Ryan Palk

Well today was the first day of the regatta. What a surprise it was windy haha. Not sure if it does anything else here. Tom Burton and i were the two Aussies in the green fleet, which had some of the most awesome sailors I have sailed against.  Anyways, solid 20knots coupled with big waves made for an interesting day, including plenty of snapped masts and epic capsizes!  My first race was okay, i think i got top 20 (results haven’t come out).  I was happy with my speed but not execution of simple things which costs me many boats, i was also taken out on the bottom mark in which i protested but that didn’t help the damage that had been done, damm! Will have to be more proactive to out of control sailors coming down waves from now on!  Second race was good, came around top mark in 5th with some real good sailors, had an alright downwind and next upwind until on the lay and on the last tack my mainsheet somehow got caught under my actual tiller??? never seen that before but it stopped me good, nearly capsizing in the process of getting it undone! however, i managed to free it, losing about ten spots, damm again…But overall, i was quite happy with the way i sailed, i felt as fast as the top guys from last year, which made me happy cause this time last year they would eventually sail away from me.  the fleet is really close, and their is some epic battles going on. Myself and James Sandall from NZL whom i tied with last year are always right next to each other, its amaxing that after a whole year of sailing we are still so close, we seem to push each other round the race track which is good.  Im not sure exactly how the other aussie boys in the other fleet went, but im pretty sure they had a good day.  Otherwise, everything is pretty good, all the boys are pretty sore now from today, meant to be even windier tomorrow!  had my last antibiotic today so hopefully I can battle the rest of the cough off myself, haha i keep donating quite a bit of flem to the ocean on the downwind runs! pretty gross…anyways, will work on these issues and others in the days to come, to make sure i can keep playing the game! 

good sailing

cheers

ryan

Well hey guys gotta be real quick cause gotta go to the club soon.The last few days have been an epic battle between sickness and health and i think im starting to win! A millions drugs and antibiotics later, my cough still resides but the soreness and headaches are gone, and everything feels better, touchwood.  The last few days have been spent registering and getting measurment out of the way.  We were the last boats they would measure yesterday, they closed the gates behind us, meaning the rest of the fleet will have to be done tomorrow. Its’ awesome that we have that out of the way cause it would of meant we to get up real early today to rush around and get it done. 

Dont want this

Today is the practice race.  We have decided to go out a little before the race and have a bit of a hoon, as we havent gone out yet.  We were going to go out yesterday but they closed the harbour because it was too rough outside.  The wind lately hasn’t dropped below 20knots and looking outside now today might be the lightest day we have, probably still 15-20knots.  Really keen for a sail as it feels like we haven’t been out in years.  Talking to some of the other teams, they said it was hard conditions out there, and there were quite a few capsizes also.  Hopefully, Klade and I can slip straight into it and be on the pace quickly. Um otherwise everything else good, oh Klade asked for some Coke yesterday at the cinema and the guy said we don’t sell, klade was like but u got it just there, and he was like oh Coca Cola…he thought Klade wanted Cocaine! haha anyway I thought it was funny but we aren’t kids on coke just so u no.

Good sailing

cheers

ryan

Well, klade and i have both been struck down by the flu or cough or something. Either way it is quite frustrating..my abs hurt from the coughing and i think klade was throwing up before, still got about 6 days til the event starts so we should be okay.  Fortunately, the weather has been rainy and windy anyways so its perfect for staying indoors and watching movies and eating!  its taking longer than we anticipated to get through jetlag also.  The days are so long here (sun comes up at 4, doesnt go down til 11), so we end up having two sleeps, one from like 11 til 9 then another at 2 -5.  We should really stop this but our body clocks are still in sync with Australia i think so we get tired mid afternoon…Yesterday we went to midurodam, a 5 min walk up the road, its like a museum theme park thing, basically its a place where all of holland is built into a model set on a small oval.  it was pretty interesting and the attention to detail was crazy…Anyways might go watch another movie, ive already had my two sleeps today so i feel energised! i just had some drug thats like battery acid which stops the cough! its awesome! oh yeh they have a cereal here called cruesli thats pure chocolate! klade and i think there is drugs in it cause its bloody addictive! anyways, klade and i will keep up the blogs and try and get better, or just harden up!

ryan

a small big building?

you;d cry to if you couldn’t climb the dikes…hahaha

Well hallo all, we are now comfortably in the da haag.  This is now our 3rd day here and it is really nice.  It is good weather with just shirts and thongs on most of the time…Yesterday we went for a walk to the beach, where it was quite busy and normal to be half naked..Klade and i are gonna get a moped or somesort today to zip around on.  We saw the dutch team training yesterday also, just off the beach we were chilling on…it looks like they are going to have the racing quite close to shore for spectators making the waves a little bigger as they hit the sandy banks.  Our flights were alright, unfortunately on the last two we didn’t have any entertainment on board which meant two 18yr olds had to amuse ourselves in other ways, the end result being us two dressed up as middle eastern warriors using our pillows and airline blankets…it was a long flight.  The photos show klade and I in front of a really small car, we thought i was cool, and an emergency nude stop! Only in amsterdam! anyways betta get going, super keen for racing now! not long to go… Cheers ryan

Well, its that time of the year again!  We leave today from Brissy for what i already know is going to be an awesome experience! Our training thus far has taken us all around the Australian East coast and taught us many lessons, as well as making us better sailors and being part of one the most fun journey’s ever, so really going to Amsterdam for the worlds is like the cherry on top of an already elaborate cake!  Since last year Kladeos and i have done more sailing than ever before, around 700 hours on the water of quality training time since our last worlds, should hopefully have lifted our potential to a gold medal for Australia!!  The goal for worlds? Well, we aren’t going there to get second! But at the same  time, self improvement is extremely important!  But mainly, we ‘dont want to come back with any potential intact’.  I have many people and spoons (personal jokes) to thank but i think i will leave that to the return, cause if i forget anyone in my rushed typing i would be quite annoyed.  I also better watch what i write this time as last year my blogs were redirected to LaserWorld magazine and published in their international magazine, quite a surprise as  we really only wrote these for friends and family. Hopefully all the flights will run smoothly and we can take the opportunities you have all given us and turn them into gold baby! Oh well, better get going, will blog again when im on the other side of this planet…as they say in dutch hier wij lopen baby!! (here we go baby) ha……………… ryan out!!!!