Ian Walker’s face is salt-streaked, his eyes red from the spray and sleep deprivation, but there’s nowhere else he’d rather be than here – in the middle of the Atlantic skippering his team in the Volvo Ocean Race.
During the first race stop-over in Cape Town, South Africa, Inmarsat asked the competing skippers to reflect on the huge impact our services have on their lives at sea. As our video shows, Ian Walker and his rivals agree it wouldn’t be possible without Inmarsat.
The short film captures the intense highs and lows of life at sea during one of the world’s most extreme sporting events, when satellite connectivity delivers essential tactical information and a means of keeping in touch with loved ones left at home.
Inmarsat is the race’s official Satellite Communications Partner for a fourth consecutive edition, providing cutting-edge safety services, vessel tracking capabilities, audio and video communications and social media access, as well as helping to raise morale throughout the nine-month long adventure.
Each Volvo Ocean 65 race boat is equipped with Inmarsat’s flagship maritime services – FleetBroadband 500 (FB500), FleetBroadband 250 (FB250) and Inmarsat C for safety. In addition, Inmarsat’s latest satellite phone, IsatPhone 2, is in each of the boats’ liferaft packs.
Whether it is downloading forecasts, race schedules or communicating with family and friends – it’s all made possible by Inmarsat.
After leaving Alicante on 11 October and arriving in Cape Town last week, the teams are set to continue on Leg Two on 19 November, sailing 6,125 nautical miles (nm) to Abu Dhabi, UAE.
The 38,739 nm adventure visits 11 ports across six continents. From Abu Dhabi the teams sail to Sanya, China; Auckland, New Zealand; Itajai, Brazil; Lisbon, Portugal; Lorient, France; Newport, USA; The Hague, the Netherlands, with a scheduled finish date in Gothenburg, Sweden of 27 June 2015.
