SANTA CRUZ -- Sailors competing in a round-the-world yacht race stepped ashore Wednesday in Santa Cruz for the first time since leaving Hawaii 11 days earlier.

Ten teams, each consisting of 17 amateur sailors and a professional captain, left Liverpool, England, in September with the goal of circumnavigating the globe. Doctors, students, postal workers and those from other professions have suspended their careers and paid about $60,000 each for the entire passage in pursuit of Magellan's age-old quest to circle the Earth by sea.

This the first round-the-world yacht race to make a stop on the United States' West Coast, according to organizers.

Each team pilots a 68-foot racing yacht, and they vie for points based on finish position through 14 individual races. The team with the most points will be crowned the winner when the race concludes in July.

"They've made really, really good time from Hawaii" in spite of battling a stubborn headwind, said Zoe Williamson, communications coordinator for the race's organizer, Clipper Ventures Plc. Yachts are expected to continue to arrive over the next several days, and two boats that suffered the loss of their masts in a previous race should round out the fleet's arrival in Santa Cruz by early next week.

Just after 5 a.m. Wednesday, the team Uniquely Singapore crossed the finish line, edging out the Nova Scotia team by less than 40 minutes to capture the Hawaii-to-Santa Cruz title. The crew of the New York boat, which includes two Americans, arrived around noon to secure third place for its fourth top-three finish in the global contest.

Members of the Santa Cruz Yacht Club and the staff of Clipper Ventures were on hand as the New York sailors disembarked to offer mixed drinks, beer and sandwiches and a ceremony including a champagne shower.

Setting foot on dry land again makes the whole voyage worthwhile, said Gary Purdom from Seattle. The 54-year-old retired insurance executive was especially touched by the reception in Qingdao, China, where the fleet stopped before the race to Hawaii.

"They treated us like we were the Olympic medal winners," Purdom said.

"You're spending all of your time on 68 feet of deck space, just a postage stamp floating on the ocean," said 19-year-old Nate Thompson of Bar Harbor, Maine.

Thompson opted to forgo college for a year to take part in the race. Though he doesn't plan to pursue sailing as a career, he hopes to build on his now-impressive ocean-racing experience.

The first time things went wrong at sea, he was tempted to panic, he said, but he has quickly acquired a sailor's unflappability.

"As the English say, you get on with it," he added. "Every day's a learning experience."

And for many it's about more than just sailing. Every year, the race continues to draw more participants from outside the United Kingdom, where Clipper Ventures is based.

"As more people see the boats around the world, the crews have become more and more international," Williamson said. This year's crew members hail from 27 countries.

From Santa Cruz, as early as April 23, the race continues to Panama and then to Jamaica. After that, there will be "high expectations" for the New York team to win the next race to its namesake port, a feat accomplished only once before in the previous six Clipper Ventures races, Williamson said.

"They'll be trying to break what we call the home-port curse," she said.