Valencia's annual Rite of Spring, Las Fallas, ended in a blaze of fire, smelly smoke and noise Sunday night. The locals say you can switch to shorts and t-shirts after Las Fallas, and sure enough Monday dawned hazy, warm and a bit humid. Met man Chris Bedford assures us the haze is the result of the weather, not from last night's city-wide towering infernos known as La Crema.

Officially, Spring sprung in Valencia last evening at 19:26 (7:26 p.m.), the time of the vernal equinox.

In most if not all cultures, the vernal equinox is an auspicious day for new beginnings. As Alexander Pope said in An Essay on Man (1732), "hope springs eternal."

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

For more on the blessed ending of Las Fallas, check the nice article and photos on the official America's Cup website.

For more on auspicious beginnings, stay tuned to our team website and your favorite team blog.


Team members take a brief time out to commemorate the arrival
of Spring last evening in the Port America's Cup...


...and our ever-ready team photographer, Gilles Martin-Raget, springs
into action to capture the moment, alongside our marketing team's
boat "Henri Lloyd."