China's Dongfeng Race Team headed for their Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 Atlantic crossing towards the Portuguese capital, Lisbon on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders and American sailing fans from all around the nation swarmed into Fort Adams to watch the Volvo Ocean Racers up close. Light winds are likely to stall the six-strong fleet's progress in the early hours of the 2,800-nautical mile Leg 7 to Lisbon, but after a day or so conditions are likely to roughen up while temperatures drop considerably.
Only a year on from when the Chinese sailors did their first ever Atlantic crossing during training from Newport to Europe.
"This time I feel more confident when I stand in Newport because we have sailed across Atlantic Ocean last year," said Jiru Yang, called Wolf.
"I now know what to expect and what will happen on this leg especially how cold and difficult it is."
Wolf and Horace, Jinhao Chen, may now be feeling more confident with thousands of miles now raced but everyone is expecting this leg to be tough.
"The Chinese sailors were really nervous when we set off for our first transatlantic and now I look at them and see how far they've come," said the captain of Dongfeng Caudrelier. "Last time we did this crossing it was tough weather conditions but this time the weather is looking relatively calm for the first few days. I think the start could be the key for this leg, it will be really important to have a good start. The pressure will be on the navigators and how fast we can sail the boat."
Crossing during the spring is the fastest feasible time to sail across the Atlantic, but you have to be careful when trying to find a good way below the northern storm track.
The crew of Dongfeng, ranked second place now have Team Brunel (4 points behind) and Team Alvimedica and MAPRE (7 points behind) breathing down their necks, hungry for the podium positions.
