45,000 nautical miles, 11 stages and four continents. The longest return to the world ever.

The final tour of the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018 is already known that will start one more edition of the port of Alicante with the end in The Hague (Netherlands). It will also be the longest in history with a total of 45,000 nautical miles, or the same 83,000 kilometres. The return to the world in stages par excellence will have 11 scales where it will pass through the waters of the five continents.

Unlike what has been traditional, the first stage will be only 700 miles between the capital of the Costa Blanca and Lisbon. This will be before the Atlantic crossing, from north to south, to Cape Town, a forced stop before facing the Great South, where it will triple the number of miles by Antarctic ocean waters and the rise by the Pacific to Hong Kong and Guanzhou (China) and down to Auckland (New Zealand).

The passage through Cape Horn will return you to the Atlantic to go up Itajai (Brazil) and Newport (United States) and cross the 'puddle' to emphasize in Cardiff (Wales) and the stages on the European continent, from then to Gothenburg (Sweden) and final in the Netherlands.

No team has yet been officially announced, in the 2014-2015 edition there were seven, the number is expected to be similar in the next one, although a year and a half are still missing for the appointment.

Text: Jaume Soler
Blog: www.jaumesoler.net
Twitter: @ SolerAlberti