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After quick ride up to the airport and again a very swift check-in and boarding, we left Southampton 10 minutes early resulting in the plane landing 20 minutes early. After driving for 15 minutes I still managed to get through customs before the scheduled arrival time of 20.30hrs.

Now I am settled in the centre of Amsterdam and my god what a brilliant place it is! Anyhow, tomorrow is the second day of the METS (and my first), hopefully I get to tick off a lot from my to-do list. What is a certainty is that I am looking forward t get stuck in and enjoy Amsterdam the coming days with friends before and after visiting the RAI.

Ciao!

Well, I went sailing on Sunday and had an absolute shocker…

To start with I was probably the least prepared I have ever been and so after calling the start (keeping us just behind the line) and the first beat I was a little slow with hooking up the A-sail for a reach across.

Basically the reach across ended up going like this: Top mark > hoist A-sail > drop jib > spinnaker on deck > go downstairs to put on a harnass > change the sheets on the A-sail by flying out to the clew > hoist Spinnaker (outside) > drop A-sail > pack jib > gybe > pack jib a bit more > gybe > get other jib on deck and plugged in > gybe > finish plugging in the jib > hoist jib > drop spinnaker…

Not many issues but not a glamour performance from yours truly either. Didn’t matter too much in the end with plenty of other stuff to do along the way (couple of jib changes downwind, broken halyard on the jib and broken jibsheet) in 15-22kts of breeze in fairly sunny conditions and ending up first in class as well as beating the other class that raced the same course on corrected.

Anyway, the shame of my performance is behind me and another day of uni-work ahead before heading for Amsterdam and the METS for the coming days. Should be interesting!

Ciao!