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Iker Martínez: “It looks like it won't be as straightforward from here as we'd imagined and there may be some important tactical decisions ahead”

This Saturday night seen the most crucial point of the leg so far. Past Cabo Branco the fleet rounded the northeastern corner of Brazil to finally commence their encounter with the southeasterly trades and some downwind sailing which allowed the gallop towards Miami to begin, the destination port of this sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. “Telefónica” is holding onto third place in the rankings, just half a mile from the second placed entry and less than ten from the fleet frontrunners, the boat skippered by American Ken Read.

Right now an array of options are opening up to the fleet. Should they head north, straight for the calms at the Equator, or should they gain west looking for some favourable current? The latter would imply gybing to port whenever possible and then gybing again further ahead to take on the Doldrums later on. In any case, crossing the calms at the Equator is at the forefront of everyone's minds...

It's a play with long term consequences and each of the boats is making their move. “To make the most of some strong east to west current, which helps us a lot, almost all of us have gybed to a westerly course”, wrote skipper Iker Martínez from on board the boat at midday today.

“There's the current, as well as other reasons inviting us to gain west while we can and I imagine that we've all got the same plan in mind. I suppose that we'll all move closer into the coast in search of stronger breeze before going back to a starboard tack”, added watch leader Neal McDonald.

A mere glance at the tracking map for the fleet shows that the gybing battle is underway. The first to do so was “Abu Dhabi”, in fourth place, just after putting the city of Natal behind them, and then doing the same again further ahead. “Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand” was next, also gybing twice, followed by leader “Puma”. “Telefónica” had been maintaining a starboard position but also chose to make a play, tacking at 09:00 UTC to become the northernmost boat in the fleet, almost stuck fast onto the boat from New Zealand with Chris Nicholson and crew, just half a mile ahead of “Telefónica”.

Both crews are yet again starring in a new head to head battle. Iker Martínez confirmed as such: “We had some really good sailing conditions last night and we crossed 'Camper's bow. The same thing happened in the morning but they gybed ahead of us, so this is almost an in-port near the Amazon. Right now they are less than half a mile ahead and this time we'll try to get past to the windward side and we hope that'll work”.

“Telefónica” might have almost two knots less breeze than “Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand” but that doesn't mean they'll be sailing slower than the kiwis. Leaders “Puma” are now under ten miles away from the Spaniards. Iker Martínez have managed to cover the furthest distance over the past 24 hours, notching up 324 miles for the run.

Focus on the forecasts for the next few days

“Long term there looks like there'll be a lot of variation in the weather situation, with the models pointing to a cold front crossing our path in six days or so”, said “Telefónica” navigator Andrew Cape today. “All of the teams will be weighing up their chances of victory according to the limited information we've got available, so I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of every bit of data”.

What before setting off from Itajaí in Brazil may have looked pretty straightforward tactically, is now proving quite the contrary, as Iker warns: “It looks like it won't be as straightforward from here as we'd imagined and there may be some important tactical decisions ahead and certain points where lots of miles might be dropped, so we're keeping our guard up”.

With the finishing line at Miami, over 3,000 miles away, there's a lot of ground to be covered. As this regatta has already shown us, it ain't over till it's over, so it is important to keep a close eye on every one of the boats in the fleet. Everyone here knows it.

“It's still a very open race”, said McDonald. “'Groupama' has a lot of ground to make up, but we've still got some calms ahead and the boats are so close to one another that we're watching out astern as well as ahead”, concluded the experienced round the world sailor.

To read the email from Iker Martínez in Spanish please click here.

PROVISIONAL RANKINGS LEG 6

ITAJAÍ (BRAZIL) – MIAMI (USA): 4,800 miles

Day 7 – 13:00 UTC – 29^th April 2012

1. Puma Ocean Racing (Ken Read), 3,029.6 miles to finish

2. Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson), +9.3 miles

3. Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez), +9.8 miles

4. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker), +46.6 miles

5. Groupama sailing team (Franck Cammas), +116.7 miles

6. Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson), DNS