The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews and will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain the race spans some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete.
The first race - originally known as The Whitbread Round the World Race - left England in September 1973 and was a name conceived over a pint of beer.
Each leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 re-starts from the following ports on the following dates:
Alicante, 11 October 2008
Cape Town, 15 November 2008
Kochi (India), 13 December 2008
Singapore, 18 January 2009
Qingdao, 14 February 2009
Rio De Janeiro, 11 April 2009
Boston, 16 May 2009
Galway, 6 June 2009
Göteborg, 14 June 2009
Stockholm, 25 June 2009
St Petersburg, 27 June 2009