ever it is they have. Knowing where they are or where they are going hour to hour is a bit hard to do when we only get a report every six hours-but at least we get that. So we are basically in a holding pattern.

It is hard not to think that this is a bit unfortunate.that the wind direction couldn’t be from any other direction so we could make steady progress and just finish off these 200 miles and get our second place. But this is the nature of sailing and especially when you get close to land and Rio is notoriously light and fickle.

It is very hot out here. Not much wind so it is hard to get cool enough below to sleep. We still have food and diesel so no urgencies there yet.

We are the best we can with what we have.

PC

Pirates of the Caribbean