Fifteen-meter waves, icebergs, exhaustion, and savage weather are all part of the challenge of the Volvo Ocean Race.
The 10 sailors on each of the seven 21.5m carbon fiber yachts wouldn't have it any other way in the seven-month, round-the-world voyage that starts with preliminary races on Saturday.
"Everyone here is an adrenaline junkie," said American sailor George Peet, 24. "It's only cold and wet. It's pretty minor suffering when you look at the best sailing in the world."
PHOTO: EPA
For 58,000km, crews face the best and worst the world's oceans can offer. They'll be soaked and hammered by car crash-like impacts from waves, and struggle for catnaps in the deafening noise of a tiny cabin.
And that's when things are going well.
"If we are not careful, we could really damage something or hurt someone," said Simon Fisher, 27, the British navigator on a Dutch entry. "It's dangerous. It's exhilarating, like racing a car or snowboarding down a mountain."
The crews from six nations -- the US, Brazil, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia -- start competing today with in-port racing off this small town on Spain's northwestern coast.
The first of nine offshore legs of the race -- from Spain to South Africa -- starts on Nov. 12 from nearby Vigo.
For the first time since the event was founded in 1973 as the Whitbread Around the World Race, spectators will be able to watch the yachts competing close to shore.
In all previous races, the yachts set off from England and might not have seen again for weeks before they reached the next port.
The new yachts designed for this race, called Volvo Ocean 70s, have to be able to endure the severe conditions of the Southern Ocean while also being able to compete on a closed course in calmer waters near shore.
For single- or mono-hull sailboats, the new yachts are astonishingly fast, exceeding 75kph. The Spanish team's Movistar set a world record for mono-hulls in April, when it sailed more than 985km in 24 hours on a transport leg.
"It's absolutely incredible for a 70-foot boat," Volvo Ocean Racing Director Andy Hindley said.
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