The countdown in Miami has kicked off. The racing format for this edition of the round the world race doesn't leave much breathing space and “Telefónica” has been back training on the water since yesterday, with four intense days ahead in Florida. Today (Wednesday) the crew headed up by Iker Martínez will be heading out again to the South Beach bay to do some five hours of training out on the water, and tomorrow it's the official training race, with the entire fleet taking part. On Friday and Saturday it'll be time for some ProAm and In Port racing respectively and on Sunday the start will be given for the seventh leg of the regatta to Lisbon (Portugal), kicking off at 17:00 GMT.

Tight schedule

There is barely a window left blank on the team's whiteboard planner at the base. With the boat back on the water on Monday evening, European time, it had been arranged that the crew would get back to their working routine on the Tuesday, however, most of the “Telefónica” crew members were already at the base by Monday, either working on the boat or on their specific shore duties.

There have been just three days 'off'. 'Off' in quotation marks because the crew have all been following the physical training programme at the gym under the supervision of the team's physical trainer Iñigo Losada, as well as the recovery sessions with the team's physiotherapist who has also travelled out to Miami, José Ramón Sánchez.

Following the skippers and navigators meeting with the Race Directors to talk about the upcoming leg which Iker Martínez and Andrew Cape attended, the entire Spanish crew met yesterday at the base to then dock out for a first feel of the Miami waters in a session ...

On moving into second:

“We’ve been toying with second for a few days now, and we don’t put too much into it. There’s a long way to go and a ...