ABN AMRO ONE continued its dominance of the Volvo Ocean Race by winning the fifth leg from Rio de Janeiro to Baltimore on Monday.
With skipper Mike Sanderson at the helm, the Dutch entry crossed the finish line off Baltimore Light to complete the 5,000-nautical mile (9,260km) journey from Brazil to the lone US stopover port.
ABN AMRO posted a time of 15 days, 2 hours, 47 minutes, 52 seconds and finished 26km ahead of second-place movistar.
"Once again, the boys have done a fantastic job," Sanderson said. "I am always happy, but today I am more than happy and I am very proud to be part of this team. It is a great day for us and I am looking forward to getting onto dry land here in America."
Pirates of the Caribbean was the only other Volvo 70 in the bay by the time the lead boat finished.
Pirates, a US entry sponsored by Walt Disney Company and skippered by Paul Cayard, was 8km past the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and sailing in 20-knot winds with 1.2m seas at mid-afternoon.
ABN AMRO ONE has won four of the five legs. Sanderson and his team from the Netherlands hold a commanding 22-point lead in the 57,875km Volvo Ocean Race, which has nine legs and visits 10 countries.
The fifth leg started on April 2 on Guanabara Bay off Rio de Janeiro with ABN AMRO ONE quickly falling into last place because of a headsail problem. Sanderson got the Volvo 70-footer nicknamed "Black Betty" moving and she began working her way through the fleet.
Skipper Bouwe Bekking was relieved as movistar finally finished Leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race just after dark on Monday.
The Spanish entry ghosted across the finish line at 8:14pm local time, nearly 5 hours and 3 minutes behind leg winner ABN AMRO ONE. Bekking called the final kilometers "excruciating" as movistar was moving at a mere one knot of speed much of the way.
Yet the crew all sported smiles as the yellow, blue and black Volvo 70 eased past Baltimore Lighthouse at the mouth of the Patapsco River. That's because movistar rebounded from a near-sinking on Leg 4 with a superb Leg 5 that vaulted the Spanish boat from fourth to second in the overall standings.
Movistar took an early lead on the 9,260km leg and held it to the scoring gate at Fernando da Noronha, earning 3.5 points as a result. Bekking and crew then picked up an additional six points for placing second and the total of 9.5 points moved movistar past ABN AMRO TWO into second place overall with 40.5 points.
As of the latest position report, third place Pirates of the Caribbean was 137km from the finish and was not expected to arrive in Baltimore until the wee hours of yesterday morning.
There were some anxious moments for Sanderson and crew during the latter stages of the Chesapeake Bay portion of the leg. ABN AMRO ONE, which needed more than 16 hours to complete the 185km stretch of the Chesapeake Bay, fell into a windless hole near Thomas Point Light and its boat speed dropped to zero.
Trimmer Robert Greenhalgh went up the mast to look for wind and ABN AMRO ONE drifted along for nearly four hours. Just more than a kilometer from the finish line, the Dutch boat was forced to drop anchor to avoid being swept backward by an ebb tide.
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