Helly Hansen

From the blog of Anders Lewander, skipper of the Nordic ERT boat: After two week's of sailing and a Name Giving Ceremony of Ericsson 3 in Barcelona we are now back on Lanzarote. We have covered more than 2600 nautical miles and been through a great reality check with teams, gear and boats. On the way back from Barcelona we sailed with the Nordic Crew on Ericsson 2 and the International Crew on Ericsson 3. It's been very stimulating weeks, to further develop the opportunities of this project on the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. We have had variable conditions, from motoring with light winds to strong +40 knots easterly winds through Gibraltar on a westerly course. We have also experienced a couple of front passages on top of that. It takes a cold front passage to achieve a cold front passage experience... I mean that its so valuable to crack of from tuff limiting sea state at 60 true-wind-angel (TWA) down to 70 TWA and increase speed to 16-18 knots, sailing best course to next waypoint of desire. The breeze picking up to +35 knots and the thunder clouds over and to starboard west of us quickly moving north east. We were set up for saving our sources having only three on deck, short rotating watches and constantly working the 2 reefed main and J4 as the wind pulsed in the squalls and the spray, or the more or less solid water with bits of air in it constantly hammering over the deck... As the day approached the final day and the expected wind veered (wind shift clockwise in direction) the routing took us over on starboard tack towards Lanzarote and back to our training base for the coming months. /Anders