Position: 37,28.13S , 120,47.42E Speed: 14 knots, Course: 124 deg. The black Pearl is now about 350 miles southeast of Eclipse Island. We have nice 15 knot wind from the southwest, a beautiful moonlit night, and a great forecast for the next three days. This should allow us to make good progress toward Melbourne at […]

HEADLINE NEWS The Black Pearl had a wildlife rendezvous this afternoon with a well known predator of the sea, as a shark got caght on their rudder, whilst ‘smoking’ along nicely at 20-25kts. Helmsman Craig Satterthwaite reported “I felt a sharp thump on the rudder and then vibration through the steering, so I alerted the […]

Seahorse January 2006 We are close to completing our first leg of this Volvo Ocean Race. It hasn’t been without incident. We have broken the vang off the mast, hit an object in the water which damaged our rudder, and incurred some damage to our keel support structure. At this point, some 4000 miles into […]

Last evening at 1845 the crew of the Black Pearl noticed cracks in the area of it keel support structure. Water was coming into the boat from those cracks and still is. The rate of water flow is manageable at this time. Sail was immediately reduced. Photos and video of the cracks were recorded and […]

Position: 41,22.44S , 75,3.69E Speed: 25 knots, Course: 105 deg. Sorry for not writing a report yesterday. It was a long hard day pushing to get every ounce of speed out of the boat heading for the scorings gate. I started to write my report last night and then there was a very loud bang. […]

Position: 41,8.50S , 52,35.54E Speed: 17 knots, Course: 82 deg. Very interesting day today that produced a lot of work for skippers and navigators. Basically the weather systems that we had been sailing in and planning on sailing for a few more days changed and we had to scramble to understand a new picture. The […]

Position: 42,56.9S , 38,23.49E Speed: 18 knots, Course: 82 deg. We continue to march along to the east is 18-20 knots of wind from 020. All is well onboard the Pearl although we did have a small electrical fire. Juggy and Jules sorted out. It was a “two alarmer”. That means it was only severe […]

It has been a rough 15 hours out here. Yesterday afternoon the wind came up to 30 knots from the southeast and some rather large and steep waves built up. Port tack in particular was very rough. The Pearl was launching off the waves at 11 knots and slamming down hard making some awful sounds […]

It is that time of the year again. Time to wish everyone all the best for 2006. For the Pirates, we are eagerly looking forward to getting out on the ocean and doing what we are here to do. The stay in Cape Town has been great, a lot of us have had our families […]

Pirate Update, Cape Town December 24, 2005 It is Christmas Eve and it doesn’t feel like it…at least not for all us Northern Hemisphere people. It is a bright sunny day and the sun came up at 0500 and will set around 2100. But it is really nice down here and Africa is a very […]

The Pearl Sails again! All went well. Tomorrow we go to sea. Paul Cayard Pirates of the Caribbean

The Black Pearl arrived in Cape Town yesterday, November 27 after an uneventful flight on the Antonov 124. She was then transported to “Pirate City”, in the harbor area, which will be our base of operations for the next four weeks. We again want to thank our partner Pescanova for their generous and useful support […]

We have now been in port for 36 hours. I know there are a lot of stories, rumors and thoughts going on around the water cooler so I thought I would give you my perspective to add to your daily conversation. A couple of facts first: 1. This is a race on points not time. […]

Kimo Worthington, GM Pirates of the Caribbean. The communication systems on board are not yet functioning, but I am in contact with Paul via satellite phone continually. At 5am this morning, there was a strong vibration on the boat that lasted approximately 15 minutes. Erle Williams went off watch to do a boat check and […]

10 November 2005, Vigo, Spain: Pirate fever is spreading! Just in time for the start of Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006, the Pirates of the Caribbean team has announced a new sponsor. Pescanova, one of Spain

In light winds on a beautiful sunny day in Bay of Sanxenxo, on the Spanish West Coast, the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race got started yesterday with the first In-Port Race. Not only was this the start of this epic yachting event, now in its 9th edition, but it was also the first time that this […]

We put the Black Pearl back in the water on Halloween but it was too windy today to take her out for a spin. The wind has been blowing 45 knots today with the waves crashing over the sea wall and spraying my portable office. It has been blowing 20 plus from the South to […]

Today we did a really nice thing with Disney and Pescanova for the children of Vigo. Pescanova, the Spanish fish company that had an entry in the 1993 Whitbread Round the World Race, organized a special day for the children of Vigo at their shipyard today. 500 children were invited to come and meet the […]

Its been a while since I wrote a note. The team did a great job with all the work on the boat. We had 15 guys come in from all over the world and each and everyone of them was fantastic to have as part of Pirates. Thanks to everyone as they worked like champions […]