Volvo Ocean Race Leg 4 - Xu Lijia Team SCA's guest ‘jumper’

by Team SCA on 9 Feb 2015 Team SCA has today started the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, leaving the tropical Chinese city of Sanya on the island of Hainan to race 5,264 miles to Auckland, New Zealand.

Joining the team today as guest ‘jumper’ was Xu Lijia (Lily), Team SCA’s Chinese ambassador and Olympic sailing gold medalist. Xu Lijia joined the team sailing in Abu Dhabi and has spent time with them here in Sanya.

'I did a series of signals in semaphore to wish the girls good luck before jumping into the water. I signalled 'Team SCA rocks!' It was a very unique experience, and I felt very emotional when we said goodbye to each other on the boat.

'Thinking of them at sea for another three weeks - I can barely imagine how tough life onboard is in all the different conditions. My very best wishes to all those amazing female sailors and a safe journey to Auckland,' commented Xu Lijia (CHN), when she was safely back onshore.

After an all too short break in China, the crew is now looking forward to some heavy weather sailing.

'This is the first leg where we anticipate that we will have some serious wind so we are quite excited to see something different. We have been training in heavy winds and we know we can perform, so this will be a good test for us,' commented Annie Lush (GBR) just before the team left the dock.

The fleet will head north-west in strong upwind conditions for the next three to four days and will then turn south-east into stronger winds. After reaching the equator, the all-female team will be looking to position themselves well before entering the Doldrums. More heavy thunderstorms are expected as the fleet closes in on Auckland. This is expected to be the toughest leg so far in this ten-leg race.