Race Day 1

Today is the first day of racing so last night the sailors were all quite jumpy… with their routines disrupted by the opening ceremony and all of them being in the dining room at the same time.. Teams usually have their own times for meals and their own particular table in the dining room. Our sailors were not immune to this and the boys had their television cable confiscated when they were found no where near ready for bed when checked on. This was to be followed by iPods etc if no improvement 15 minutes later.

It must make for an interesting holiday if you booked yourself into a nice quiet hotel to find 150 children staying in the same place. The sailors tend to go around the complex in packs  the CZE coach who is actually Portuguese said if he could not find his girls he only had to find the GER boys. (Lots of countries have different nationality coaches AUT have a Croatian coach, IRL a French one)  I think our boys are feeling rather pale and interesting and playing on their British reserve in the hope that the girls might come to them.

Last night at the opening ceremony we wore our new team shirts care of Henri Lloyd. The boys looked fine but us girls were not so sure about the sleeves or the fit on the shoulders but you can see for yourselves on the photos but we are at a sailing regatta not Ascot so maybe it should not matter. In the parade there was this dark patch where we were in navy next to GER and GRE both in black, POR were also in navy. ESP were in red as were DEN and AUT; BEL and ITA went for a lovely bright blue. I can never understand why with red green and white flag Italian sporting colour is blue perhaps I will ask them today. For years ITA have worn Slam kit but the ITA federation has lost them as a clothing sponsor.

The event lunches were not a great success yesterday cheese and ham sandwiches with lettuce and tomatoes wrapped in foil with a prawn canapé thing, a cereal bar an apple and small water each.. so the sandwiches were sort of eaten as were most of the cereal bars , the prawns in this heat we gave a miss to and I had eight apples left. So for us it’s back to breakfast rolls with provided lunch as back up. Murray and Will make lunch with an additional number of rolls, as growing boys they are always hungry and never refuse food.

. Liz Hampshire arrives today hopefully with our swop T shirts. Mimi’s family arrive tomorrow but she is not exactly sure who is coming but is looking forward to them getting here. Dan has lost all communication with north wales after his phone got blocked, something Will and Josh deny all knowledge of …. Martin has been doing great work re engineering our gazebo with bamboo poles and rocks so it does not blow itself to pieces, IRL gave up on theirs yesterday and we snuck under FIN’s  to eat our lunch before their arrived in the boat park yesterday.

We have heard that the Flanders guys spent eight hours on the water for one race. Not fun but that could be us today as it is overcast , was raining in Lisbon yesterday and no promises of a sea breeze today …Alan our  CRO race officer affectionately known as Mr Teflon because nothing sticks to him will no doubt do his best .

More later