The start draws near for Greg in Qinqdao.
Greg has had two great days of training on the water. The winds remain light as expected while the temperature has increased by a couple of degrees. I am soaked in perspiration every time I venture into the boat storage area with him. The humidity is very high and so it must be close to 40 degrees Celsius. The cooler for the coach boat is working out to have been a very good purchase. It stays on the boat and we refill it with ice and water every morning.
The race committees were out on the water again today. The start boats are power cats with a large electronic screen mounted on top. When they leave the marina, the start boat is accompanied by all of the mark boats etc for that course. There must be about 10 such boats, all of which are speedboats of about 25 feet. The start boat leads and the others are in a line following its stern. It looks like a hen with her chicks following. All very orderly and well behaved.
Today we had our briefing on the travel to Beijing tomorrow for the opening ceremony. They have agreed to open the dining hall early to accommodate the early travelers. We leave the Village at 7:00 am for a 9:00 am flight to Beijing. Only 300 are going to Beijing for the opening ceremony. It turns out that several classes have their practice race on the afternoon of August 9 and so will not be back in time if they went to Beijing. We will spend the night in the Beijing Olympic Village before returning to Qingdao on an 11:00 am flight. We will have to sail late into the afternoon on the 9th.
We are looking forward to our visit to Beijing. We will be staying in their Olympic Village which must be substantially larger than what we have here in Qingdao. We get to meet the rest of the Barbados team fot he first time. It will be a late night but is expected to be one of those once in a lifetime events.
There is a Qingdao opening ceremony on August 9, again with a parade of country flags and athletes. That takes place at 8:00 pm. Today I went to the operations centre to sign off on the national anthem and flag. They were having all the team leaders come in and check to make sure no international incidents happen over flags and national anthems. I have seen major confusion occur over this at the IODA Worlds in Ecuador when they played the Taiwan anthem instead of the PRC anthem.
Greg continues to be relaxed and comfortable. We saw another of his heroes this morning on the launch ramp: Ben Ainslie. He is actually kind of small and is definitely smaller than the average Finn sailor. The J boat Endeavor is docked in the Olympic Harbour and moved out when Greg was leaving the harbour. She is a beautiful boat.
I continue to be inspired by the great athletes around me. I have been exercising every morning, usually early. I am one of the very first into the gym when it opens at 6:00 am. I have not seen the Australian sailor for the past few days and so she must have changed her daily routine. Most athletes seem to do their work-outs in the evening. The gym and the extra equipment just outside of it are very busy in the evenings when I am typically sitting in the area doing my e-mails to coincide with morning in North America.
Every night for the past 5 nights they have been practicing for the Qingdao Opening Ceremony. The city is lit up and there is a laser light show that takes place. It is all very impressive from our vantage point on the 16th floor of the Village. There is also a massive water fountain in the sea just off the boardwalk in the city. That is also lit up and all tied into music being played. Several of the office towers in downtown Qingdao have moving light shows that are played. It is a moving display of sailboats. They are using the building like a billboard. Interestingly, driving past the buildings you cannot see any additional lights or scaffolding on the building. And these displays are at least 30 stories tall. They are very impressive.
My next report will be after our return from Beijing. We have been told to travel light and I will probably not take my laptop. However, I will have my Blackberry turned on. We are taking two cameras and a videocam to record our participation.
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