8 July 2005

Well our first day went well even though the wind was a bit light - I've got a niggle this is what we might get.

I completed official registration and it was like Xmas for the sailors. T-shirts & Nivea products (sun lotion spray etc). The sponsorship from Nivea must have been huge but I must admit these guys go out of their way to give them mileage. I had to sign that any photographic right belonged to Nivea. The main street (4 lanes) into the city are decked out in Blue Nivea flags. The boats all have to have 75cm stickers on both sides too.

We got out on the water for 2+ hours before lunch and did some speed & height pacing to check the settings. After ongoing adjustments we did good old basic whistle tacks, gybes and 720's to get into the groove. The wind was too light (6kts) to really get the feel of the new boats. I then did cover tacks in pairs upwind to get more boat handling under the belt.

We came in for arbitrary 'burgers and the by now compulsory ice cream - at 4.50zolty (R3) I feel the sailors can smash them back!! It's hot - we averaged 27degrees on the water!

After lunch the breeze picked up slightly to 10kts but more amazing was the development in an hour of a horrible 'slop' - it wasn't even chop just a mess. There was wave action coming from the North but a counter bounce off the about 3 mile long harbour wall. I took the boats 3km offshore and still it was there. I did a lot of down wind surfing 'till I felt they had some sort of a handle on it. They started surfing on the surge as one couldn't predict any wave action.

We had a lone Bermuda girl come out with us, Angela Leigh will remember John's daughter from Bermuda in Sweden at last years' champs. She now being one of their older sailors and our guys all stayed well with her.

Tonight Gydnia rocks. There is a huge 2day rock concert and the bands have been warming up all day. Beer flows like water and thousands of teenagers are filing in. My room opens onto the mega decibels and I'm sure to throw some bricks by 2am!! So far it certainly is a festive atmosphere. Wish I was 100yrs younger!

I'm hoping everyone in the team is happy - if you hear anything you would like me to know about drop me a line but so far the bunch are still in honeymoon land and seem be enjoying themselves immensely despite me giving them some short thrift from the boat. They took it well and I think the air flight still has some residual effect but I'll get the edge back on tomorrow. They're all down in the indoor pool now.

Rob Walker