Hello to you all
We are now up in Weymouth, where amazingly enough (as according to the
locals - it has not been anything like this) it is beautifully sunny
and warm. A nice intro to the UK, where we will be spending a fair
bit of time over the next few months... We drove up here straight
after the Worlds finished - a lovely two days of driving in torrential
rain with a slightly loaded up car (but safe nonetheless), and now we
have given ourselves a few days off after what was a rather stressful
and eventful regatta for us.
So on to the Worlds recap...
We arrived in Barcelona a week before racing started, as we wanted to
make the most of our time at home (something that is becoming ever
scarcer), so we had a short but sweet build-up, which included a bit
of sightseeing and a bus tour around the city.
The Worlds was always going to be long - seven days racing and
thirteen races in total (one more day than a normal World Cup event).
But we made it even harder on ourselves...
Day one and two went well, the regatta started with no wind and a long
delay, after which we finally got on the water for one race. Day two
was the opposite, with the most wind we had all event, and three
races. We had a pretty good first two days and came away with a
3,3,4,2, which we were rather happy with. Then came the accident...
Riding home from the YC (all of a 5 min ride) Jo came off her bike
down a hill, and we all spent the evening (and half the night) in
Barcelona Hospital, with Jo coming out of it with an early birthday
present (it was her birthday the next day) of four stitches above her
right eye, a rather impressive black eye (which made seeing out of it
for days two and three rather interesting) and a big graze on her
chin, as well as some grazed palms to finish it off. Luckily nothing
was broken, and nothing was injured that would stop us sailing, just a
few things to make sailing a little more uncomfortable.
So the rest of the regatta brought the extra joy of Jo having to sail
with rather large dressings plastered all over her face. Luckily
enough there were some great first aid personal on site, and they
re-did the dressings morning and night. So it was manageable, but I
have to say, not at all fun. In saying that, we still managed to win
the first race of the day after - maybe partly out of annoyance with
being injured on your birthday in the middle of the World Champs.
The next few days were more of the same.. with varying amounts of
right eye vision! But we came away with a solid series, with one bad
day where we just made a few too many simple errors, to end up going
into the medal race in 3rd, only one point back from 1st and 2nd, who
were tied on points, and 4th not far behind us. So needless to say it
was going to be a rather tense medal race!
The medal race itself did not go well for us, we had a chance going up
the first beat, but didn't capitalize, and then made a crucial mistake
at the first top mark and that was all it took for us to end up 4th
overall. It was a very hard way to finish off what had already been a
tough event. But I guess that's sport... you win some you lose some,
at least we came away with some valuable learnings that hopefully we
can now use over the next few months before the one that really
matters...
So yep, its not long now, we will be competing in the Sail for Gold
World Cup event in a week and a half, and then doing a few training
camps, before its time to have one last stint at home to recharge
before the Games begin in early August.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us over this journey so far,
there is not long to go now, and just wanted you to know we really do
appreciate it. And a special mention to Nathan (our super coach) for
keeping us going through the tough parts!!
Jo & Polly
Thank you to all our supporters and suppliers:
Yachting New Zealand, High Performance Sport NZ, Harken, Donaghys,
Kaenon Sunglasses, Lynn River and Mackay Boats.
Twitter: @joaleh
www.teamjollyracing.com