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This morning, with a change of watch in full swing, “Telefónica”'s satellite telephone was ringing off the hook. Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, some one thousand miles from the Equator, Diego Fructuoso picked up with a “Hello Spain!”. Taking it in turns, Pepe Ribes and Xabi Fernández answered each and every one of the questions put to them, against deafening background noise resulting from the high speeds that “Telefónica” has been notching up over the past few hours. Speaking live from the boat Xabi explained: “Right now we're sailing with 20 to 25 knot winds and during the day we've had gusts of 27 and 28 knots. We're managing averages of 21 knots, more or less and we are soaking, in quite honestly uncomfortable conditions: we've got our shells on and there's a lot of water out on deck... but things are going well and the boat loves these conditions, and if she's happy, we're happy”.

Fighting for the podium

According to the latest position reports “Telefónica” is in third place and currently leading the pack to the West of the fleet, with Pepe Ribes underlining that: “Our boat is very fast when reaching. We have something of a disadvantage in terms of the leeward side with “Groupama” and “Puma”, but we hope we can fight it out with “Camper” and we hope that'll give us enough to fight with the other two we've got further to the windward side, but with “Camper” and “Abu Dhabi” we hope to surely be able to fight using pure speed”.

In other words: “they're in the control seat right now. We hope that the fleet will be compressed somewhat in the Doldrums and we'll have to see if it's enough to give us some more options from here to the finish”, explained the sailor from the Spanish port city of Alicante.

Xabi Fernández mustered up all of his optimism, saying: “We are currently in a situation that we must admit isn't ideal and we've had a difficult leg so far, especially yesterday when we weren't able to get on a route to gain South. There are teams that have done things a bit better and I think that's why 'Groupama', 'AbuDhabi' and 'Puma' are in a better situation. At least now we've got fairly good conditions and we're doing better than 'Camper' in particular and we'll see if in a couple of days, if this carries on if we can get up there and fight for the podium”.

Thinking about the Equator

It's looking very much like once the fleet reaches the lulls at the Equator, the 'accordion effect' will exert it's force on the boats, allowing the yachts to regroup. Pepe Ribes: “there's sure to be some compression in the Doldrums, but whoever gets out of there first will be able to push away, so... We're looking at an area to get through the lulls where in theory we may not have to stop for long. The wind will drop to ten knots but we won't be getting zero breeze. I must also say that on this leg fifty percent of the forecasts have been off target with the actual conditions out on the water, so often we doing our routings based on conditions that don't materialise in the end”.

The Pacific Doldrums will behave very differently to the lulls at the Equator in the Atlantic. According to Xabi Fernández: “During the day there's not much calm. It's not a zone of zero knots like you get down there but you know that to go from North to South that you can get stuck for a day, if you're lucky and if you're not that could be three or four... But here it looks like we'll be getting ten knots of breeze and on these boats with that wind and a good angle you can do 13-14 knots, so I think we'll get through this zone quickly”.

Given the situation, the “Telefónica” trimmer said: “It looks like the West is still going to give us a bit of an edge pressure-wise, so if we have a slightly worse angle we'll be sailing more closed than them and in theory we'll have a bit more breeze than them. So, as I said before, I hope that we can get into the fight for the podium. We will try to fight, to start off with the podium and right now I think that we've got 'Camper' in a good enough position and now we've got to go for 'Abu Dhabi'”.

Australia, the moment of truth

Once the fleet gets through the lulls at the Equator, at the height of Australia the positions for the leg finish will be defined, as according to the “Telefónica” trimmer: “I think that the most tricky zone will be a bit further down, as we get to the North of Australia where highs and lows form quickly and where our navigator is hoping that there will be some excitement and we'll be able to get back into the fight for the top”.

The key lies in balance

With a clear objective, the Spanish team is looking for the perfect balance between angle and speed: “we can't close in too much and nor can we go for too much speed because we've got islands to the leeward side that we have to negotiate. We are looking not to drop the pace and not to slow down too much”, said “Telefónica” boat captain Pepe Ribes.

Xabi Fernández went even further to explain that the key is: “everything as a whole. The boat and the crew are things you work on early on during the preparation stages and it's something we worked on a long time ago. Once you're racing, the most important thing is the strategy and tactics and getting the meteorology right. I think it's something that we did impeccably on both of the first two legs and that made the difference; of course we're all giving it our all in the crew but I'm sure that it's the same for all the other boats. This is something that we worked on all summer, both that and the optimisation of the boat and sails. So, on the whole most of the work was done beforehand and now what we have to do is really work hard on the racing”.