It was 50 degrees in the sun the other day up at the boat building yard on their eltronic thermometer. Its only the beginning of June as well so this looks like its going to one long long summer. However, there is 30 knots forecast on friday night and 23 to 24 forecast on saturday.
I was talking to glenny last week and he reckons he needs to go for a sail as he has only sailed once since the worlds and I am on about 4 or 5 sails since then. Probs a good day to get the velocitek out and see how fast we can go on saturday i think. Friday is taken up by a stag do and tonight the ministry of sound are playing their first set in the Middle East so going to check that out. I suppose saturday will also be a good test of if all this effort to put weight on was worth it or not.
Beriut was awesome, I recommend to anyone. Its basically a mix between Greece, Southern Italy and Cyprus. If there were not bullet holes and Arabic writing on walls you would think you were in Europe. Also, somewhat suprisingly, all the people are extremly friendly. Its a shame they are so close to all the trouble and its probably not the best time to go right now, I cannot imagine they are very happy about the flotilla getting nailed just off their border. I have ruled it out as somewhere to live though, as there is not a lot of wind at all.
The richest sailing race in the world was last weekend, and we were out there to watch it. Sultan got away to a flyer, but lacked boat speed for numerous reasons. The boat just seemed sluggish for some reason, i really wanted to get them to put a tweaker on the leech of their big sail, just to see if it would make a difference in the breeze. There was a little chat of them opening the rule so others could race. If that happens I will get one like a shot and do some of the big races. Something I did find very amusing was the start of the race. There were 100, 60 foot shows lined up and anchored. One of them put their sail up and then so did the rest….. in my book, all were OCS as the starting flare had not gone…. but not here, restarts are bit of a problem when you have two anchors for your support boat to pick up and then re tow your boat into position.
Looking like I will be on the IOW for Cowes this year, if any mothies are over lets have rum. My plans might change drastically within the next month though, fingers crossed.
Come to the UK Nationals Chris! Rumour has it that a couple of the Swiss boys are coming over…..should be a top event.
Hmmm maybe. I will see, is there any discount for international entries?