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Team Telefónica has just completed the sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race: 4,800 miles between Brazil and Miami, USA, where the Spanish team is already preparing for the passage across the pond and a return to Europe after six months of sailing across different continents. The “Telefónica” skipper weighs up the 17 days of the leg.

The start of the leg went really well for you guys, what's your memory of the start at Itajaí (Brazil)?

The first day of the leg was an interesting day, because we set off with a fair amount of breeze and obviously taking a route further north was positive in every way; the boat was going at a faster angle and it was a move closer to the finishing line. It was fairly risky too though because we knew that the area around Cabo Frío was very tricky and it was a place where we knew we could get stuck with no breeze for a long time, so we wanted to invest and stay further up and go slower to avoid problems further ahead that might mean we could lose the leg. In the end things turned out very differently to how we'd expected, but that was the original plan and it was what we wanted to do and we followed our original idea.

The leg featured lots of calms, that surely kept you glued to the chart table screen for a long time as you attempted to negotiate them and predict them as best as possible. The first came ahead of the Equator, how did you plan your strategy before Latitude 0?

There was a moment where there was very little breeze and it was very shifty and then from there we would enter into some more stable winds and it was likely that the further north we went, the more breeze there would be, so the gaps could increase. At that point the only thing we had in mind was not to lose the leg. We kept in mind that the intelligent option was to be sure of not suffering a big loss and then there would be lots of mile over which we could fight for the leg. Right from the beginning of the regatta we've considered that big risks weren't admissible over such a long race. If you take too many risks over nine months, only sometimes you'll go for gold, but we've chosen to be careful and that's what we did at that point. We tried to stay close to the others, not to take any risky options and to get out with the leader pack, and that's what we did. We managed to get to the Equator in the leader group and that was the plan.

The Caribbean Sea and it light airs made for an uphill journey yet again...

We got to the final stretch of the Caribbean Sea with all of the three top entries very close together. That's where the end of the leg began and although we knew that we were going to get some very complex conditions, we hadn't imagined that what happened could have happened: that we'd get stuck in that patch of light air and that it would be for so long and that it would give our rivals the time enough to get away to an unreachable distance, and even worse, that it would give “Groupama” the chance to get past us. At less than 20 miles away from “Camper” and “Puma”, they got breeze that allowed them to push forward with the old winds and we got stuck in some calms that we couldn't do anything about.

Was that where the aim in your sights switched to “Groupama” and third place?

When things began to take a turn for the worst, at the forefront of our minds was not losing that position with “Groupama”. We had to take a routing to the west and to burn up all that time just to get ourselves into position again. It was painful, but the place worked really well. We went on to fight for a day and a half, almost in each other's sights the whole time and we continued trying to pass them on both sides, trying the whole time to look for or to create opportunities.

How do you keep spirits and morale up on board during the tough times?

It's not a good feeling when you drop a lot of miles. Of course the guys weren't happy about it, but we've got a great team in that sense and when things get tricky everyone tries to push on. When we dropped back so many miles from the frontrunners and we had the situation with the French it really got to us, but our heads were focussed on trying to get a place which would have been very important to us and we did what we could.

I think that in any regatta you have to try to do all you can and if you do then you can be fairly satisfied. Over nine months and such a long regatta you are going to make some right decisions and some wrong decisions and you're going to get good and bad luck. That's always going to happen and on this occasion what has happened, has happened, but I'm happy with the crew and I didn't feel a sense of frustration at any time. Perhaps it was a bit disappointing as you say to yourself 'this is not what we wanted', but we pushed forward.

How would you weigh up the final result of these 4,800 miles between Brazil and Miami?

The end result of this leg wasn't good for us, we can't deny that. It's also true, if you want to look at it positively, that it could have been a lot worse, because there was a point where things were pretty chaotic and “Groupama” could have taken the leg and we could have come in fourth, which would have meant us losing the lead in the overall regatta standings. That would have been a big blow.

We have to be realistic and anything can happen but we're still in the lead, the team and the boat are great and we have a good chance. In fact, we are right where everyone would like to be right now, which is in front and with a few points to spare. There's no doubt whatsoever that we're in a privileged position.

How is Team Telefónica facing this final stretch of the round the world race?

We're getting closer and closer to the finish and now's the time to push. The moment of truth is here. It's like the final race in the Olympic Games and you have to win it to win the title and that's where you have to pull out all the stops, display your talent, win and finish things off. We're approaching that moment now, the regatta is drawing to an end and we have to get out there and beat the rest. There's nothing else to it.