Magnus Olsson moving sails, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway. Image copyright Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Gustav Morin
This morning Magnus Olsson stumbled from the galley up to the bulkhead where he sat down to have breakfast. It almost looked like he was in a coma. The speed of the spoon of porridge going from the bowl to his mouth decreased for every second. Just before he had finished his meal the spoon stopped moving – Magnus had fallen asleep.
His face was Rudolf red from the cold windy night and his eyes almost had the same colour from tiredness and saltwater. When I woke him up he said, with a shivering voice:
"This is crazy, I've got seven layers of clothing on and still I'm cold. I think and hope it will not be this cold for more than two days. If it will take longer I don't know how to survive.”
The drama queen has spoken... But there sure is some truth in his words.
Soon before Magnus woke up Richard Mason who jumped out of his bunk. He was shaking and made strange noises... "Hrrrrhhrrrhrrrr." After some quick moves and a few more strange noises he said:
"Usually I try to save some clothing a couple of days into this leg, but now I'm going full metal jacket straight away. And soon we will hit the Labrador Current which is only two degrees. That will be fun..."
During the morning we have had seven degrees in both water and air and actually it was not that bad on deck, we could manage a couple of hours without getting too cold.
At night is when it is bad. Then you can't see how close the racing is. All day we have had Puma, the both Telefónicas and Ericsson 4 within eye reaching distance and I guess that makes it easier for the blood to flow.
We have constantly been doing around 20 knots and the last hour the wind has opened up a bit and now we are steadily doing well over 20. It is wet and fast but still not too bumpy. Last sched we were first in the fleet and the spirits are high onboard. Well, almost everyone is in a good mood. It seems like some of us have adapted the American size of food portions too well. For both dinner and lunch two guys did not get any food... And the water that keeps dripping down my neck and onto my computer doesn't make my life more fun. But it's not as though I haven't been through that before, just another day in the office.
Volvo Ocean Race
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