I went back to the One Degree 15 Marina Club this morning to photograph the boats in the Volvo Ocean Race as they left to start the 4th leg of the race. There were a lot more people at the marina this time, and lots of activity preparing for the departure. I set my tripod at a good vantage point, away from the crowd, to photograph the boats as they pulled away from the marina and headed out to the start. The boats started leaving, one by one, at 11 AM, and departed at roughly 5 minute intervals.
I wished I had a slightly longer lens (the longest I have with me in Singapore is a 24-105mm) but I made do with what I had. I used a polarizing filter, which cuts about two stops, and then I made the images even darker by underexposing by another stop, thinking the scene was brighter than it was. Fortunately, these are RAW images, which gives quite a bit of latitude in exposure adjustment in post-processing.
The order of the boats in the images is as follows: 1) Delta Lloyd; 2) Ericsson 3; 3) Green Dragon Team; 4) Telefonica Black; 5) Telefonica Blue; 5) Puma; 6) Ericsson 4. There were 8 boats at the start of the race, but Team Russia failed to secure sufficient sponsorship, and had to pull out of the race upon reaching Singapore. It appears this is an example of the impact of the global financial crisis.
Next stop for the boats is Qingdao, China, with the predicted arrival on the 30th of January.
Update
The official race website has a fascinating race tracking page--highly recommended!