* Over the course of the holidays, the
Volvo 70s managed to sail into the "Land of No Return", the "Twilight Zone", the "No Spin Zone", the "No Go Zone", the "Stealth Zone" and the "Party Zone". Whatever. The sailing part didn't work for a lot of teams. The party part perhaps soothed some severely bruised egos.
Nevertheless, it's pretty clear the hard-charging
Spanish team on TELEFONICA led by Iker Martinez can probably credit their extensive small keelboat racing experiences on J/80s in Spain against World Champions as critical in keeping them on edge and on top of the Volvo Ocean Race World.
Ken Read, the J/24 World Champion, has had his share of hard-luck, first the broken mast and Tristan da Cunha shipping episode, then having to deal with the Indian Ocean Doldrums and a slow boat going into Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. We wish our J/Team friends all well and good luck on the next leg to Sanya, China! For
more Volvo Ocean Race sailing information 
* Fellow J-Sailors Ken Read on PUMA and Iker Martinez on TELEFONICA are now back to real "live" ocean-racing on their Volvo 70s in the Volvo Ocean Race. They're now sailing the Maldives (Indian Ocean) to Sanya, China leg. Ken had this to say about the experience for Leg 3- "And now we are off. Sailing the leg that really nobody looks forward to when they sign up for this race. Upwind for about a million miles!" So far, in the tight, tactical racing relished by Ken and his PUMA MAR MOSTRO gang, they're currently leading the fleet into the Singapore Straits before making a long left turn to head north up to Sanya (a gorgeous, almost Hawaiian-like island that is China's southernmost point of land). 