Rough weather in the North Atlantic, onboard Ericsson 3, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway. Image copyright Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Gustav Morin
Now we're talking
Now everything I thought was going to take place on this leg starts to happen. It is wet everywhere, bumpy, around 10 degrees in the water and we are doing between 20 and 30 knots of boatspeed VMG downwind with steadily around 30 knots of wind.
This is when these boats are in top of their game. Our Ericsson 3 is like a wild horse in this stuff. She is twisting and turning and all the time trying to take control of herself. The crew and particularly the helmsman has to wrestle and keep her down every second.
Standing at the wheel is no longer a matter of fingertip feeling and fine tuning with small soft movements. It's about having your feet far from each other and working hard to keep your balance, while turning like crazy between the waves.
Sometimes you are not fast enough, or there just is no path to find so you can do nothing but let the bow dig down in the sea with a massive wall of water coming towards you and flushes the crew around the cockpit as a result. You better stay clipped on in these conditions. You might think you are in control and that you can bear any wave. Believe me, that's not the case...
This morning was, without doubt one, of the most beautiful and memorable moments of sailing since the start of this race. We had around 25 knots of wind and were doing about the same speed when the sun came out. The temperature was perfect for a Scandinavian used to chilly winds. Full wet weather gear with one layer of thermals underneath was enough not to freeze and we were pretty smoothly running along with the sun in our faces and with Ireland coming up quickly ahead. Now it's a bit more crazy.
Unfortunately we haven't made the big gains on the guys in the front that we would have hoped. We don't have that much runway so we must start soon. But the big stuff has just arrived and we still have some cards to pull out of our sleeve.
Volvo Ocean Race
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