Ramblings from Spain

I don’t beleive heating the breeze is a great use of our natural resources.

Quite! Thats what jumpers are for, right Dad!?

Stu Downes on patio heaters.

This is an interesting article (for anyone with an interest in maps!)

I’ve got Dad to thank for that!

It talks about how the internet is changing the way we think and use maps and map-based interaction.

I know I couldn’t imagine going back to a time without google maps.

Via Bob Sutor

We managed to finish third overall in the “IX Semana Asturiana de Vela”, so a podium finish for the second year running!

Here’s a brief summary of how the three days went for us, for anyone interested!

Friday

Race 1: 2nd
Race 2: 3rd

We gave our new sails their official debut, and we went pretty well. Race 1 saw us leading around the windward mark, but we slipped back a place going downwind and never managed to claw it back.

Our start in race 2 was a shocker! To get back up to third was a good effort, but you can’t afford to start from the back and win!

Saturday

Race 3: 5th
Race 4: 5th

A frustrating day. We seemed to find all the holes in the wind, and my attempt at tuning of the mast to better fit our new sails didn’t help. I wasn’t happy with how well the boat was pointing on Friday, so had looked to get a little more bend to flatten the main, but I think we went with the rig too tight in the end.

Both races gave further evidence that our starts are an area to work on. Enough said!

Sunday

Race 5: 3rd

Sunday’s format was slightly different from the previous two days, a longer course, and sailing with the big boats. This made for some interesting moments! We got a reasonable start (for a change!), and we had good speed and we pointing well, after further playing with the rig tension. With hindsight we made the mistake of not covering (arguably!) the quickest boat when we should have, allowing him to get ahead picking the shifts better than we did. Having said that, another 500m of track, we’d likely have caught them, as downwind we were quick.

So, all in all, three good days of sailing, despite the light winds. I’ll post links to any photos I find.

Update: Photos added!

We’re really chuffed to have new sails in time for the next regatta this weekend!

More to come, including photos!

Update: Photo added!

I have finally managed to make some progress sorting out my photo collection, and will slowly start to upload a small selection to Flickr. I want to try and keep the chronological order and have a long way to go, as we’re talking a years worth of backlog!

Anyway, here are the latest few from Medellin last Easter (2006)

Just a grumble as my wisdom teeth are giving me a bit of hassle at the moment

Hope it’ll pass soon.

Yet another storm, today we have had 120+ km/h winds. The sea was quite a sight this morning. Hope it’ll calm down overnight though, as its not particularly pleasant going outside!

At least I got this one right!!

I’ve been following the second one-day match over on the beeb this morning. I can’t quite believe England have out back to back victories together agains the Aussies, and can come home after a tough tour down under with a trophy!

Well done boys, thats a good response after some of the recent lows.

Great result by the boys down under, finally showed a bit of character to beat the Aussies in a competitive match. A fantastic performance by Collingwood to steer the side home.

For the record, England 253-6 beat Australia 252 by four wickets. Via the beeb.

It has been a depressing winter so far, and we look a different side from when we won the Ashes.

Still 1-0 up with two to play, can’t ask for a better start than that!