VOR: ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 7 QFB: received 20.02.09 0846 GMT

by Gustav Morin

It has become very warm the last couple of days and today the sea is an incredible 28 degrees. The air is a lot cooler, but since we are still reaching around 20 knots, it's still a lot of spray on deck and we still need to wear full foul weather gear.
Under deck it's another story.

It feels like the hull is absorbing the heat from the ocean and it gets a couple of extra degrees heat from the sunny sky. Aksel Magdahl (navigator) and l, who spend a lot of time down below, are running the swimming-trunk-clothing programme. Even so, a layer of sweat is constantly running down our backs.

It is always impossible to stay dry on these boats. Either it's windy and it's water everywhere or you sweat from the effort of just being on the boat. In lighter wind, you are usually close to the equator, where the sun is shining from straight overhead and it's dripping warm.

But all of this is a part of the game and the crew who acclimatises the best has is an advantage. The next coming days it will get even warmer and then it will stay like that for at least a week.

We better get used to this quick.

I can understand that the guys were complaining about the cold conditions in China. But for me who doesn't have to stay on deck more than a few hours now and then, the cold was nice. At least when we were two days away from China. The air was fresh and cool, even down below, and you could sleep well at night in our nice warm sleeping bags. I have never slept that well on the boat.

But there is always good and bad. I guess it's just human nature to complain a bit.
We are still sailing well, the boat feels good and there haven't been any big incidents. We are fighting in the backwater of Ericsson 4 and Puma, still within striking distance. Telefónica Blue is pretty much in the same track as us but around 150 miles behind. Green Dragon seems to have made a bold decision to sail more to the east. If you look at the route historically the probability for it to pay off is pretty good. It's good for the racing; it makes it just a bit more exciting.

Volvo Ocean Race