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This morning “Telefónica” surprised the rest of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet with a decision to make a sudden tack. Now Iker Martínez explains the situation and the Spanish crew is preparing to face the days ahead which will be “somewhat crazy”, in the words of the double Olympic medallist.

The skipper on the Spanish boat explained that the last few hours on board “Telefónica” had been a bit “rocky”. Here Iker explains the situation early this morning: “The breeze shifted considerably into us and we had to tack. Apparently it wasn't a bad sign, but when we saw the report we saw that the shift had been just a local thing and whilst we we sailing as high as we could the boats to the windward side were doing so luffing 20 or 30 more degrees than us, so we had to get out of the area and to line ourselves up with the three leaders, but this time behind them. It was a shame because what we'd been doing had looked good”.

American boat “Puma” made the same move as the Spaniards, although in this case the loss in miles was greater, as the Basque skipper explained: “It looks like 'Puma' really did make a big loss, which is what we tried to avoid by any means”.

The coming hours will be testing, in search of stable winds from the East but up until then, “we are going to get some pretty chaotic winds, so it's better for us to be patient because this might just be the beginning of some crazy days ahead”, confirmed Iker, before adding: “There's not much breeze, but the boat is moving around a lot because of the waves and the adaptation these first few days is tough. In general there are a lot of headaches and little appetite on board, which isn't a good thing, but all we need is a small transition for our bodies to get used to the constant rocking around”.

To round off Iker Martínez wanted to send out a positive message, saying “The crew are all well and the boat too”.

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