Volvo Ocean Race commences Leg 5 tomorrow

Photo by Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race

Following the latest information on the development of Cyclone Pam, organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race have given the all-clear for Leg 5 from Auckland in New Zealand to Itajai in Brazil, to now start tomorrow, Wednesday, 18 March.

This follows a meeting of the organisers with the six teams' skippers, navigators and weather experts in Auckland.

This leg of the round-the-world Race was supposed to have started last Sunday as initially planned. However, the cyclone is still a very severe system near New Zealand and most of the routes on this leg will take the boats very close to that cyclone for a substantially long period of time. This cyclone has killed many people and created a total disaster in some islands that the boats raced through north of New Zealand.

This leg is a 6,776 nautical mile stage across the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn.