Alan Block (Mr. Clean on Sailing Anarchy) and Matt Knighton (the OBR for Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, the team that won the previous edition of the Volvo Ocean Race) have a new video podcast all about the media coming off the boats in this edition. I am, as you probably will be unsurprised to learn, very excited about it.

I’ve created a spreadsheet to keep track of the metadata for all the Raw Content videos being uploaded off the boats. See here:

http://ift.tt/2AaRAME

Alan made a nice comment on SA about how helpful the spreadsheet was for his preparation for this episode.

Leg 2 of the race started this morning. This is the first full-on ocean-crossing leg: 7,000 miles, finishing in Cape Town about 3 weeks from now. Great footage from the live show, including helicopter shots of them blasting out into the North Atlantic with 30+ knots of wind. Dongfeng was first out of Lisbon, with MAPFRE right behind them.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/2hHVOEV.

Vestas Wind returning to the VOR:

Team Vestas Wind announced in Abu Dhabi today that they _will_ rejoin the race. Details are thin at this point, but there should be more information coming at a Vestas press conference after the in-port race tomorrow.

Hints from Alan Block (Mr. Clean of Sailing Anarchy), who’s in Abu Dhabi and has talked to all the principals in the last few days, seem to imply that they won’t be back any earlier than Lisbon (letting them do the last two legs) or Lorient (letting them do the last leg). Chris Nicholson will be the skipper, and will decide who will be in the crew. The “redemption” theme they’re talking about might favor the idea that the crew will be unchanged; i.e., that Wouter will return as navigator.

Which would make me very happy.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/13ZtdkN.

Alan Block (“Mr. Clean” of Sailing Anarchy) interviews Sam Davies in Cape Town on the eve of Leg 2.

In the Sailing Anarchy thread where he posted the video he labeled it “my crush.” The video description says “dreamy.” I’d comment on that except, well, (mumble) reasons.

Good interview, including detailed discussion of the whole “Person in charge” vs. “Skipper” thing. In general, his interviews of people in Cape Town over the last few days have been great. It’s basically just him with an iPhone running around talking to people. Too bad he’s not planning to be at the Abu Dhabi or Sanya stopovers.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/11q5Qze.