February 1, 2006, Melbourne, Australia – Melburnians had quite a surprise today as they looked out of their city office blocks to see a 70 foot, high performance ocean racing yacht glide past their windows on a truck.

After an epic 4000km journey from Fremantle to Melbourne via the arid Nullabor Plain, the first Brazilian entry in the Volvo Ocean Race finally arrived to take up her berth at the Waterfront City Race Village, Docklands.

Charlie Mills was the truck driver who was entrusted with the nerve wracking task: “It was a pretty worrying journey as everyone was phoning me up and asking where I was and I was saying I am getting there as quick as I can. There were a few delays on the way. During the run across the Nullabor we had gale force winds pushing the boat around and I had to back off a little bit. It has certainly been an experience and a half.”

The boat was quite a site on the back of the lorry and at times he was given some humorous advice, as Mills explained: “Going across Nullabor I had a lot of comments. People were telling me I was going the wrong way and pointing in the direction of the nearest water, but thankfully I managed to keep my promise to the team and the main thing is that we got here in one piece and I think the crew were delighted to see us.”

The final part of the trip took Brasil 1 over the West Gate Bridge in front of a spectacular Melbourne skyline. Whilst the rest of the fleet went under the Bolte Bridge as they arrived in Melbourne, Brasil 1 went over it before making the final turn into the race village.

The boat was greeted by an anxious race team who have spent the last few days looking at the seconds tick down, knowing that every minute the boat was delayed, would be less time to get the boat repaired.

With the new mast arriving a few hours in front of the boat, the team will now get the new mast fitted and the boat race ready for the in-port race out on Port Phillip Bay this Saturday 4 February.

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