Breaking VOR News! Telefonica Blue...

From the Folks of Volvo and the few remaining peeps in what remains of the media center...

Telefonica Blue is hugging the coast of Spain after being slowed by steering damage on their Volvo Open 70 soon after the start of the 2008-09 race.

Skipper Bouwe Bekking had been jostling for the lead with PUMA and the Ericsson duo as the eight boats left the start line in Alicante Bay in 20-25 knots.

Just 20 miles into the first leg to Cape Town as the fleet drag raced to the Straits of Gibraltar, Bekking reported to race headquarters in Portsmouth that they had broken a tiller arm and were down to one rudder.

Bekking has yet to decide whether they will have to stop for repairs and a decision is likely as they approach Gibraltar in the next few hours.

Read full report published on VOR's site

Public are still trying to get into Puma City but the swag is being packed up, the pace is very relaxed with the exception of Telefonica Camp. Ericsson folks are quite pleased with the early lead over the entire feet and Mark's "The Ten Zulu" report just in as I edit this blog post!

This will be my final blog from Alicante, Spain and a looking forward to catching the last bit of New England foliage. However, not the end of coverage and the plan is to rejoin my new found family in Cape Town...till then hope to sort out all my material and have hours of audio from talking with teams. The press people provide more information than one knows what to do with! Then there is following the race and getting into weather reports, which I adore.

At last, the game!

There is plenty to keep one occupied with and rather enjoy my new found job in doing so...finally (yes there is a finally), bookmark the Boston Stop-over Home Page! The site is up and the insider scoop: going live soon.

Cheers!