received 19.12.08 2056 GMT
Ever since the start, we have had to fight for every mile. We gained from being next to last up to third and we managed to keep the position to the scoring-gate! But it was a close fight until the last metre.
We have seen Puma just a couple of miles behind us the last 48 hours. And the last hour before we crossed the gate was nail biting. We sailed close to land and made a lot of tacks while Puma stayed a bit further out, sailing more in a straight line.
Everything was going well for us and the game seemed to be over. But than we had a bad tack and lost some distance. The game was on again. All men were on deck, everyone was excited, and the adrenalin was pumping.
We made a pretty tight tack towards the lighthouse, which pointed out the scoring-gate, and cross our fingers for the wind not to head us. But it did and we made the safe choice of tacking again instead of edging and sailing very close to land. It was a good choice, we made it.
This is the third 3rd place for Ericsson 3. I am happy that this didn’t happen yesterday. Than I would not have been able to be on deck, enjoying the scenery of the Indonesian island. I was one of few in the crew who managed the 15 days in India without stomach illness, just a three-day cold.
But, 48 hours after the start it turned out that I was not that lucky. You can say that the illness hit me from both ends. One second I was throwing up on deck and in the next second I had to run to the bow and jump on the toilet. Or, running and jumping may be a bit too energetic words to describe my actions; I was more like dragging my self along.
When you drain your body from fluid and food, your energy level goes down to zero. You feel absolutely useless, like a bag of sh** just lying around, being nothing but a big worry for the other crewmembers. Luckily, now I am feeling a lot better. I got the best medicine I could get – a good result to the scoring-gate!
Gustav Morin - MCM
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