Entering the Olympic Marina and Shanghai Holding Camp

Sorry I haven't added any updates to the blog for awhile, its been fairly hectic!
We flew out last Tuesday with fellow Devonian sailor Joe Glanfield as well as a number of other athletes including Linford Christie! Though Linford was in first class he still said 'Hi' to us. We are so separate from the main scene in Beijing you don't think about seeing other athletes.
We arrived in Qingdao to heavy rain and the forecast of more the following day with a potential typhoon warning in the near vicinity. We went down to Yin Hai marina the following day with the hope of sailing our kit round to the Olympic marina, a couple of miles down the coast, but on arriving at Yin Hai we found 20kt winds and waves breaking over the sea wall into the marina. After checking the slipway, which is a floating pontoon, we found it moving up and down by about 6ft and decided there was no chance of launching without serious risk to our equipment.
We left the boat till the following day and went to explore the Olympic marina on foot. It gave us a chance to register and find our way round the new buildings that have been built since last year. This includes the athlete accommodation block which will be a 5 star hotel. Though we're not staying there we have access to the facilities which include plush rooms, swimming pool, food halls and a massage spa.
The team has done a great job and made it a much more pleasant place to relax whilst waiting for races.
We managed to tow round the following day as the wind disappeared again. It was made harder by the massive swell left over from the day before and would have been much easier to sail had there been any wind. Thanks to Jez the Finn coach for stepping in and helping us.
On our final day before the holding camp we went down early and squeezed in a sail before having to jump on the bus for the airport.
The last few days have been spent in Shanghai resting and preparing for the real thing. It's a bit of a shame to not have been able to join up with the rest of Team GB but the main holding camp was in Macau, which for us was nearly 8hrs travel away.
We're now back in Qingdao and have four days before racing starts. Today we are measuring in our boat and equipment, cross fingers everything's fine!