Opening Ceremony, problems and first days racing

For most of the sailing team with ourselves included, didn't have the time to fly to Beijing and back for the Opening Ceremony. It required leaving on the morning of the 8th and not returning till midday on the 9th. With our racing starting on 10th there just wasn't enough time.
Instead the team put on a dinner with a live BBC feed so we could watch. The whole team dressed up in team uniform and there was a great atmosphere with everyone cheering every time a Brit came into shot!

The 9th we'd planned to have as a rest day but with a few jobs left to do on the boat we went down early to sort them. Unfortunately whilst doing this we discovered a slight void in the bow where the gel coat had sunk and so needed repairing. Fortunately we have a boat builder out here to help but after filling and sanding it back he discovered more holes. In the end we spent the whole day down at the boat park. Not quite what we'd had in mind for a day off.
After spending so much time in the sun and with racing starting the next day we gave the local opening ceremony a miss and chilled out in the hotel watching it on TV.

First day of racing for us yesterday. Both pretty nervous. We had three races with the first two run in around 6 kts but the last a bit touch and go when the wind dropped to 2kts on the first beat. We managed to stay on top of the nerves and finished the day with a 3,4,5 scoreline. One we'd have been very happy with if you'd offered us that at the start of the day. This puts us leading the regatta!! A pretty nice position to be in but more importantly no bad races picked up.
I spoke to friends back in the UK and they said they'd been up at 6 to watch the racing live! Pretty cool knowing we've got all this support.
Today we move course to racing area B a bit further east and away from the marina for another 3 races. If we get all the races in we have a rest day tomorrow.