Following the devastating news of the rigging damage onboard Team Sanya, which has forced them to relinquish their leading position in Leg Two of the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race to make a detour towards Madagascar, the team issued a latest update on their plans. The team is making cautious progress towards to town of Taolagnero in the South East of Madagascar. There is a new port there called Port Ehoala which is where the team will be able to berth in order to take stock and assess the repair job required in order to come up with a more detailed plan of action to get them back into the race.
Mike Sanderson, CEO and Skipper of Team Sanya, added his thoughts now that he has had time to let the incident sink in: “Today was a huge blow, for sure one of the worst I have had in my Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race career. The whole team had just done the most amazing job to get us back into Leg two after our collision with an obstacle on Leg One. To then be forced out of Leg Two whilst leading the fleet with a rigging failure just feels like such a let down – but rest assured we will be back though for sure for Leg Three! That just has to happen, we made miracles happen to be on the start line for Leg Two and now we need to do it again to be able to join Leg Three to Sanya. Don’t give up on us!! We certainly haven’t lost one bit of faith and we know that we have what it takes to make our team, our families, our sponsors and our growing number of fans proud.”
