Monday, February 20, 2012

Volvo Ocean Race

About a month ago, the Volvo Ocean Race made a stop over in Abu Dhabi. We went down to the Corniche to check out the festivities even though we hadn't really been following the race. It was a gorgeous afternoon and a really fun event to learn a bit about the race and see the boats.

If you're interested in the race, here's their official website with a lot of info and the ability to track the 9-month journey. In a nutshell, it's one of those physical and mental endurance events where a team of 11 sail a state of the art sailing vessel over 39,000 nautical miles over a period of nine months. They call it the 'Everest of Sailing'. So, we really had to check it out. Here are a few pics of the event.
By pure luck, we arrived just minutes before the start of a pretty amazing air show. I took lots of pics, but this is about the only one that turned out really well. The planes here are shooting smoke the colors of the UAE flag.

 There are 6 teams competing in the race, one from Abu Dhabi. This is the Abu Dhabi boat and the  guy in front is the only UAE National on the team.

A shot of one of the crazy dudes repairing part of their boat. The work involved to keep the boat in perfect working order for 9 months must be incredible.

 Getting up close to see the boats.

And we can't have an Abu Dhabi event without a falcon or two! :) This was pretty amazing actually as this guy would let you take pictures with the falcons - some were even allowed to hold the perch and let the falcon sit on their arm. I tried to convince Brian to do it, but he wouldn't.

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