NIKOLA GIRKE - Sailing

This morning I woke up to heavy rain, sometimes hail - funny cause "it's never like this" in Perth in December. Considering it was the hottest day on record a few days ago, and then it's hailing...it's become a bit of a running joke amongst us sailors (but it's not a funny joke) that the normal weather patterns never hold up for race time. The norm here in Fremantle is that "The Fremantle Doctor" blows constistently between noon and 3pm, a cooling afternoon sea breeze which occurs during the summer months in SW coastal areas of western Australia. In all our training time leading up to the Worlds, we had these great "usual" conditions, however, that's all changed. The Doctor has yet to come, I think he's drowned in all the rain. I'm pretty sure that Perth has a new rainfall record from today.

Thunder and lightning kept us onshore all day, and at 2pm the race organizers called off the day. Too dangerous. Lightning was hitting things in our boat park!!!

I came home to check out the weather and news...only to learn that: Storm-ravaged parts of the city have been declared natural disaster zones.

With racing cancelled today, we lost the opportunity to race 2 races. Tomorrow they have 3 races scheduled (which is the most they can do on a given day - provided that we windsurfers have at least 1 of the 1st 2 races in planing conditions). With only 6 races in the opening series scheduled, now having been dwindled down to a maximum of 5, it's quite important for me to have 3 super solid races tomorrow.

Bring it!

Nikola