Well it has been an action packed few days since the last blog. Both socially and competition wise.
On the social front under the auspices of team manager Sam Ibbott we had a couple of events. The first being drinks and nibbles on the lawn of his rented house and secondly a dinner at Jorgos, a local Greek restaurant. When you consider that with sailors, parents and additional family members we number well over 50 in total, that is a significant event. Well done Ibbo, you are doing a sterling job in a thankless and many faceted job.
On the water we had an opportunity to do some racing on the full size course which was laid by the event organisers. We sailed against German, Belgian, Spanish and Cuban sailors. All in all it numbered about 40+ boats and was invaluable to our team to get some early big fleet experience. In 5-6 knots we were competing with our boats predominantly up the top end. Good signs but way too early to get ahead of ourselves. We know from our training that the team is very even and that augurs well for all.
Ashore yesterday we had measurement day, all went well and except for a few hitches for our promotional fleet sailors, it all passed without concern. It was well organised and proceeded in an expedient fashion. Congratulations to Bruno Van Hoof and his team. It was a sterling effort in very hot conditions, the last two days have been Bodstedt‘s warmest in 60 years!
Today we have another training day followed by an Australian rest day before the invitation race and opening ceremony. All the team are holding up well and in good spirits and making lots of friends. Weather is looking like regatta will be sailed in 6-10 knots on most days, hopefully the sea breeze factor will add a few knots each afternoon. But come what may we will give our best.
I think we are all looking forward to the series, it has been a tremendous bonus to have the training week prior. Thanks for all the likes and well wishes from home.
Bully
