"Mutua Madrileña" is back in the Northern Hemisphere, after crossing the Equator yesterday (Saturday) night at 21:00 GMT. Now in the North Atlantic the crew have had a fruitful night in terms of distance covered, but cruel in terms of squalls.

"During the night we’ve had lots of squalls and shifts in the breeze… at one point we even had 35 knots coming in. When you get caught by that when you’re all geared up for the lulls it can cause chaos onboard," revealed Bubi Sansó.

When the "Mutua Madrileña" tandem saw the cloud that sowed the storm was coming, they had the spinnaker hoisted. Pachi and "Bubi" made the decision to change it for the genoa, but they still had too much wind, so in the end they chose to push forward with the staysail. The Spaniards also had some VHF radio communication with a cargo ship, which requested the IMOCA Open 60 pass to the stern of her, which they gladly did.

In the 24-hour period between 16:00 GMT yesterday and today, "Mutua Madrileña" has moved to just 69 miles (128 km) from "Temenos 2", that’s 40 miles les than yesterday. "Bubi" Sansó is keeping calm and says: "We’ve made some gains, yes, but we’re not getting our hopes up because if "Temenos 2" hooks in the tradewinds before us they’ll stretch the lead back to 100-115 miles".

Although "Mutua Madrileña" is immersed in the equatorial lulls "we still haven’t really been stopped completely in our tracks, as the wind hasn’t dropped below 6 knots" said Bubi. The truth of the matter is that although Esp-4 is advancing at a decent speed, the doldrums still aren’t over. "We’ve got roughly 10 hours left here at the 6-7 knot speed we’ve got at the moment. If things stay the same we should hook the tradewinds in about 70 miles from here. That’s when we’d really climb. Anyway, I think we’ve already passed the worst" declared "Bubi" Sansó.

At just over 3., 000 miles from Barcelona (some 5,595 km) Pachi and "Bubi" aren’t thinking too much about their arrival in Barcelona, but about a more imminent objective: Gibraltar. "We’re taking things step by step, and Gibraltar’s the next thing in our sights. We still have too pass Cape Verde, and the Canaries, and then get in line to head for the Straits in the Gulf of Cádiz. You have to take things step by step, and right now we’re not looking further than 800 miles away. The next ‘finish’ for us is Gibraltar, not Barcelona. For now".

Day 85 – 16:00 GMT

Position/Boat/Skippers (Nationality)/Distance from leaders

1º Paprec Virbac 2, Dick (FRA)/Foxall (IRL), 1,546 miles from Barcelona

2º Hugo Boss, Thomson (GBR)/Cape (AUS), +536

3º Temenos 2, Wavre (SUI)/Paret (FRA), +1,406

4º MUTUA MADRILEÑA, Rivero (ESP)/Sansó (ESP), +1,475

5º EDUCACIÓN SIN FRONTERAS, Escoffier (FRA)/Bargués (ESP), +2,857

    Veolia Environnement, Jourdain (FRA)/Nélias (FRA), retired

    Estrella Damm, Altadill (ESP)/McKee (USA), retired

    Delta Dore, Beyou (FRA)/Gavignet (FRA), retired

    PRB, Riou (FRA)/Josse (FRA), retired