by Gustav Morin
Longing for home
Attacked by flyfish, surfs in 39 knots, storms, close to sinking and then winning the longest leg in history, 12,500 mile from China to Rio. The story of Ericsson 3 will not be forgotten, that I know for sure after a very nice stopover in Stockholm.
It has slowly started to sink in. We have sailed around the world and soon finish what is known as the Mount Everest of sailing. We have been living in the Volvo Ocean Race-bubble for a long time now and it is only now, when I have met family and friends for the first time in almost a year, that I realise what I’ve been through and how big the interest has been from the outside.
I haven’t been struggling a lot with goodbyes in the start of the legs and I haven’t been homesick. It is probably because I have put my regular life on hold and fully concentrated on the race and everything around it.
But coming home to Stockholm brought back lot of feelings. We have seen the archipelago and the town from its best side with sunny sky and over 20 degrees. The amount of spectators following us in from Sandhamn and the ones standing on the dock in Stockholm waiting for our arrival was incredible. So were the days with in-port- and pro-am racing. And now ,when we just left the dock for Russia it was one of the worst good byes for me. It is as though I got to smell the cake but never really got to eat it.
It has been a fantastic race but now I’m longing for home, friends, family and to sort out the mess I left behind when in a hurry I joined the team in late August. I think alot of the guys have the same feeling and just want to end this race as quick as possible.
The last legs have been very intense and so have the stopovers. On the four-hour trip from Stockholm out to Sandhamn, Magnus Olsson brought along one of his sons.
“I have seen him way too little the last year and now, when I get the opportunity to spend four hours with him, I’m sure not going to waste it.”
Magnus thinks, like everyone else in the crew, that the Stockholm stopover has been fantastic, but tiring. There are so many people to meet when you get home and uncountable events going on and everything is happening at once.
“Unfortunately I am not as rested as I would want to for this leg, but I know that the crew will step up and we will do good to St Petersburg”, Magnus says.
Volvo Ocean Race
Saturday 27 June 2009
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