ERICSSON 3 LEG ONE DAY 23 QFB: received 02.11.08 1312 GMT
Everything is getting to its edge now. We are still battling The Green Dragons and the situation feels close and stressful. Not the least after a few tricky situations today.
Yesterday we had a couple of bad sail changes. That was not good from our side. But today we have been purely unlucky. First, we had a rip in our A4, had to take it down, repair it, and as soon as possible hoist it again.
A couple of hours later we are getting really frustrated with the boat speed. It just doesn’t feel good. That feeling has been bugging us for a few hours and now someone thought we might look in the stethoscope, from where you can se the keel.
It turns out that we have a big plastic bag wrapped around the fin. We can’t get it of just by swinging the keel, so we have to take the gennaker down, stop the boat and try to go backwards. A risky manoeuvre that will cost us a lot of time and distance to our close opponent. But, we have to do it.
Anders Dahlsjö prepared for a swim to get the bag of, but we managed to solve the problem just by backing the boat.
The guys did a great job and everything went smoothly. But it is extremely frustrating that something like that happened now. Like it wasn’t exciting and nerve-racking enough from before.
We have also made a few gybes today, which take quite an effort on these boats. You can really start to see tendencies of tiredness now. The big psychological part of the game has reached its peak.
Some of the guys are tired and it’s easier to make mistakes and to get grumpy about things you wouldn’t even think of if you were rested. Add to that the big stress level it is to be racing closely for days and days and when you are only one day from finish. The game is still close and you can’t afford to do anything wrong.
Now we are in good pace again and hoping that the next position-report will be good. In any case, we will fight to the end. Keeping the mood and pace up.
Gustav Morin - MCM