Hyeres, France
April 19, 2008

Hello Everyone,

I arrived in Hyeres, France on Monday around noon with my coach Luther Carpenter. We met up in Paris airport and flew to Marsaille where we got a car and drove the one and a half hour drive to Hyeres…and man is it cold here!!! I mean of course its all relative, but compared to south Florida it's pretty chilly.

I'm spoilt with the weather in Florida where I just wrapped up a week of training with Brad Funk (who just finished 2nd at his Radial World Championships) out of Lauderdale YC in Ft. Lauderdale. The weather for the week could not have been more perfect. We had five perfect days with winds from 5kts up to 18kts. The conditions were sloppy and a lot of current so it was excellent training for China.

Before that, I had two weeks off after the World Championships. The first week I spent at home doing errands and catching up on all the work that needed doing whilst I was away. The second week I spent in Clearwater with my mum and Brad's mum making the final plans for the wedding. Although I didn't sail for these two weeks, my off the water training continued with much cardio and a diet to try and drop some weight. I did manage to drop about 4 - 5 pounds, so we'll see how that will work in the breeze. The idea of doing it early is that if I don't like it, I can put it back on and keep training at my previous weight.

Tuesday was my first day sailing in Hyeres. It was blowing around 15-18kts gusting into the mid to high twenties (especially off shore) out of the northwest. The temperature was probably in the 60's which sounds ok, but not when you soaking wet with a cold wind blowing on you. I did some training with Sarah Blank (AUS) and Jo Aleh (NZL). Our practice was very good, but not too long. We did some short course racing pretty close to the harbor. It reminded me of college sailing a bit (both the short course and the temperature). The forecast for the rest of the week was pretty similar but with the wind switching to the southeast. You would think that the wind would warm up a bit from the south, but actually it was colder on those days. I trained the rest of the week with Jo, Sarah, Lisa Ross (CAN) and Evi Van Acker (BEL). I took Friday off to register and get my boat all ready, plus the forecast was for another windy, cold rainy day. I'm sailing today in the lighter breeze to get a light air day in before the event starts. We start racing on Sunday at 11am with the two races scheduled per day through Thursday and the Medal Race on Friday.

The Internet here is very poor. We have to walk around outside with our computers trying to find an open wireless connection or hope to get some signal from the regatta wireless. So, I will try and have nightly updates, but if I miss one it'll be because I have limited Internet. You can, however, follow the results online. Semaine Olympique Française Website – http://sof.ffvoile.net

I would like to thank Carmeuse and K-Swiss for their continued support of my campaign.

Sail hard,

Anna