Volvo Ocean Race: Blair Tuke's first sight of home raises spirits

Blair Tuke grinding on board MAPFRE. Photo / Ugo Fonolla/Volvo Ocean Race

There was match racing off the east coast of the North Island last night as the six Volvo Ocean Race boats duelled for the leg win from Hong Kong to Auckland.

The boats were so close by early evening race organisers predicted through their Twitter feed, Race Experts, that "five boats could win this leg coming into the final few hours".

That would have been early this morning as the vagaries of wind and current hastened and slowed their progress down the coastline. The earliest predicted finish was 2am and the last boat across the line, the trailing Team Brunel, was due at 6am today.

There had been a stir earlier yesterday as crew members first spotted New Zealand. "I'm just a little bit excited," said 38-year-old British navigator Libby Greenhalgh on Scallywag.

Team AkzoNobel and Scallywag were at that stage bow-to-stern off the Karikari Peninsula, north of the Bay of Islands, about 150 nautical miles from the finish.

There are two Kiwis on board Team AkzoNobel, but there is no New Zealand presence on Scallywag.

America's Cup winner and MAPFRE crew member Blair Tuke told the Mike Hosking Breakfast show yesterday that they caught sight of the Three Kings Islands at daybreak.

"We should see mainland New Zealand in a couple of hours and be at North Cape within four hours. Pretty excited to be honest," the Olympic champion said.

"This has been a leg I've been looking forward to the most, having the opportunity to sail to New Zealand. It's been a long time away. I haven't been on a plane since the start of the race and haven't been back in New Zealand since September and before that it was America's Cup. So not much time in NZ over the last year so very much looking forward to getting home and seeing friends and family. Pretty cool way to do it."

Despite being off the pace in the sixth leg, Tuke said it had been an enjoyable experience.

"It's been an amazing race so far lots of different experiences, learning lots. The boat I'm on, MAPFRE, we've been going pretty well. Had a couple of tough legs now. The one up to Hong Kong wasn't so great for us and we're not in a great position on the way back down here but overall we're still in the lead.

"Now to be sailing into NZ we've got a real fight on our hands today with Dongfeng, who are half a mile in front of us, so it's going to be a long day sailing down the coast and into the night as we head into Auckland."

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