Copied from Scuttlebutt issued 4 May 2001. Large crowds in Baltimore to see the V-70's which went on to Annapolis for Sundays start. If you time it right you may be able to walk over the Bay Bridge and see the V-70's on their way to their next lay over, New York City. There's also a weather forecast for Sunday.

CROWD EXCEEDS ALL EXPECTATIONS

On Thursday Baltimore said goodbye to the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 as the fleet headed off on a Parade of Sail to Annapolis. The teams arrived from Rio de Janeiro on the 17th April and have spent over two weeks in Baltimore‚s Inner Harbour. Whilst there, they have attracted a record numbers of crowds. Nearly 350,000 people descended on the Inner Harbour for the waterfront festival held in celebration of the race. Tourism officials estimated that half a million guests would attend both the Baltimore and Annapolis stopovers, which means that the crowd estimates during the weekend of the in-port race exceeded all expectations.

Visitors waited for more than an hour to access the dockside where the Volvo Open 70 yachts were berthed and enjoyed many of the activities going on in the race village such as the winch grinding, the team‚s pavilions and the LEGO Volvo XC90, which took three weeks to design and comprises of over 201,425 standard LEGO bricks. Spectators were also treated to the awesome site of the Volvo Extreme 40 catamarans whizzing around the inner harbour as they competed in the Volvo Extreme 40 grand prix series.

At 12 noon Thursday the boats left on the Parade of Sail to Annapolis where they are expected to be welcomed by a large crowd both out on the water and dockside. The seven entries in the race will spend two full days in Annapolis before departing on Sunday 7 May on leg six to Portsmouth, England via a pit-stop in New York. The boats are expected to arrive into New York between the 8-9 May, departing again for England on May 11. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org.

SO WHAT KIND OF WIND WILL THEY HAVE GOING DOWN THE BAY?

While some of the skippers in the Volvo Ocean Race are undoubtedly praying for a light air passage on Leg 6 to New York, a couple of others will be hoping for big breeze. Appreciating the importance of this variable, we asked official VOR meteorologist Chris Bedford of Sailing Weather Services to give us a preview. He responded with a very complete analysis, and here's an excerpt.

As of this writing, it looks like the start out of Annapolis will take place in a dying northeast or east breeze. Early morning puffs of 10-15 knot northerlies will ease quickly by race time. Light winds will veer from northeast and east toward the southeast and south with a weak thermal bay breeze developing by mid-afternoon. There may be an awkward transition between the old northeasterly and the new thermal breeze shortly after the start. Once into the southern half of Chesapeake Bay, winds will gradually increase from the south-southeast, perhaps building back up to 15 knots by Sunday evening.

Sunday night and early Monday- once out of the Chesapeake - a wind shift to the left will put the boats on the wind initially, until they can free their courses up once they get sufficient leverage offshore off Hampton Roads. The wind will build slowly early Monday morning, possibly reaching 20 knots and veering back to the southeast. This should allow for very fast reaching and then running angles until a little ways north of Cape May. Winds will be lighter to the north and for the arrival at New York where high pressure is expected to hold into later Monday and possibly early Tuesday morning. During Tuesday morning, moderate to strong southeast winds will build into New York Harbor. -- To Bedford‚s the complete weather analysis for the next leg of the Volvo Ocean Race: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/0504