News    All legsAROUND SPAINLeg 0Leg 1Leg 2Leg 3Leg 4Leg 5Leg 6Leg 7Leg 8Leg 9Leg Galway    Show 102050

The boats to the East continue to sail fastest and have positioned themselves in the lead in the leg rankings

The past few hours have been thrilling on board “Telefónica”. At average speeds of 21 knots, the Spanish boat has covered a whopping 499 miles (924 kilometres) in the past 24 hours. The high speeds have also boosted morale among the crew headed up by Iker Martínez and it looks like the situation's set to hold steady for a while, as team MCM Diego Fructuoso explained in his blog from the boat today: “We expect to have a few more days like this, so we need to sail hard, to try to claw back the miles and position ourselves well”.

“Telefónica” is currently the top yacht in the pack to the West having overtaken the crew from New Zealand on board “Camper”, the team's main rival last night. The team now has a 14 miles lead on the boat, which means that on this tenth day of racing on this fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, the Spanish boat is in third place in the provisional leg rankings.

On the other side, to the East “Groupama” holds a solid lead, whilst “Puma” is in second place on the way to Auckland, New Zealand thanks to some closed angled breeze giving the boat slightly higher speed peaks. However, the Spanish boat isn't giving an inch, as Fructuoso emphasised today: “As Iker said yesterday: we are going to fight right until the end and we won't be making it easy for anyone”.

For now the Equator is still under 1,000 miles from the bow of “Telefónica”. On this occasion the lulls are located in the Southern hemisphere, some 1,200 miles from the Spanish yacht's bow. It's likely that they will throw up a question mark for the navigators to resolve, as they must put everything they've got into choosing the best route through the calms and one that will get them through as fast as possible.

High speeds, maximum caution

In his daily report from on board the boat Fructuoso revealed what sort of conditions the crew of “Telefónica” are facing: “Right now we find ourselves in what we've nicknamed the 'bombero lechero', which basically means water coming at us from all sides! The waves are smashing into the boat with a lot of force and we are sailing very quickly at an angle of 90 degrees to the wind”. All this whilst heading South and the heat is starting to make its presence felt. “Inside the boat it’s starting to feel like a sauna: clothes, soaked with sweat and water, are hanging from the bunks. You almost feel like going outside and taking a bath in the 'bombero lechero'”.

In these conditions, with hard northeasterly winds of up to 26 knots, on board “Telefónica” it's maximum caution, because as Diego Fructuoso reminds us “It’s easy to get hurt and a number of us have already taken a hit”.

PROVISIONAL RANKINGS LEG 4

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

Day 10 – 13:00 UTC – 29^th February 2012

1 Groupama Sailing Team (Franck Cammas), 3,105.9 miles from finish

2 Puma Ocean Racing (Ken Read), +81.6 miles

3 Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez), +95.8 miles

4 Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson), +109.1 miles

5 Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker), +118.4 miles

6 Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson), +154.8 miles