Volvo Race - Telefonica Blue maintains lead overnight

7:01 AM Sun 19 Apr 2009 GMT

'Andrew McLean onboard Green Dragon, leg 6 of Volvo Ocean Race, Rio de Janeiro to Boston' Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race &copy Click Here to view large photo

Telefonica Blue continues to lead but have not extended any further from the chasing pack overnight. Bekking and his blue boat were first into the trade winds, and as such, added to their advantage over the first 24 hours. Skipper, Bouwe Bekking, says the fleet will compress again as soon as Telef?nica Blue starts sailing in lighter airs.

On Green Dragon, Ian Walker reports: It's been an exciting 24 hours for us. First we gained lots of miles in the doldrums getting within sight of Ericsson 3 and Telef?nica Black at one stage and then we had a third and final visit from King Neptune as this is the first time James Carroll has ever sailed across the Equator.

King Chuan (Neptune) and Queen 'Freddy Shanks' Codfish did a fine job of both their own outfits and conducting a rather prolonged ceremony. Clearly they had had plenty of time to prepare and Jimbo was the victim of everyone's willingness to have some fun.

Back on the race track the Doldrums had plenty of rain clouds and sail changes but the bottom line was we kept moving well in the right direction most of the time. It was crucial that we went well through this stage as four days of power reaching lie ahead of us.

We are now settled into reaching in 20 knot NE Trade winds which means we can rattle off over 400 miles per day straight at Boston - something that is unusual for this race so far.

We have just broken the bearings in the starboard steering system but replacements are onboard and being fitted as I type. Clearly a whole week on the same tack was too much for it! The next few days should be tactically tedious but nice sailing.

Volvo Ocean Race Positions - Leg Six, Sunday Day 9: 08:00 GMT

1. Telef?nica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 2,564 nm

3. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +105 nm

2. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +110 nm

4. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +112 nm

5. Telef?nica Black ESP (Fernando Ech?varri/ESP) +127 nm

6. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Berm?dez/ESP) +149 nm

7. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +149 nm

8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

by Volvo media

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Volvo Race - Telefonica Blue maintains lead overnight

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