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The fleet splits having sailed in parallel all night

The final miles towards the Philippines are set to be some of the toughest for the fleet and Iker Martínez's “Telefónica” is continuing to put up a fight on the final approach to the Philippines. With fewer than three miles to go until the obligatory waypoint, the Spanish boat, along with American entry “Puma” tacked, as the 10:00 UTC position report confirmed, also putting the Spanish crew as the fastest in the fleet.

It was no straightforward night on board “Telefónica”, as MCM Diego Fructuoso explained in his daily report from the boat: “Here we are, sailing and slamming at the same time. We've got between 15 and 20 knots of breeze but some very tricky swell: short and fairly constant waves. To add to that we're on a fully upwind course, so that means right into the waves”.

At under 300 miles from the Philippines and after the first day of racing in parallel with the rest of the boats, defending the North with all their might, Spanish boat “Telefónica” and US entry “Puma” broke the trend this morning with a tack to take on the passage through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines from Taiwan. Over the next few hours the results of each of the chosen strategies will be made clear. For now this decision looks like it's paying off for the Spaniards who are one of the fastest in the fleet, with average speeds of 12.2 knots.

24 hours more at 100%

The waves are continuing to complicate the situation and without going further away than our own “Telefónica”, the crew are up against waves of up to four metres and are sailing with 15 knots of easterly breeze. “Telefónica” navigator Andrew Cape said in an interview: “There's a lot of swell but it's not that bad. The wind is under the 20 knot mark, so it's not the end of the world”.

Andrew Cape also said that the met conditions would be changing because: “the breeze is dropping and we are looking for a little change. The coming days look tricky because we are in between weather systems. There are still a lot of things to become clear but the coming 24 hours will be about working hard upwind”.

Back to 'normal' life...

The first couple of days haven't been easy for the “Telefónica” crew who have to get used to life on board the VO70 again and to adapt to the pace of 24 hours of racing a day, as Fructuoso said today in his daily report from the boat: “After 24 hours on here your body begins to get used to life on the boat. The strange feeling in the pit of your stomach goes away and in my case at least, hunger sets in. I didn't have a bite to eat yesterday and everyone on here in general is eating less than usual”.

Fortunately, for this fourth leg the Spanish team has prepared a special diet based on Spanish foods because: “during the recent days off some of the guys took the chance to fly back to Spain and they bought back typically Spanish products in their suitcases such as ham and chorizo...”. The MCM's mouth was watering as he commented on the delights in store during the day, this time thanks to a selection of iberian cured meats brought back by Spaniard Pablo Arrarte.

PROVISIONAL RANKINGS LEG 4

SANYA (CHINA) – AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND): 5,220 miles

Day 2 – 16:01 UTC – 21^st February 2012

1 Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson), 4,860.8 miles from finish

2 Groupama Sailing Team (Franck Cammas), +8.6 miles

3 Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson), +9.6 miles

4 Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker), +14.7 miles

5 Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez), +17 miles

6 Puma Ocean Racing (Ken Read), +39.3 miles