Sifi (Simon Fisher - navigator) mentioned it yesterday already, we were too eager to make gains, and that cost us miles. It is amazing what it sometimes does to your mind to look at all the electronic and computer 'advisors'. Yesterday we should have looked at the good old fashion weather maps, and then it was clearly why the southern route should pay off.

Being tired is not a good excuse, as all the other teams will have the same struggle with the minimum amount of sleep, but we changed our watch system a bit, so that Sifi is out of the watch completely.

The breeze is still dropping, now down to 13 knots; we finally dared to change to our repaired spinnaker, which gives us an extra 200 square meters of area, and for the first time we are back up to our potential numbers, making us all smile. But in the meantime we are crossing our fingers that the repair will last.

The next 24 hour will be crucial how we are going to set ourselves up for crossing the Doldrums, and we should take full advantage from being in the back of the fleet, as the boats ahead will give a good indication of how much breeze they are sailing in.

The crew is all well and healthy. We drink lots of fluids, either plain water or mixed with minerals, our team doctor will be impressed to see this. We checked the hydration levels regularly when we were in Alicante, and very often the results were not good enough. That nobody has taken a dive in the medical kits is another good indication that we hydrated well, as there are no signs of headaches, so no pills required. Also nobody has taken anti-inflammatories, which means that all the training in the gym is paying off!!!

Just read that Tony Mutter on E4 has been left behind in the Cape Verdes. It must be serious, but hopefully not too serious. Tony: from all of us onboard Telefónica Blue, we can imagine how you are feeling and we all wish you a good recovery, and hope to see you again in Cape Town.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper.

Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for all the latest news!

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.