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The Spanish boat has been slowed right down due to the lack of breeze whilst rivals manage to push away

Iker Martínez, the “Telefónica” skipper had forewarned yesterday that “the high pressure can change your plans at any given moment” and that is exactly what has happened on this fifteenth day of racing on the leg between Itajaí (Brazil) and Miami (USA). “Telefónica” saw how their chosen route to the Bahamas was made even more complicated with the team having to forgo all of the windward gained over the past few days, moving down to the islands to enter into a battle with “Groupama”.

The French boat skippered by Franck Cammas chose an alternative route between the islands, as the southernmost boat in the fleet and has moved into third place in the rankings provisionally at the 13:00 UTC position report today. “Abu Dhabi” also looked like they would take a route through the islands of the Bahamas, although it wasn't to be that way in the end and the boat is currently 99.9 miles from the lead and 16.4 miles from “Telefónica”.

In many ways, what has happened is exactly what was said might happen in these incredibly unstable conditions that the fleet find themselves in. Watch leader Neal McDonald said very clearly yesterday morning “The leg can turn around completely in a second. Once you hit the 'parking zone' a small separation can make a big difference. One boat might not have any breeze while another gets two or three knots more. We're up against a very difficult situation over the next few days”.

“Telefónica”'s lucky numbers didn't come up this time around and the boat has found itself facing the most adverse of conditions in the fleet, which are impeding an advance at any sort of acceptable speed. The Spanish team is notching up average speeds of 8.7 knots. The fastest boat in the fleet right now is “Groupama”, at 9.2 knots of average boat speed.

“We've had some pretty decaffeinated 24 hours aboard 'Telefónica'”, the team's MCM Diego Fructuoso reported today. “Things haven't played out as we wanted them to and we're in a light patch watching how the other boats we've been battling against for the past few days get away and the ones behind us are getting closer and we can't do anything about it. Sailing's like that and even more so in this type of racing”.

Day T shirt, night T shirt

The light airs are not the only things that the crew are grappling with aboard “Telefónica” and the soaring temperatures continue to feature heavily on this sixth leg, although they let up somewhat last night for “Telefónica”: “It's not as hot as it has been at night any more and some of the guys are making the most of it to have a change of T shirt: they use the light one for the day time and at night they use the heavier T shirt . The sun is continuing to heat things up and with such light airs it's tough being out on deck in it. We've got our caps on and long-sleeve T shirts to protect us as much as possible, but even so, it takes its toll”, wrote Diego Fructuoso.

Friday 11^th: estimated arrival day

At 509.5 miles from the finish and with the current conditions, the estimated date of arrival at Miami for “Telefónica” is still placed at around Friday the 11^th of May.

The routing is being constantly checked a the chart station and according to Xabi Fernández said yesterday that this is no good sign. “We're still thinking that it'll take us another four days or so, so that means that we're all going to slow right down again once or twice, 10 or 12 hours at zero breeze, so everything is still wide open for us all”.

On board the Spanish yacht the guys are fighting for every single mile, but it's not going to be easy. In the words of Fructuoso: “we still hope to make a comeback but right now there's not much we can do. We're about 500 miles from Miami and at this pace they could seem eternal”.

PROVISIONAL RANKINGS LEG 6

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

Day 15 – 13:00 UTC – 7^th May 2012

1. Puma Ocean Racing (Ken Read), 426.0 miles to finish

2. Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson), +8 miles

3. Groupama sailing team (Franck Cammas), +72.6 miles

4. Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez), +83.5 miles

5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker), +99.9 miles

Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson), DNS