Sunday, April 18, 2010

A normal day

I just thought I would post something to let you know we are still here. Nothing too exciting has happened of late, Jen and I have been working and training as usual. There was no wind both times we tried to sail after work this week, so we did some much needed boat work. This morning we ran 20 km in our running clinic, which was looooong. It was a gorgeous morning, lovely and warm and sunny, which was great except I thought it was going to rain so I was dragging along an extra shirt and jacket! The nice weather meant there wasn't too much wind but we went sailing afterwards anyways, testing out a few new modifications to the boat. Then home for dinner, and downtown for free yoga at lululemon (they have this in every city with a lululemon, you should check it out).

I will finish up my contract as a research assistant at the end of the month and the opera Jen is stage managing has opened so we will be getting on the water even more in the next couple weeks. With the warmer weather and more daylight Jen and I have both been biking more as well. Brian Todd (National Team Coach) will be out for the last week of April to work with the Paralympic and 470 sailors in Victoria, which will be great.

Things are steadily coming together for our competitions in Europe. We have secured accommodations in Weymouth and just booked our flight to Germany, we will be leaving Canada on June 14th.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Wind Storm!

It's Easter weekend, so while this may mean time with your families, for me it has always meant sailing (just ask my Mom). Growing up in Alberta, I've been coming out to the west coast to train over Easter since I was 14, until finally I just packed up and moved here. This year is no different, with about 15 sailors flying and driving out for the weekend.

Today was supposed to be our first day of training, but it might be a bit windy! As I write this the wind is a sustained 45 knots (that's about 80 km/hr to you non-sailors) and over 90 000 homes are currently without power. The storm started at about 4 am (at least that's when my windows started rattling) and it's a big one! We usually get some awesome south-easterly storms during the winter in Victoria, so this one is a bit late. The roads are covered in tree bits and the cherry trees have lost all their blossoms. Since its a holiday, many people are out driving along Dallas Road to storm watch. After determining that we were NOT going sailing, that's what Jen and I did and I took some photos. Then we went back to the yacht club and ran around with everyone else all excited. We re-tied boats to the dock and rescued some sails shredding themselves in the wind. If you own a boat I suggest you go check on it! I have put in some links if you would like to follow the storm. It is supposed to blow out by about midnight, so hopefully we will get sailing tomorrow! CBC Story Wind Forecasts Photos