American Team Leads Volvo Ocean Race Into Miami

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami has become the center of the sailing world as the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race arrived in Miami Wednesday afternoon.

The Volvo Ocean Race is a 37-thousand nautical-mile race around the world and Miami is the only North American stop over.

The American team on PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG crossed the leg 6 finish line just outside Miami's Government Cut shortly after 2:00 p.m.  The American team finished about five nautical miles over CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand.

This was the American team's second consecutive leg win.

Leg 6 of the race departed Itajai, Brazil on April 22nd.

The race, which is held every four years, began Nov. 5, 2011 with the first leg from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town, South Africa. From there the race went to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Sanya, China; Auckland, New Zealand; and Itajai, Brazil.

The Downtown Miami Race Village, located at Bicentennial Park, is now open.

The Village features entertainment, interactive pavilions, food, sailing opportunities and live events through May 20th.

The village also has an extreme sailing ride-simulator, a 3D-cinema featuring the history of the 39-year-old Volvo Ocean Race and a pedestal grinding challenge.

All the free activities are aimed at raising interest of South Floridians and tourists in the sport of sailing.

Visitors to Downtown Miami Race Village also have the opportunity to get up close to the Volvo Open 70s and their sailors. They can watch them in action on May 18 in the Pro-Am Race, May 19 in the PortMiami In-Port Race, and the start of the Leg 7 race to Lisbon on May 20.

For more information, visit the Miami stopover website: www.volvooceanracemiami.org.

The race concludes in July in Galway, Ireland.

Click here to keep track of the race and see who is in the lead.