There are a couple of first pitches. I got one of the ceremonial ones. Not the official one. But I did get to walk the ball out to the rubber and get introduced. The boat was on the Jumbotron. We were there for batting practice, it was pretty cool. The best part about it was sharing the experience with my son.”

Charlie Enright on his first pitch at the Red Sox game

The shorelines along Newport and Jamestown were jam packed with cheering fans and the bay was crammed with spectator boats blasting their horns as 11th Hour Racing skipper Charlie Enright and the Ocean Race fleet started out towards Aarhus, Denmark for Leg 5 on Sunday afternoon. The transatlantic leg is an important race with three teams within one point at the top of the leaderboard. 

For Enright who lives in Barrington, it was a brief ten day stay at home with his wife Meris, son Thomas, 7, and daughter Maggie, 6. But there were a few special highlights. Enright and his son, Thomas took in a Red Sox game on Monday night. The famous skipper threw out the first pitch. 

“There are a couple of first pitches,” Enright said. “I got one of the ceremonial ones. Not the official one. But I did get to walk the ball out to the rubber and get introduced. The boat was on the Jumbotron. We were there for batting practice, it was pretty cool. The best part about it was sharing the experience with my son.”

The skipper also got to speak at his son’s school earlier on Monday.  

“I spent some time in his classroom,” he said. “They have been following the race closely, as does a good chunk of the Barrington school system. The Ocean Race is such a good learning tool on so many levels. I studied the race when I was in second grade. That’s probably one of the reasons that I’m here.”

Before leaving on Sunday Enright, holding hands with Thomas and Maggie, paraded through the race village at Fort Adams with his team and the fleet. Fans cheered and gave high fives as they passed. At the dock, he said his farewells and hugged his family members before stepping onto Mālama, the team’s 60-foot IMOCA sail boat and heading out with the fleet to race 3500 miles across the beautiful but dangerous Atlantic Ocean. 

On board Mālama during the In Port Race, Enright spoke to the crowd through a video by media specialist Amory Ross, “A big thank you to everyone who came down. This is absolutely amazing.” 

In Port Race

Enright and the 11th Hour crew got off to a good start during the Newport In Port Race. But Team Malizia closed the gap on the second leg of the race course and passed them before the fleet headed towards the mark beyond the Newport Bridge. Team Malizia held on to claim first place as the wind flattened and they crossed the mark in front of the Castle Hill crowd. Enright and the 11th Hour Racing Team took a close second. Team Malizia had a short lead over Enright’s crew as they left Newport for the open ocean with teams Holcim-PRB and Biotherm following behind.

Enright and the 11th Hour Racing Team of Charlie Dalin, Justine Mettraux, Simon Fisher and media specialist Amory Ross, currently hold a 12.7 nautical-mile lead over Team Holcim-PRB as of early Tuesday morning. They lead Team Malizia by 41.9 nautical miles and team Biotherm by 53.1 nautical miles.