Team Alvimedica arrived safely in Newport Monday night and after a 10-day crossing of the Atlantic Ocean the talk was all about a good meal.
The Volvo Ocean Race entrant led by Bristol’s Charlie Enright completed the trip from Lisbon to Newport at about 8 p.m. The Volvo Ocean 65 was greeted by several friends and a flotilla of about 20 boats at Castle Hill and escorted into Newport Harbor in a steady rain. The young team is preparing for its first Volvo Ocean Race, which starts in October. The team will continue its training and crew selection process this month in Newport.
“It’s everything I could have hoped it to be on a rainy night, it was really nice for every one to come out,” Enright said of the welcome. “After 10 days on the open ocean, coming into Newport is an amazing thing.”
According to a Sail Newport twitter posting, members of the team were headed for burgers and beers as soon as they could Monday night. The crew will relax for a few days and then participate in the opening event of the New York Yacht Club’s 160th Annual Regatta. Team Alvimedica’s Volvo Ocean 65 will be a favorite in Friday’s race around Conanicut Island.
The team’s ocean crossing was an important milestone for the team. “It was a big step for Team Alvimedica,” Enright said. “We had good weather all the way across. We’re excited about what we achieved and what’s to come. We’re here doing some more raining before we head back across the Atlantic in July.”
Enright, 29, is joined at the helm by Mark Towill, a native of Hawaii who he teammed up on the sailing team at Brown University. Enright is a grandson of Clint Pearson, co-founder of Pearson Yachts, which helped launch the modern era of fiberglass boat construction. He raced eight- and 14-foot dinghies on Narragansett Bay as a teenager and earned All-American honors all four years for Brown’s sailing team.
The Volvo Ocean Race starts in October in Alicante, Spain and will stop in Newport next May before an expected June finish in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Courtesy of www.providencejournal.com
