It has been an interesting and very busy few days for me, including an long trip down in the ‘fun bus' , but I got here and set up in sunny Palma, Mallorca, ahead of the first of five major Olympic classes regattas to held across Europe. Over the coming 4 months some if not all of the Skandia Team GBR British Sailing Team will travel first to Palma, where I am currently, then to Hyeres, in the south of France, Medemblik in the Netherlands, Weymouth for Sail for Gold back in the UK and then potentially Kiel, in Germany.
Since February many of the team have already been out in Palma, including myself, for some ‘warm weather’ training- especially given the UK temperatures this year. This is so the sailors can maximise their training with slightly longer daylight hours and considerably warmer sea temperatures- only dropping down to 12 Celsius as opposed to the incredibly low 4.5 Celsius recorded in the Solent this year.
The added benefit as always is getting to know the venue more, experiencing different wind and sea conditions. Palma is classically thought of as a sea breeze venue but over the last few years we have experienced more gradient driven conditions including a some serious thunderstorms and even a funnel cloud (picture to follow)
Typically a light wind venue and small sea state, you can easily be caught out by the shallow low pressure systems providing gale force winds and massive sea states.
No comments:
Post a Comment