I was just asking myself what have I been up to this last month.. I got out my calendar and had a good look at what I've been up to since the Fastnet finished at the end of August. I was surprised to see that I've spent almost no time on the water this month. I suppose that I'd call these last few weeks a bit of a 'holiday' from my sailing commitments.
During this holiday time I travelled off to Malta for a short family holiday which was great as I was also able to catch up with one of my good uni mates who lives there. That certainly was a great laugh! I also spent a long weekend away on the south coast just catching some fresh air which has been lovely.
One of the recent highlights for me was travelling down to Plymouth to watch the Americas Cup unfold there. I drove down for the second weekend and I was taken away by the sheer number of spectators that were crowding Plymouth Hoe. Its so brilliant to see the general public taking such a large interest in this 'round the cans' racing format. I have to admit, I was never entirely convinced by the move to multihull's and I'm still not 100% convinced. However, if these new radical boats continue to draw in such phenomenal interest from the general public, then I believe that it was a good move.
A couple of weeks ago I submitted my application to try out for the Artemis Offshore Academy (http://www.artemisoffshoreacademy.com/academy/) and I'm pleased to be able to say that I've been invited to the selection trials which are to be held at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. I'm attending the second set of trials which begin this Thursday and I'm really excited!
Almost directly after the trials I'm jumping on a plane to fly out to Australia to join Team Another Challenge to begin our training regime for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. We've got a great training programme worked out which I'm pretty excited about and I'm looking forward to learning from our coaches.
Yesterday was a big day for offshore racing as two major races started. The Mini Transat (http://www.charentemaritime-bahia.transat650.net/en/) began in typically spectacular form with almost 80 boats crossing the start line. The Global Ocean Race (http://globaloceanrace.com/) also kicked off from Mallorca. I'll be following both of these races quite avidly and I wish the best of luck to every competitor!
Mike
