Sailing Mum

2011 European Optimist Championships Tuesday 5 July – Second Days Racing

2011-07-06T10:48:00.000+12:00

Hi everyone – just a quick update on the 2nd days racing here in Tavira, Portugal.

Another beautiful clear blue sky day with the breeze doing its now familiar switch from an overnight offshore breeze to a building southwesterly on shore breeze by late morning. (it’s quite good that the breeze turns offshore - as the waste water ponds are located close behind the hotel and the somewhat whiffy air starts to dissipate with the onset of the onshore breeze).

The breeze built quietly through the morning to a nice 10 – 12 knot onshore breeze by the classically European start time of 2.00 pm. No early morning kick offs here!

The team launched about 12.30 pm in the separate waves of sailors that we are becoming used to. With something over 225 boats launching through one single ramp the sailors are called forward to launch by their flights and in groups on 10 or so at a time – in the manner of boarding a large aircraft.

Interestingly the sailors are not even allowed to leave their country compounds until their flight has been called. Several premature departures from their country compounds this morning resulted in some full on ‘compound rage’ from a parent of nordic descent and it also attracted several protests from the race committee - still to be heard this evening.

The nordic compound rage was at one stage directed at one of our younger quieter sailors - Nick Egnot Johnson – who refused to yield his ground. Good on ya Nick.

Following the fun on the shore the sailing on the water wasn’t quite as entertaining but Lola continues to have a strong regatta with an 11th and 22nd placing to leave her lying 17th overall in the girls fleet.

She is showing good consistency in her positions which will stand her in good stead towards the end of the regatta.

Cole was consistent in his placings today as well - scoring 2 solid positions in the 20s (26th and 23rd) to lie 70th overall. A big jump up the fleet from his overnight place of 89th and a great effort considering that he was not feeling at all well when leaving the ramp - but he guts’d it out for his solid placings.

Zak had a tougher day with a 32nd and 42nd but came ashore with the great attitude of “I haven’t done so well today but there’s always tomorrow”. Zak is fast becoming personality of the regatta with him forming several friendships amongst other teams. A great ambassador for New Zealand. Zak is lying 66th at this stage.

Nick EJ had an up and down day with a disappointing 44th in the first race after being crook and vomiting several times but bounced back in the 2nd race to score a nice 8th position (which he reckons tallied nicely with his 8 chunders). Nick is lying 49th.

We should have some on the water pictures tomorrow as some of the parents hope to hire a spectator boat and get afloat to watch some of the action.

Overall this regatta is proving to be a wonderful experience for the kids. Results are not yet what all the sailors might have hoped for but we’ve got to remember that this event is yet another stepping stone for these guys and girls in their sailing careers – all being relatively young sailors with a long time in the sport yet to come.

More to come tomorrow. Possibly 3 races and hopefully a good breeze again.

Regards

Lola, Zak, Cole and Nick.

2011 European Optimist Championships Monday 4 July – First Days Racing

2011-07-06T07:24:00.001+12:00

The regatta officially got underway last night with the opening ceremony being held in central Tavira. The ceremony started with a parade of all the countries alongside the River Galio and across a 500 year old roman bridge into the central square of Tavira. The New Zealand team distinguished themselves by the boys doing a haka on stage as the team was introduced to the crowd. It went down well with the Portuguese crowds who recognised the haka as soon as they started.

Today was the first days racing and the day dawned cooler and overcast and a light offshore breeze.

As predicted, the breeze swung into the south west and began to pick up and by race start time of 2.00 pm was a consistent 12 - 13 knots gusting to 15. Looking good for the Kiwis!

Lola had a great start to her international sailing career with 2 very solid placings despite less than stellar starts. She worked hard to get a 5th and 14th placing to leave her placed 12th overall in the fleet of 95 girls.

Zak has had a tough day having had a good first race placing of 21st but lost his mainsheet clip just seconds before the start of the 2nd race which left him one of the last boats off the line. He worked hard to salvage a 38th leaving him placed 55th overall.

Nick struggled to get off the line in good shape in both races and had a couple of tough first beats as a result. He showed good pace on the reach and run to lift himself to 28th in the first race and 31st in the second race leaving him 56th overall.

Cole had a good first race with a solid 30th but had a tough last race to lie 90th overall out of the total fleet of 130.

Overall the team is in good spirits and enjoying meeting the other sailors. The swapping of shirts/caps and lifejackets has already started with deals being done now - to be transacted at the conclusion of the regatta.

All sailors feel that they can improve significantly on their first days results and are
looking forward to the 2nd days racing.

The european fleet is this year using a GPS tracker system, with a GPS unit mounted on each boat, to provide real time tracking of each fleet and each boat. The race tracker system is available through the IODA website (www.ioda.org) and is a great way to follow the racing. Each race can be viewed live and replayed after the finish time. Disregard todays results on the tracker system though as a large % of the units weren’t turned on and it seems that some may have been mixed up as well so there are some funny results.

We’re sure that the system will be up and running reliably tomorrow so tune in for a look!

Sorry no on the water pictures as parents not yet able to get on the water but will hopefully have some soon.

Regards

Lola, Zak, Cole and Nick.

Day Three in Tavira, Portugal

2011-07-02T16:24:00.001+12:00

It’s now day three in Tavira for the New Zealand team at the 2011 Euorpean Optimist champs and the team has completed a solid build up.

They yesterday enjoyed a good breeze of 8 – 10 knots and were able to train with the Singaporean, USA and Canadian teams. They did several races together and the Kiwi team’s pace improved throughout the day to the point where they scored some solid results against the other teams. They came in tired but pleased with their work.

Today is another stunning blue sky day but little wind – maybe only 2 – 3 knots on the ocean outside. Given there was so little breeze, the team went out in the RiB to investigate the current on the coast. There appears to be a consistent current flowing in a south-easterly direction across the course area towards the Spanish border, regardless of the daily tidal movements and despite being on a river mouth. This has been a big surprise. Completely contrary to what we expected.

The team has worked hard on their boats over the last couple of days pimping them out to match their boats at home and optimising them as much as we can. Everyone has learned heaps about boat set up from coach Susannah Pyatt.

Nick’s sail tube finally arrived after a very roundabout trip on it’s own account from London. It had been unpacked so we suspect it got subjected to a security search hence it missing the plane. He is very relieved to have his own gear back.

The team had planned to have tomorrow off but will now try and sail for 2 – 3 hours tomorrow, then do the invite race on Sunday in final preparation for the first races on Monday.

The team is getting on really well and in between sailing and boat work is giving the hotel swimming pool and ping pong table a thrashing.

Good luck to the New Zealand team in Los Angeles starting the North Americans tonight. Go Kiwis at the NAMs!

A further update tomorrow…

Regards

Lola, Zak, Cole and Nick.

Zak in Tavira, Portugal

2011-07-02T15:19:00.003+12:00

2011 European Optimist Championships

Wednesday 29 June – First days sailing

Today is the second day for the New Zealand 2011 Euros Team (Lola, Zak, Cole and Nick) in Tavira, Portugal and with the final arrival of the charter boats overnight the team was able to take possession of their new Blue Magic boats and take them through the measuring phase of the regatta.

No problems were experienced by the team in measuring although Nick’s sail tube containing sails and spars has still not arrived, having been misplaced by the airline between London and Lisbon. “Maybe tonight” we are told…

The team was then able to spend some time with coach Susannah Pyatt pimping each of the boats out and getting them into shape for the regatta ahead. The boats are really well presented and everyone seems pretty pleased with them.

It was another clear blue day here in Tavira, with the temperature being up in the mid to late 20s C and the overnight offshore breeze turned into a moderate sea breeze. If the weather and breeze stays like this it should be an awesome sailing venue.

The boatyard is baking hot and dusty so the sailors were keen to get afloat. The yacht club is located on a river about a kilometre from the sea and the sailors launched for the first time about 2.00 pm and headed downriver heading for the sea with Susannah in hot pursuit.

The team was able to get in 3 – 4 hours training on the race course and found that while the breeze appeared moderate at the club (inland remember) the actual breeze on the course was quite light. Also there was unexpectedly a lot of tide running across the course.

The team was able to join in on some impromptu racing against several other teams so have started to get a feel of the likely competition.

The regatta starts on Saturday 2 July being the official arrival day and an invitation race scheduled for the 3rd. The first official race is 4 July, hopefully leaving adequate time for the team to get themselves familiar with local conditions.

The team is really enjoying the trip so far with the township being very picturesque and locals really friendly and helpful. Fortunately most Portuguese are able to speak good English because our Portuguese and/or Spanish is non existent! Food pricing is good with a pizza costing about €6 – 7.00 although petrol is very expensive.

The hotel ping pong table is getting a real workout with Zak, Cole and Nick taking on some of the other teams and doing OK. They’ve also had an impromptu rugby game against the Israel team. Judging by their form if the ABs come up against the Israelis in the World Cup we should be in good shape!

Another report tomorrow and hopefully Nick’s sails turn up.

Regards

Lola, Zak, Cole and Nick.

On the Road to Europe Again

2011-06-02T16:45:00.003+12:00

Well here we go again. Zak was originally set to represent New Zealand at the Asian Optimist Championships in Singapore. He was a bit disappointed with that result but was looking forward to traveling with a strong team of ten in mid-July to try his hand at sailing in Asia for the first time. However he then got the news of a placement in the team traveling to Portugal to compete in the Europeans. What an exciting opportunity for him.

This year we have decided not to travel with him - mainly because we are unable to due to the Rugby World Cup changing the school terms around and the impossibility of getting time off work. He will also be turning 15 on the trip and he will have to start learning how to make decisions on his own.

This weekend he is joining the others from all three traveling teams at a training camp on Kawerau Island. I'm sure he will have a great time and will hopefully learn lots.

Back on Line

2011-02-20T08:45:00.002+13:00

Okay so I've been slack as lately - life seems to be speeding up and leaving little time for anything else including getting onto here. I've decided to create another blog to reflect on my role as Principal of Merivale School. I created it last night and it can be found at leadingaslearning.blogspot.com. This blog will be kept for updating on everything else that's happening in my life and the lives of my whanau.

Sailing is once again our number one activity as a family. Zak is in his last year in an optimist and is determined to have a great season. He is currently sailing in Picton at the Inter-Islander Optimist Championships. This regatta is one of three national ranking regattas so he is hoping for a reasonable result although he says the conditions are weird with winds constantly shifting 180 degrees. Nationals this year are going to be in Wakatere in Auckland at Easter time and fairly much all of his energies will be concentrated on building up to this regatta.

Liam is sailing his starling boat although not with a great intensity at the present time. He has started a part time job making ice and fish bait. He is loving having the extra money coming in and is even managing to save the majority of it. He passed Level 1 NCEA and is loving the subjects he chose for Level 2. He is enjoying going to school this year - a first for many, many years.

Where to From Here

2010-08-14T20:58:00.002+12:00

So back to my everyday life of leading a Decile 1 primary school - Merivale.

It's been a hectic month and it doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon! I have been struggling with recovering from the flu. I don't recall ever being so sick. It really kept me quiet for a long time. When I was feeling better to the point I could start concentrating on future directions my focus has gone to my sick family.

This week, however, I was able to travel with the Tauranga Moana ICTPD Cluster to Auckland to view several schools. What an amazing and inspirational experience. In schools we operate in silos so it's always great to view external practice with the opportunity to compare to your own context. What came through from all schools and sites we visited was they had developed a philosophy of curriculum delivery that was uniquely theirs. At Merivale we are currently reviewing our action plan to improve pedagogical delivery. The reflections of our visit will be used in this review.

We have spent a large amount of time reviewing our philosophy - the 'why' that makes us determined to make a positive difference for our children. Now our focus is on the 'what'. It's certainly exciting times - getting 'it' right will see our children engaged in their learning and achieving outstanding results. The end result will see a curriculum which is uniquely ours!

Back Home

2010-07-14T17:18:00.004+12:00

It's great to be back home again :-)
On Saturday we left Kamien Pomorski at 5am which enabled us to spend the entire day in Berlin having another look around this beautiful city.
The Simpsons and the Tildesleys spent the day on the scenic city bus trip which tours around some of the most historic spots in Berlin. Zak, Ellie and I spent the day negotiating our way around the Berlin subway revisiting places we had seen on the bus tour on our first visit to Berlin two weeks earlier. The trouble for all of us was that the day was 44 degrees making it extremely hot!!
Despite the heat we had lots of fun getting to know the colourful history of Berlin.
The next day we travelled as a team back to the airport to begin our 37 hour journey back home. Our experience of getting the sail tube on the plane in Berlin was a bit more successful than our earlier woes in Hong Kong. This time Lufthanser seemed to have no worries taking the tube even though in Hong Kong I was assured that they didn't carry such items unless we paid for it. I think I might just have to go for a claim back for the money we paid in Hong Kong!
We came back through Tokyo where we had a wonderful day with Ken and Joe's Mum Masae as our tour guide. I think we had a snapshot of the city that most aren't privileged to due to the fact we had the expertise of Masae :-)
Sleep was welcomed on our last flight back home where we were very happy to see our families waiting for us at the airport.
The trip was an exceptionally wonderful experience for both the sailors and the adults. Joining with the two Australian sailors was a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our team and enabled us the opportunity to forge new friendships.
I know the sailors have all come back with new goals for their sailing for 2010 and 2011. For me I have had new insights into what it means to be a sailing mum :-)

Closing Ceremony

2010-07-10T06:36:00.002+12:00

I'm sitting at the closing ceremony for the European Championships. Today was a long drawn out day with no wind and no sailing. It was such a shame because we only sailed 3 out 6 days totalling 7 out of 12 races.
On the positive side,however, the experience has been awesome and I am sure that all the sailors will set themselves new goals with their sailing. It is amazing to all the other countries here that New Zealand sends their fourth ranked team to the second ranked regatta in the world. What is also amazing is that our sailors perform so well. Getting top 20 results in the races is wonderful and shows our sailors can match with some of the best in the world.
Now we are off to Berlin tomorrow at 5am so we can have the day there to do more looking around. Farewell to Poland - the people here have been lovely and given us an experience we will never forget :-)

Waiting For Wind

2010-07-09T18:10:00.002+12:00

Our last day of sailing was two days ago due to a complete lack of wind. Yesterday was a frustrating day of sitting around waiting for the wind to come in. The day before our girls had their best day of the regatta with Carolina getting a 10 and Ellie coming 16th. These results are fantastic as the competition here is extremely tough.
Zak said he had some of his best ever sailing when he made up 30 places in the second upwind leg of the last race - the smile was definitely pretty wide on his face. All of the sailors in our team keep commenting on how much they have learnt from the experience of coming here which is really exciting for us to hear.
Now we are heading down for the last day of the regatta and really hoping for some wind :-)

A Windy Day

2010-07-07T06:30:00.002+12:00

Overall our sailors had an improved day today due to improved wind conditions. The European winds we expected reached 18knots today with gusts over 20. Tom from Australia got a 5th and a 1st causing great excitement in our camp. I'm putting it down to the fact I lent him some longs when we got to the venue as he was seriously underdressed for the colder conditions :-) Our best results of the day were Jack with a 12th, Zak with a 13th and Ken with a 17th - very exciting finishes at this level of competition. Watching the live GPS tracking makes the racing very exciting on shore although today the Internet was down for quite some time and we were left to play guessing games.
Our two girls found the conditions a bit tough today although they both had some achievements to be proud of. Carolina made improvements throughout the day while Ellie rounded the top mark in the last race in the top 10 before getting her life jacket hooked in her boom and capsizing.
On the shore the town has organised a festival around the event. On the big stage there is a concert every night and we are fortunate to hear the soundchecks during the day. The wonderful orchestra's concert was stunning. A fair for the younger children is running beside the race office with a very loud and annoying clown singing his way through the afternoon. Hopefully he's not there tomorrow :-)

We have wind :-)

2010-07-06T21:22:00.002+12:00

Day 3 which is really day 2 and yes we have the best wind since we have been here :-)
It's probably been about 15 knotts and building. All our children launched which was a bit of a mission. Now we wait until the start.

Day 2

2010-07-06T04:39:00.003+12:00

Today was lots of waiting around in the heat. The sailors launched right on time with the ramps once again proving to be a bit of a mission. We were all in the press room at 12 waiting to see the start but there were huge long delays. There appeared to be more wind than yesterday but it must have been too difficult to set a course because at 3 all the sailors came to shore. We waited until 5 when racing was postponed for the day. We are now back at the hotel hoping for more wind tomorrow!

First Day of Racing

2010-07-05T07:08:00.004+12:00

The winds came in at 3 and were initially strong but soon died to just a few knots. However the race committee got all races away with the children coming off the water after 7pm!! I've never been in a regatta where the children have been on the water for sooo long. As Susannah says today was a day for the midgets with all the frontrunners being tiny as. Our kids are not little and were very much the backrunners today. However they have remained upbeat and know tomorrow is another day. This is a 6 day regatta and the kids know that wind will make a big difference to them. They all really loved the starts as they are way more agressive than the starts in New Zealand. They are certainly on a steep learning curve which is great. Launching and bringing the boats in is proving to be a real mission with it taking place off a floating pontoon. The problem is when everyone decides to go onto the pontoon at the same time it completely sinks. Today I managed an altercation with one of the officials from the French team who decided it was okay to try and push past me not caring if I could fall in the water. Try having an argument with someone when you both speak different languages - it must have looked very funny to others watching it.
We have managed to get our children to bed at a reasonable hour and will now be willing the wind to arrive for tomorrow.

First Day of Racing

2010-07-05T00:03:00.002+12:00

Well here we are sitting under the tree at our team area waiting for the wind to come in! We have had wind everyday except today and it's very very hot!! The sailors got sent out on the water this morning and then the coaches were called back in due to a muck up in the ribbons -girls had been put in the boys fleet! So all the New Zealanders have had to change their flights. Next the AP flag was raised and all kids were towed to shore. And now?? Well the wind has just come in - instantly it's hit! So activity has hit and it looks like we are going to get racing today after all :-)

Opening Ceremony

2010-07-04T08:36:00.003+12:00

We have just arrived back at the hotel from the opening ceremony. What a big and impressive ceremony it was! Obviously hosting this event is huge for Kamien Pomorski as it seemed the whole of the town turned out.
The evening started with the parade of nations. Funnily enough New Zealand came right at the end after Uruguay and before the host nation, Poland. Every other country got ordered in English alphabetical order. We think they may have disregarded the New in our name and ordered us by Zealand. They certainly didn't like it when we tried to reorganise it :-)We paraded past most of the township who were going wild as we approached (we do believe however that it may have been because Poland were right behind us).Zak was our flag bearer and Carolina was Australia's flagbearer.They had to carry the flags up to the front area of the stage. There were speeches, dancers and Vikings - really it was a great evening.A lot of work was put into making the children feel special. We missed the fireworks as they were not starting until 11pm (it is only dark here about then) and we needed to get our children back to bed.
Tomorrow is Day 1 of the regatta. The first race is at 12 which is about the time the wind comes in every day. Boys and girls race separately. Each fleet is split into four flights. We know our two girls are in the same flight but the boys have not been posted yet. Zak told me he was hoping to get into the green flight as this is the beginner flight back home and he doesn't have the opportunity to race in this flight at home.

Practice Race

2010-07-04T04:04:00.003+12:00

The practice race of the regatta was held this afternoon. I'm not sure why it's called a race because there is nothing about it that resembles a race at all! The kids have lots of fun on the water in a semi race course. Jack, one of our team members, managed to start in two different flights and at one stage members of our Australasian team were sailing backwards on the reach! The purpose of the race is for the officials to ensure everything is in place before racing proper starts tomorrow.
We are waiting now to return to the racing venue for the opening ceremony. They have built an amazing stage and have been sound checking all day. It looks like it will be amazing. Zak is the New Zealand flag bearer and Caralina is the Australian flag bearer.

Viking Village

2010-07-03T17:46:00.002+12:00

Last night we travelled about 30 minutes to view a working Viking village from the 10th century. It was really amazing. A large number of people actually live there in the summer months just as the Vikings did all those years ago. It certainly gave us all a new appreciation of the Vikings. I think for many of us our only knowledge was of Astrix :-) The children were able to put on the armour and fight with the weapons and yes they were real - OSH would have such a field day in this country!! Today is the practice race for the regatta at 2pm and the opening ceremony at 8pm. The children are starting to get excited about racing so more from the venue later on. More importantly today is Zak's birthday so he's very very excited today :-)

At the venue

2010-07-02T21:32:00.003+12:00

Yay we now have Internet access at the venue. So here I am at the venue sitting under a tree accessing the Internet. How cool is that :-) we have just registered the team - a two minute process!! We all think Susannah, our coach, was telling fibs about how hard it was in previous years :-) The kids are out on the water training in exceptionally light winds today. Susannah has decided we will only have a small session today so as not to get the kids too tired! Later on we are going to do some sight seeing and then we are off on a trip to the Viking Village. Yesterday the Mums visited a stone museum! Yes exactly as it sounds a museum about stones :-) It is housed in a tower built in 1100. It certainly wouldn't pass our OSH standards! Very exciting news overnight when Susannah got selected for a sailing team which keeps her on track for Olympic 2012 selections. Yay - it was very exciting. There seems to be a webcam over looking the venue for the opening ceremony which is an amazing outside venue the township has created. I will see if I can get the URL to let you know where it is.
The whole town here has got behind this regatta and are doing everything possible to make this a fantastic event. The practice race is tomorrow before the opening ceremony - Zak's birthday. The best thing I wouldn't be without on this trip is my currency convertor. It's invaluable!!

2010-07-01T19:35:00.002+12:00

We have joined up with the two sailors from the Australian team to form an Australasian team of six. Yesterday the children got their charter boats for the first time. They all really liked their boats as they are brand new Blue Magic boats. Zak got to rig his brand new North sail for the first time and Ken purchased a brand new J Sail from the venue. The children had their first session on the water of four hours getting used to the local conditions. I think a few eyes were opened with the difference between NZ and Polish sailing. The children joined in with the large Polish team of 14 children for races in the afternoon and found themselves quite competitve. Measuring was an easy affair taking less than 15 minutes - quite a contrast to the whole day it took last year's team!

First Day of Training

2010-06-30T19:11:00.002+12:00

We are staying in a health resort about 6km from the sailing venue. Most of the other teams are staying here too so it's a bit like a mini United Nations with lots of different languages around all the time. This place is supposed to be a resort area where many Polish people come to spend their summer holidays. It kind of reminds me of a 1950s holiday camp with organised activities for the guests. There's also a big presence of imposing security guards roaming throughout the place. Yesterday we shared a shuttle from Berlin to Poland with the team from Israel. They travel with their coach and their two huge security guards from the army. They are not allowed to wear their team uniform any where other than the venue as at no time can they be identified as being from Israel. It was a real eye opener for our team.
The bus doesn't leave to take us to the sailing club until 10 however our sailors were lucky to get on a hotel shuttle and leave earlier. The rest of us are now waiting for the shuttle to arrive.

Poland at last!

2010-06-30T05:57:00.002+12:00

We have made our way to Poland at last! On Saturday we left NZ 3 members of our team short. The 3 of us left flew through to Hong Kong with Air New Zealand on a Boeing 777-200. I was told it would be a great flight as it was anawesome plane. Don't believe it!!! It was probably one of the worst planes I have ever been on. Even the two children were complaining of no leg room! We didn't get very much sleep at all and arrived in Hong Kong very tired. We had to uplift our bags and put them into storage which cost us $110 NZ. We then took the train into Hong Kong station. Wow Hong Kong had our eyes out on stalks - especially the children. It was hot, humid and raining. The two kids loved it. We took a bus trip around the city which had a running commentry. Our energy levels during the day flagged constantly so we had many stops to drink and eat to up energy levels. We decided to head back to the airport early due to our tiredness. It was there we had fun and games with the sail tube we were carrying. Lufthanser refused to carry it and I refused to leave Hong Kong without it. The compromise cost me $280NZ! We then flew through to Munich where we had issues with me reading the airport board wrong but more about that later! Onto Berlin - what an awesome city. If you haven't been here since the wall came down then you wouldn't recognize the place. The old East is where it's all happening and many places that once couldn't have been visited can be now. Zak and Ellie bought pieces of the Berlin Wall and had McDonalds at Checkpoint Charlie!!! I had my photo taken at the Brandenburg Gates - something I never thought would have happened when I was Zak's age.
Today we caught the shuttle through to Poland and have been so impressed with the generosity of the Polish people. We are also very impressed with how cheap everything is. I bought lunch for three people which cost me a total of $5 NZ. Tomorrow we get our boats and the kids get on the water for the first time - something they are looking forward to :-)

Oh No!!

2010-06-26T22:01:00.002+12:00

Waiting now in Auckland Airport with Ellie and Zak but Ken has been unable to leave Wellington due to awful weather conditions. So here I am solo in charge :-) Two very lovely children to look after - how wonderful :-) Hopefully Ken and family can join us within a couple of days - fingers crossed.

2010-06-26T13:09:00.002+12:00

Just a few hours left before Zak and I leave for Auckland to meet up with the rest of the team. Still so much to do - grrrr!! My oldest son, Liam, has been an awesome help. It certainly is a different pack to normal when I have to make all the sailing gear fit into the bags as well!
Lots of people have asked me over the past few weeks what we do with our boats and how we get those over there. The answer is we don't. We charter boats over there. We get to pick our boats up on the day we arrive and set them up. We take our sails over with us and anything else we want to have on the boat. Hopefully Zak knows how he wants his boat set us as this is an area I know nothing about!

Nearly Time To Go

2010-06-24T13:59:00.002+12:00

It's all excitement in the last two days before my youngest son, Zak and I head to Poland. At Easter Zak qualified for the New Zealand optimist team to compete at the European Championships in Poland. At the time it seemed quite a way out into the future - but how fast time goes!! Zak has been counting down the days from about 35 days to go. Even then it didn't really register but now with two it's fast becoming a reality - eek! The next two days is going to be exceptionally busy with heaps left to do.

There are four members in the team, Zak, Jack, Ken and Ellie. The team has been practicing every weekend in Auckland since the beginning of May. It has been really impressive to watch how much effort these young people have put into their preparation. For me it's been hard work as I have had to drive two and a half hours each way on a Saturday for Zak to attend these sessions. I'm really starting to feel the effects of it having succumbed to a heavy cold in the last week. However it has been rewarding to watch just how much his sailing has improved and the effort has been well worth it.

On our trip over we go via Hong Kong, where we spend 17 hours before we fly to Munich and then onto Berlin. We are spending the night in Berlin before driving to Kamien Pomorski in Poland where the European champs are being held. The official website for the champs is http://www.europti2010.pl This will be the site to get official results. The team however has made their own Facebook page to update friends and family. On Facebook search for Euro opti New Zealand Team.