News Corp’s Alby Pratt sent in this report at 1305 today from the navigation station of the seventh-placed boat in the Volvo Ocean Race.

“After a rather hectic start to mark the completion of a hectic 18 months of preparation we are finally under way in the Volvo Ocean Race. The Solent was chaos once we got clear of the restricted zone and everyone aboard anything that floated seemed to be trying to get as close as they could to the yachts. I felt sure that a couple of times our spinnaker was going to brush against one of the spectator boats.

“As soon as we were through Hurst narrows the breeze started to build and come aft more, giving us perfect VO60 conditions and surfing away from England at max speed. We were having a fantastic ride along side Assa Abloy and djuice with the boatspeed sitting on 16 knots. Everyone aboard Team News Corp was stoked to be finally on our way and actually racing after such a long build up.

“All the guys who were saying sad goodbyes to wives and girlfriends not three hours before now had huge grins on their faces as the realization hit them that this is what we had come for and there was no more boat work, no more sail work, no more food to pack, there was only one thing to do and that was actually race.”

Alby Pratt
Team News Corp