Gerd Jan Poortman was badly injured when he was swept from the bow all the way to the back of the boat by a huge wave that also damaged the bow pulpit.UPDATE: I found an image of the damaged bow pulpit:
Here's a excerpt of his comments (linked to the video of his description of the events):
“Nightmare. First night big wave didn’t realize the strength of it. Didn’t see how massive it was. Swept me all the way from front to back. Somewhere along the line I hit my head. The dagger board on my back, I lay down and was hard to get up. Thanks to George for stitching me up and taking care of me. A real TEAM and great bunch of boys around me.”
Unfortunately an Ocean 70 is not the best place to recover from injuries.
2 comments:
Hmmmm... I totally agree that below deck of a Volvo 70 would be a horrid place to recover from anything!
I have been down below on this particular boat when it was recently in Melbourne after Leg 2 (my best mate Luke Molloy is a crew member) and it had nothing...
Absolutely nothing!!!
Oh no wait... There were 4 bunks, and a head and... well that's about it!!!
But in saying that, the navigation area is awesome and there are little cameras everywhere capturing their every move.
The crew on ABN 2 are a funny bunch and have cut out non-skid foot prints to guide them around. They wanted to stick hand prints as well, but were not allowed cause that was considered as extra weight.
So much more to tell, but I will leave it at!!!
Ah, new valuable crew skill: stitching up gashed fellow sailors.
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