Sunday, November 25, 2012

A weekend on the Med

Two weeks ago I was asked to accompany the RCNM race team, a group of 10 kids, to Valencia for a weekend of training. Since Friday was a national holiday we were able to leave early that morning.


 
One of the parents and I split the driving out to Valencia.
(Reminded me of HYC work back in Canada!)





We arrived on Friday at about midday and we started unloading the trailer right away. Where we were sailing for the weekend was in the autonomous community of Valencia but not actually in the city. The port was in a town called Burriana, north of the city of Valencia. The port venue, now a sailing school, had an amazing setup; accommodation, cafeteria, classrooms, basketball court, storage hangars, two launch ramps (including one in-port), centre-consul zodiacs, etc. The venue was originally where countries would train during the year leading up to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.


The building was apparently designed 
to mimic the hull of a boat.










Unfortunately there was no wind and so after much deliberation and a long Spanish lunch, we didn't head out on the water that first afternoon. Instead I taught the kids how to play Ultimate Frisbee!

Somewhat difficult to pry the football (soccer ball) out of Spanish kids' hands... But they ended up enjoying it!




Later that evening after dinner we had a briefing to organize for a full day of sailing on Saturday.


I wrote a schedule for the day on the board detailing when they have to have their boats rigged, when we'll have lunch, when we'll finish for the day, etc. It was a basic schedule I ran when coaching in Canada.


I immediately got the following question, "Pero...cuándo merendamos?" (When do we have the merienda?) The merienda is a light afternoon snack. I found this question typically Spanish as they value their downtime (siesta)...




The parents were staying on a boat in the harbour and so I was to be the full time chaperone staying in the dorms with the kids, a fact which I wasn't initially aware of. I went to bed and soon after got a call from the parents telling me to make sure the kids were in bed. I could hear whispers and so I went in to check one of the rooms. The two kids said they were just talking and about to go to bed but I knew better... and found two kids under the desk and FOUR in the cupboard...

It took a while for the wind to come in the next morning so we took our time with breakfast and the morning briefing.



We sat down in one of the various well-equipped classrooms and went over what we were going to work on. 

I planned a morning to review the basics.

Roll tacks


Controlled gybing









Upwind sailing and some 360/720s to keep things interesting.





There was definitely a learning curve when it came to the Spanish sailing terminology, especially racing terminology as my time teaching sailing in Palma was very basic.


We head out, a fleet of 10 Optis and me in a zodiac I had at my disposal for the entire weekend.

The morning was going really well as we completed almost all the drills. As the morning progressed the wind picked up to about 20-25 knots (37-46 kmh). Unfortunately, the kids could not hack the breeze... And so, two ended up capsizing right next to the breakwater, three of them got seasick (never having experienced Mediterranean swell before), and one kid's bridle broke right off their boom. All of this happened in the span of 10 minutes...it was a mess and only got worse as the ramp we later approached was getting hit with 4-foot waves. (The in-port ramp would have much more practical, unbeknownst to me...)

Once on-land the kids had had enough and so we had lunch and took a long break before heading out again.
I planned an afternoon of practicing starts. The wind had not died down and so we stayed inside the port.


 








Where we also got to check out some awesome boats.




 


On Saturday evening the parents took me out for dinner at a nice restaurant in the port. It was nice to have some adult company and the food was amazing. It was my first time having Dorada a la Sal. Dorada is a type of fish and sal means salt, it refers to the way it is cooked, a typically Spanish technique. The fish is encased in a thick layer of salt and then put in the oven. The waiter brings it to you on a side table and chisels the salt off right before you. Despite what you'd think the fish isn't salty at all, just moist and delicious.




Sunday was better as the day started off with just enough (not too much!) wind for our group. The plan for the day was to work on our pre-race routines while we completed a mock regatta.












 Things were looking great, until...








 We spotted some weather off in the distance.




It started raining and from there on out it was a bit of an uphill battle with the kids. None of them wanted to stay out on the water and I had to threaten parental involvement to keep them sailing... Nevertheless we got some good races off and, despite the complaints, I think the kids had fun.



All in all a great weekend hanging 
out on the Med!

2 comments:

  1. I loved this post, since I feel like it filled a bit of a gap I've got in my knowledge about your sailing practices. When you write about ultimate tournaments, I know what they're like; but sailing I've got no idea. And great pics! So glad you took them!

    You seem like a great coach with all of your structure and reuniones. What was it like driving that huge van??

    Did the kids actually play a real ultimate pick-up game? Good thing you brought a frisbee along!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Reca!
    Driving that van was so much fun!! A bit stressful at first with a parent sitting right next to me but turned out all the parents were super impressed with my driving haha
    The kids sort of played a pick-up game...they didn't really get the stall count haha

    ReplyDelete