Injuries Plague Team PUMA in Volvo Ocean Race

The following is from a press release on the Volvo Ocean Race Web site.

After two days of relentless punishment from high winds and huge waves on Leg 5 from Auckland to Itajaí, the top five boats are set for some relief over the next 24 hours as two high pressure systems bring lighter conditions.

The break in hard running has come as a relief to several of the already wearied teams allowing them to affect running repairs to both boats and bodies.

“I feel like I’ve gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson,” said . “Everybody in the fleet’s body and mind is pretty shot right now.”

Read said two crew injuries sustained in the brutal first 48 hours of the leg had almost resulted in PUMA detouring 500 nm to the Chatham Islands for an emergency evacuation of helmsman Thomas Johanson and bowman Casey Smith.

Johanson dislocated his shoulder after being washed across the boat’s cockpit by a wave and Smith was confined to his bunk by a reoccurrence of a pre-existing back injury during a routine sail change.

“Thomas found himself on the leeward side of the cockpit, crumpled in a heap,” Read explained. “He was coming on deck and got blindsided by this wave and got crunched.”

Happily, after taking medical advice from race and team doctors back ashore, PUMA onboard medic Jono Swain successfully re-located Johanson’s shoulder.

“Jono just slowly popped his shoulder back in place and all of a sudden you saw his eyes open up,” Read said. “It was instantaneous relief. He was back on deck today having a drive, so he’s recuperating quite quickly.”

However, Read said Smith’s back injury was a trickier scenario which they were treating with pain medication and could still require him to be taken off the boat at Cape Horn.

“At one point we were heading to the Chatham Islands to get rid of both of them,’’ Read confirmed.  “But then Thomas’ shoulder got popped back in and we had a long talk to Casey.

“He’s a tough guy, he’s a team guy, so essentially we said let’s at least get to Cape Horn and if there’s no improvement by then, we’ll figure out a way to get rid of him. But up until then there’s not a whole lot of options.”

“Hopefully the medication will start to work a bit better and we’ll see a light at the end of the tunnel. Right now he’s still in pain,’’ Read said.

According to race meteorologist Gonzalo Infante, the merging systems will envelop the main pack in light unstable breezes and could push the boats hard south in search of stronger westerly winds.

An ice exclusion zone now set around 47 degrees south may further complicate the teams’ strategies but Infante says the fleet could reach steadier westerly winds around midday on Wednesday.

Third-placed PUMA were just three-nautical miles further off the lead and eight nautical miles ahead of fourth-placed CAMPER with Emirates team New Zealand.