Volvo Ocean Race- A warm and colorful welcome for Team SCA into Sanya

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com NZL on 28 Jan 2015 The all-female crew, Team SCA, arrived to a warm and colorful welcome including fireworks, Chinese dragons, orchid garlands and traditional costumes into the city of Sanya on Hainan Island in southern China early Tuesday evening (local time).

The all-female team crossed the finish line of Leg Three just before 1300h UTC, completing the leg from Abu Dhabi to Sanya, China in 24 days 2 hours 41 minutes and 45 seconds.

'It was a really different leg. I wouldn’t say it was hard in terms of the physical side but it just had lots of things coming at all angles whether it was the shoreline, fishing boats and posts and nets, or obstacles in the water. It was challenging in many different ways for all of us, as we have never sailed in that part of the world, which certainly kept us on our toes.'

'I have never been to China before and what an amazing welcome. We were blown away by the number of boats on the water when we finished and the number of people and the volume is incredible, so it has made it quite special,' said Abby Ehler (GBR).

'From a team perspective, we are aiming to constantly improve leg by leg and we have definitely seen signs of improvement in the sailing and the team work and now we only want to build on that. So we know it is only going to get better, to sail within sight of the other guys for so long was really good and to keep hanging on to those miles and not let the gap lengthen too much towards the finish kept us going and now we want to make sure that we improve on our finishing place overall, preferably ahead!' added Dee Caffari (GBR).

'I think everyone is really happy to arrive into Sanya it is amazing to see so many people here surrounding us right now. I feel that we really grew up as a team on this leg and I think it’s only going to be better in the legs ahead,' concluded Elodie-Jane Mettraux (SUI).

Team SCA will take a few days break before returning to prepare for the start of Leg Four from Sanya to Auckland, New Zealand on Sunday, February 8.



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