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560 miles (1,037.12 km) covered in 24 hours with just a day to go for the fleet to reach Lorient (France), the finishing port for the penultimate leg of the race

What a final stretch! As expected, the storm which swallowed up the fleet has also provided the necessary ingredients for a speed record for this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. “Telefónica” has been sailing at speeds above 22 knots since midday yesterday. The news came in this morning that Iker Martínez's boat had beaten the speed record, and if that wasn't enough this is the third time. The record for this edition now stands at 560 nautical miles.

The record, which up until now was in the hands of “Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand”, was taken by “Telefónica” this morning. The boat from New Zealand had covered a total of 553 nautical miles between Alicante and Cape Town on the first leg of the race. Early this morning the marker for “Telefónica” was 554 miles, which was soon topped by 557 miles and then pushed even further to the current record of 560 nautical miles in 24 hours: the new record.

Important: no breakages

500 miles from the finish and the entire fleet is concerned with finding he balance between pushing hard and not breaking the boat. The level of competition is very even and none of them want to be the first boat to give in.

Right now speeds among the entries are still sky-high, although the boats will soon be putting on the breaks as keeping the boat in one piece will be crucial. “We're going to have a very busy afternoon and night with hurricane winds of 30 to 40 knot speeds. We're pushing it to the limit and there's a lot of water coming over the bow”, said Andre Cape this morning in a telephone call with the Spanish boat.

The navigator said that he hasn't given much thought to the record that the team has just smashed as the most important thing now is to make it through the leg without any serious damage. He was clear on that: “It doesn't mean much until we reach the shore. Everyone will be happy if we make it through the day with no damage or without anything serious happening and that's not going to be easy. These type of speeds take their toll on the equipment and are very demanding of the rudder, the halyards and the rig. It's painful when the boat hits a wave”.

Crucial gybe

However, the most crucial point of these coming 4 hours is still yet to come and it involves deciding where to gybe for Lorient: “There's a gybe somewhere up ahead and I think that it'll be key, not passing the layline, not gybing to early nor too late. I hope we get it right”, said the Basque trimmer Xabi Fernández.

In Cape's opinion “it'll decide the winner”. When will this moment arrive? It's likely to be: “somewhere towards the end of the afternoon, when it's getting dark. Of course we'll see some different bets. In the moment we won't know who will have had the best idea, but we'll find out at the end, when the breeze shifts a bit and we're at the finish”.

Whilst the pace on board is full throttle, the crew continue to adapt to the on board conditions as best they can: “There's a lot of water on deck and the hard breaks as we hit the waves are incredible. You shoot out of the bunk and if you're below deck doing something you can hurt yourself”, writes Diego Fructuoso.

Speaking to Nauta360 during a live link up with the Spanish boat yesterday afternoon, Iker Martínez spoke about morale on board the boat: “The French are pushing hard but they are really going to have to suffer to beat us, and we're putting everything we've got into this and we hope we'll be rewarded at the end. Whatever happens, we want everyone not to worry and for them to know that we're really going for it”.

The outcome will be revealed in 24 hours...

MORE QUOTES

XABI FERNÁNDEZ, trimmer.

There's roughly a day of racing left and I'm sure that everyone will be pushing really hard. There's going to be more breeze tonight and there'll be even more tomorrow morning... We have to push hard because we are really fighting for the regatta here, with “Puma” and “Groupama” and although we can't really regulate much here we have to be careful not to break anything.

DIEGO FRUCTUOSO, media crew member

There are just over 24 hours left, but they are going to be incredibly tough. You can't rest even in the bunk and it's very intense out on deck. We're bailing out water the whole time. Xabi and Pablo have just come in off watch and they say that the waves are huge. It's very difficult to maintain constant speeds, with the boat accelerating and breaking a lot.

PROVISIONAL RANKINGS LEG 8

LISBON (PORTUGAL) – LORIENT (FRANCE): 1,940 miles

Day 4 – 10:00 UTC – 14^th June 2012

1. Team Telefónica (Iker Martínez), 510.6 miles to finish

2. Groupama sailing team (Franck Cammas), +8.8 miles

3. Puma Ocean Racing by Berg (Ken Read), +11.2 miles

4. Camper with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson), +15.5 miles

5. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker), +39 miles

6. Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson), +71.4 miles