Volvo Ocean Race stops at Harbor, on to Annapolis - Eight boats manned by sailors from around the world finish sixth leg of international grand-prix, are featured at Waterfront Festival

After nine months and nearly 33,000 miles on the rough, unforgiving waters of the world, you can bet the sailors of the Volvo Ocean Race will be ready for a cold brew. On Sept. 23, eight top-of-the-line racing boats, with crews of about 12 men and women, a skipper and their "honorary 13th crew member" Bart Simpson on News Corporation set sail from Portsmouth, England. Lucky for us Baltimoreans, the world's premiere grand prix of sailing decided to end the sixth leg of its round-the-world race here, in the pristine waters of the Inner Harbor.

Before the sailing bravados out there get offended, I'll admit I know very little about the sport besides the fact that the term "knot" is important to know for two reasons: One, speed is measured in "knots," which is approximately one nautical mile (6076 ft) per hour, and two, there are a shitload of rope "knots" you need to know in order to keep the boat going. Furthermore, I had no idea that skipper was anyone other than Barbie's little sister until about five minutes ago.

The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race, was created in 1972 by England's British Royal Naval Sailing Association. The first race was in 1973, and it did not conclude without incident. A total of three sailors were swept overboard, never to be found again, yet 14 boats managed to cross the finish line nine months later. It's not surprising that such tragedies occurred - the waters navigated are not docile by any means. During their trek around the world, the boats have to survive the journey to Cape Town, around the southern tip of Africa, as well as the forboding waters of Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America, on the way to Rio de Janeiro. In fact, tacticians recognize the first leg of the race (from Southampton to Cape Town) as the most "tactically challenging leg" because of the consummate skill needed to navigate the trip.

There are eight boats in this year's race, each vying for the Volvo Ocean Race title. There's no big payoff for the winners, but the victors definitely have a slew of commercial deals and bragging rights to look forward to. Yet, in order to take the title, the boat must get the most points after the last leg is finished. Points are awarded equally per leg of the race, so it's not a sail-around-the-world-till-you-finish competition.

All of the boats are sponsored and supplied by major commercial companies, including Semcon, Lufthansa Cargo and AMER Sports. In addition, the boats are sponsored by yachting clubs of one or more countries. Official Web sites, team bios and even team pictures of the good-looking, sun-kissed sailors are available online. This year, the teams racing are the Illbruck Challenge (Germany), ASSA ABLOY (Sweden), Amer Sports One (Finland and Italy), Teams News Corp (UK), Team Tyco (Bermuda), Team SEB (Sweden), djuice dragons (Norway) and Amer Sports Too (Finland and Italy.)

My curiosity for the Volvo Ocean Race quadrupled this past weekend when a sailor from the ASSA ABLOY bought me and some friends a round of drinks at Mick O'Shea's. After introducing us to his fellow sailors, he and his friends patiently answered all of our questions about what we thought were the coolest jobs in the world (he was a boat builder and his friend from Austria was a sail maker.) The Australian who bought us drinks was named Nick, but unfortunately, the three Long Islands I had that night completely erased the names of the other two from my memory. Nevertheless, I managed to retain enough info from our conversation to learn what they do.

In particular, the Austrian sailor to whom I spoke said, despite my insistence that he had the coolest job in the world, it wasn't his ideal occupation. Traveling around the world for the better part of the year, not seeing his family and being unable to settle down for more than a week at a time became tiresome. In fact, he said that in a couple of years he'd be giving up sail making to design boats and most likely get a day-to-day job working in an office. When I considered the fact that he had to live in a tiny cabin with 12 other unshowered sailors for weeks at a time, without a pillow and more than a couple changes of clothes, I reconsidered my naive enthusiasm. Yet he conceded that there were probably few experiences comparable to being involved in the race, making new friends all over the world and visiting very different, very eclectic cities. Nick later added that his job was so good, in part, because it gave him the opportunity to hang out with cool girls like us.

As we were leaving Mick O'Shea's, the Austrailian invited us to come see the ASSA ABLOY docked in the Inner Harbor. We figured out that we had until Friday, April 26 to go visit our new sailor friends. The Waterfront Festival in the Inner Harbor is going on all week, until the departure of the Volvo Ocean Race teams. However, they don't start the seventh leg of the race until after they venture to the Annapolis Maritime Festival April 27 - 28. Trust me, if I had a car, I'd be driving to the Bay Bridge to see the eight amazing boats out to sea this weekend.

To find out more, check out http://volvooceanrace.com.