Ericsson 3 Leg Five Day 16

Stay in shape

We are making good way down towards New Zealand now, sailing with around 120 true wind direction in speeds between 13 and 18 knots.

During this leg we all have to be a bit more thoughtful with eating, sleeping and sticking to the watch system properly. We can’t afford the guys to burned out and sick after the first part of the leg and not being 100 per cent when we reach the Southern Ocean where the big stuff starts to go down. I think we can be really strong down there, if we manage to stay in shape.

Unlike the earlier legs we so far, touch wood, we haven’t had any bad injuries onboard. If you go through the old videos from Ericsson 3 you’ll see what doctor Richard Masons ‘No mercy medical clinic’ has been dealing with since the start. It has been a broken teeth, concussions, open wounds in hands, taking of nails after fingers been stuck in the runners, curing stomach illness and taping up bleeding heads.

Maybe it is all about Mason, because now, when he is having a pause on this leg, it has been pretty calm on the injury front. Only some sore ribs and twisted ankles from being washed around in the cockpit the first tough days of reaching.

We also have some coughing going on and a light eye infection. But it is nothing to worry about and our stand in doctor, Martin Krite, is very happy about that.

“I’m just crossing my fingers that, I from now on, I only have to open the orange box for finding fungus powder, which is unavoidable”, he says

Gustav Morin - MCM