After making their way through the Panama Canal, the 10 identical 68-foot yachts competing in the Clipper 11-12 Round the World Yacht Race started the 2,100 mile stage to New York on Tuesday night.
The fleet is taking part in the world’s longest ocean race and left San Francisco Bay in this U.S. coast-to-coast leg on April 14, having already conquered nearly 35,000 miles at sea.
The Clipper Race fleet will now set off on a one-sided upwind battle north, leaving Jamaica on the port side before heading into lighter winds near the Windward Passage.
Once out of the Caribbean the racing crews will experience wind from every point of the compass as the yachts head away from the steady Caribbean trade winds into the variable winds associated with the depressions coming from the North American land mass.
Thunder storms are likely to provide some spectacular backdrops with the air alive with static and lightning cracking into the sea around the finish line in the Ambrose Channel at the entrance to New York.
Click here to follow the race.
