Day 7- Helsinki

Jen here,
Well the boat is all snugged down and ready for racing which begins the day after tomorrow.  Quatich (our boat) has been checked over, polished, bolts tightened, and decalled up with sponsor stickers for the event.
We had our last day of training today with just Bunny, as our Russian training partners prefer to take their lay day on the penultimate training day before the event.  We worked on starts, tuning, and some boat handling in light breeze and you know, for a short 1 1/2 hour session in light air, it was fantastic and very productive.  We managed to work through a couple of little tricky bits which were hanging up larger manoeuvres, and it felt really good to sort those items out.
It's been hot again in Helsinki (remember my first post? Haha! I told you it would be hot didn't I!) and as we waited for wind I was sort of overcome with irony.  Of all our training and events so far this season, Finland has been the warmest and it's the furthest north!  In England I usually wore two sweaters and a jacket. In Holland I think there was one "shorts worthy" day but the duration of the event was definitely what I would call tepid.  Now that we're in the land of the midnight sun, it's sunscreen, water by the litre, and the lightest wetsuit you can find.  So funny now that I think of it.
Big news on the 470 course...the race committee has moved our course to the same spot that the Laser Radials are using this week.  That means it's only about 2 miles to the course rather than 4.  It's going to be nice being that much closer, although really it's still a 30 minute tow out to the course and an upwind sail back for 2 miles.  The one downside is that we hear rumours of reefs in the middle of the course.  Apparently some of the Radials this week were planning their strategy around which bits of rock they'd sail around.  Well, here's hoping it all goes well!

Cheers,
Jen