Volvo Ocean Race – One lap, tick for Team SCA!

by Volvo Ocean Race on 23 Apr 2015 On day five of leg six of the Volvo Ocean Race, Team SCA completed one circumnavigation of the world by matching the longitude from the furthest point west that they reached on first Leg of the race from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa.

The circumnavigation is a major milestone for the all-female crew of Team SCA. “I never thought I’d do it. Honestly, I never thought I’d be given the chance. I never thought there would ever be an all girls team in my generation,” commented Stacey Jackson, shortly after a congratulatory email arrived from race competitor Ian Walker, skipper of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing.

Team SCA is the first all-female team in 12 years to compete in the Volvo Ocean Race, and the team has been improving its on water performance leg by leg in this challenging race. Fittingly they were able to celebrate their circumnavigation by leading the fleet up the Brazilian coastline.

“We have finally been able to show what we have always known: we are a strong team. We are a good team, we are physically capable of sailing these boats like the other teams. We are proving that out here, strength is only a piece of the puzzle, experience is a bigger piece, and teamwork is the biggest piece. And today, on Team SCA’s one lap milestone we have cemented the puzzle together,' comments onboard reporter, Corinna Halloran.

“I always thought I would go off and sail around the world in my own little boat,” comments navigator Libby Greenhalgh. “I knew there would be a small chance it could happen, but I’m a bit in shock that it really did happen. I’m very excited, it’s something only a few people in the world have done - wow, sail around the world.”

At today’s 1000UTC position report, Team SCA were in second place 1.2 miles from Race and Leg leaders, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, with the rest of the fleet a few miles further back.

“We have had some good fast sailing it the right direction over the past 24 hours with plenty of action and most of the fleet around us. Everyone is pretty much in a line east-west heading for the mark, so will be an interesting couple of days of cat and mouse,” added Jackson earlier this morning.

The fleet is due to arrive in Newport, Rhode Island, USA between May 6-9.

Breaking news
At 1115h UTC Team SCA reported that their port runner winch drum had cracked while under load. Abby Ehler confirmed, that the team had swapped out the pit runner winch drum and were trying to fix the port runner winch to make it usable as a pit winch.