Asian Report 4. 5th July, 2010.
Last night the opening ceremony was a great event with team photos on the beach with an elephant, followed by a march into the yacht club. All the teams looked very cool in their uniforms. The Thai tourism dignitaries, the Varuna yacht club commodore and David Booth representing IODA welcomed all the sailors and supporters. There was an awesome Thai dinner served followed by the raising of the country flags. Charlotte and Matthew doing the honours for our team. Thai dancers and fire eaters followed with a show for us. In usual Asian style it was well organised and good fun for the sailors.
First day of racing today and it’s good to get going after 4 days of training. Jimmy is sharing the coach boat with Papua New Guinea. It’s great to see them here. The first race started out in 8 to 10 knots from the south again. First start got away after 3 attempts finally on a black flag. We think a couple of kiwis could have been caught out here!? The final stages of the race saw a huge black cloud roll in from the east. The front brought heavy rain and thunder with a strong burst of breeze. Also it brought a huge shift making the last beat to the finish a broad reach unfortunately. The sailors finished the race and were sent ashore. After the fronts there is usually no wind for awhile which gave the teams time for some lunch back at the club and quick chat from Jimmy. Most sailors then ended up in the swimming pool for a cool off. The pool on the front lawn of the club is fantastic in these temperatures and great place for the sailors to socialise.
The second race started at about 3pm in light conditions and as the tide kicked in it was a tough last beat to the finish for some. Finally all off the water at 5-45pm. Our team has had good day and some mixed results but the sailors are having fun. All seem to have some good speed so they are all looking forward to more racing tomorrow. Here the conditions are very changeable with monsoon season so we are hoping for a bit of good breeze at some time. Check out the results at www.jsst.org
