Telefonica Blue, skippered by Bouwe Bekking, finishes first on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Singapore to Qingdao yesterday. [Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race]

It was a fairytale ending in the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race when Telefonica Blue appeared from the thick fogs within a 10-minute ride to the finish line above Qingdao Fushan Bay outside Qingdao Olympic Marina.

Everyone expected the boat, which earlier yesterday morning was still close to the nearby city of Rizhao to arrive in the Beijing Olympics sailing competition host city no earlier than the late afternoon. But a message from the boat's crew at 13:30 proclaiming that the boat was just 17 nautical miles away took all bysurprise.

After crossing the finish line in at 3 pm yesterday to complete a race that took 11 days, 2 hours and 26 seconds, the Spanish boat skipped by Bouwe Bekking pulled off its second leg win a row.

"I feel far from comfortable. Even if it should go wrong, the guys should all feel like the moral winners of the leg, they sailed like champions," Bekking said right after the race.

The eight points for the leg win, brings Telefonica Blue's total score to 41.5 points, just 3.5 points behind race leader Ericsson 4.

An exhausted Bekking said that the leg had taken its toll on most of the boats in the fleet.

"It was the hardest leg of the Volvo Ocean Race ever. It is just great to be here in one piece and we are in one piece.

"It was the craziest sailing I've done, but we are here at last. I am like an old seaman and I think that you need to stay away from land in storms, so that is what we did."

As the first to arrive among the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, Telefonica Blue received a red-carpet welcome by Qingdao people and dignitaries including city mayor Xia Geng, the mayor and Zang Aimin, the vice president of the Volvo Ocean Race Qingdao Stopover Committee.

Kenny Read of the US, guided PUMA through the finish in Qingdao, China yesterday at 4:17 pm to claim second place after an unbelievable effort, which saw the team break their boom and drop anchor in the Philippines in order to make repairs.

It probably wouldn't have seemed possible to Read and his team, when their boom snapped while they were in the lead just a few short days ago. Now they have another 7 points towards the overall race leaderboard, putting them on 38 points, just second behind Telefonica Blue.

"Our crew really became a team on this leg. We have really found our legs. After our problems we came back with an unbelievable effort. We came together."

Torben Grael brought Ericsson 4 alongside just under an hour later, to claim six points for third place.

Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) is still racing, with 347 nautical miles to go, and is anticipated to finish in fourth position today. Telefonica Black/Fernando Echavarri/ESP have retired while Delta Lloyd/Roberto Bermudez/ESP, Ericsson 3, Magnus Olsson/SWE have been suspended.

(China Daily January 30, 2009)