Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) will be the last of the eight boats racing in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race to cross the finish in Cape Town later today. Her estimated time of arrival is 1546 GMT and, at 10:00 GMT today, she still had 78 nm to run. Her boat speed was averaging 13.3 knots.

In the last message from the boat for this leg, received today at 10:09 GMT, MCM Mikel Pasabant wrote:

"And last but not least! Here we go the Blackies! As if it couldn't be in any other way, hard beating in 25 knots to the finish line!"

"Another lovely roller-coaster-like welcome (or farewell, it depends)! It is 0930 UTC and there are still 80 miles to the finish line, and they are going to be long, very long, not only because of the conditions, but also because we are so looking forward to being there at last!"

"We all are expecting to see the mythical Table Mountain in the horizon and docking in under its protection. So, these are, let's hope, the last quotes from the boat for this first leg. We have sailed from Alicante in Spain to Cape Town in South Africa, passing the coasts of Brazil, sailing more than 6,500 nautical miles and spending 24 days onboard. It has been full of experiences, highs, and lows (more highs than lows, isn't it), difficulties and relaxing moments. But we will keep in touch from land."

"Kind regards and thanks for being out there."

Leg One Finishing Order into Cape Town
1. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA)
2. PUMA USA (Ken Read/USA)
3. Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE)
4. Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR)
5. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED)
6. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT)
7. Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O'Rourke / IRL)

Overall Leaderboard (Provisional)
1. Ericsson 4: 14 points (FINISHED)
2. PUMA: 13 points (FINISHED)
3. Green Dragon: 11 points (FINISHED)
4. Telefónica Blue: 10 points (FINISHED)
5. Telefónica Black: 6 points (RACING)
6. Ericsson 3: 5 points (FINISHED)*
7. Delta Lloyd: 4 points (FINISHED)
8. Team Russia: 4 points (FINISHED)

*leg one scoring http://volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2008/november/scoring-explained/

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.