OLYMPICS /
ATHLETES' BLOGS
No wind in our sails
China Daily
Updated: 2008-08-18 10:11
SARAH WEBB, British sailor
We woke to no wind and a touch of rain, which stayed much the same for the duration. We made the punchy call not to launch the boat even though we weren't under official postponement ashore and sat tight until the postponement flag went up (half an hour after we should have left the dock).
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British sailor Sarah Webb smiles after winning the Finn class competition, in July last year, during the Olympic Sailing World Championships in Portugal. AFP
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Our day revolved around the Team GB container, and with everybody in all 11 events on the schedule to be racing for the first time, it was fairly busy.
I managed to watch four episodes of Grey's Anatomy on my iphone, while games of cards were played, magazines read and general banter kept everyone entertained. Half way through the day Sarah Ayton got out her jam sandwiches. Stevie Morrison suddenly saw the secret of our success - apparently because we were fully "jammed up" we are able to be jammy out on the course!
Stevie can often keep us laughing all day. He may well be onto something with the jam sandwiches (something Sarah and I only eat at important events) because Pippa is making the bread every night. One of the things you just can't get hold of here in the supermarkets is bread. All the bread here is sweet. Pippa decided to bring her bread maker and we shipped out a lot of flour (something else impossible to come by) and she has been keeping the team in daily fresh bread for weeks.
I think because we have all been on such strict diets for months now food seems to be an important factor. When Goody pulled out a bag of "snakes" (long jelly sweets) morale hit a high (perhaps from the sugar boost!). Eddy the chef has a secret bag and today was the first day he allowed some of the contents out of the kitchen.
When Sparky (manager Stephen Park) came to report that the abandonment flags were due to be hoisted and we asked him for some daily news (he normally informs us on returning to shore how everyone's day has been) he said he thought Team GB had a good day. We all felt we had a great day for overall results, all day inside with the air conditioning running in the container, all entertained, all well fed and all well hydrated and ready for tomorrow.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sarah_webb/blog/2008/08/15/jammy_secret_of_sailing_success
(China Daily 08/18/2008 page27)
