Did you watch the French Open tennis? Sharapova must have become hearing impaired by her raucous grunting, because when the sponsors told her “wear your best Nike” she didn’t bother changing when she got up each morning!

We are now in France joined by Kathleen and Andrew at “La Grange Galloise”. Catriona and I broke our 1000 km drive north with a night in this very beautiful Hotel Roger de Flor in Lloret del Mar, a picture of C at breakfast. Because of the distances we drove all afternoon and the following morning and I set the cruise control at around 145 km/h.

Yesterday at the market in St Antonin K and C were delighted to have a French troupe of bagpipers appear and entertain with some Scottish numbers and dancing. We bought at the market (after copious tasting) all the breads, pastries, cheeses, wines, terrines and meats we could carry. Our wines include an aperitif made from strong white wine (16.5%) flavoured with vanilla and saffron, fabulous. It occurs to me that the French very cleverly maintain their bread industry and keep their fitness levels up walking to the nearest baker each day, by making light bread that goes stale in an hour and a half! It is hard in France to get a loaf with any real substance. Mind you the bakers can have a sense of humour - see the hand loaf in this picture with a finger up.

Off to the Marie to get keys to the tennis courts this morning. We had an electrical storm last night and were entertained by forked lightening all around.

As we drove past those roadside places today where the prostitutes hang out in Europe waiting for motorists to make an offer, we came up with a new name for the rest stops, “Lay buy”. You saw it first here! There was also a variation on “truck stop” but I’ll not go there.

Wasn’t that last race something! We went in to the Cup Village and were in front of the large screen watching with drinks flowing like water. There were almost exclusively Kiwis and Italians so the Spanish played a Spanish commentary of course, but we made our own fun. Groups from each camp had those canned horns which make one h.. of a noise and on the first beat as each tack slowed one boat and the lead momentarily changed there would be a cacophony of hoots from one or the other. Here’s a few shots from the event. As we are all off to dinner at the yacht club with Marylou’s nieces who are coming down for the night I hope to post this and have no time for more verbage (Catriona spells this starting with a g). The shots show the giant screen with a Luna Rossa grand dame in red and the boats manoeuvring, Team New Zealand on the presentation dais, and Pete Montcommentary doing his bit. The Spanish put on quite an Arial show.

Cheers as always.

Sailing

Here’s a hilltop picture to show that the Visigoths were prepared for trouble from their next-door neighbours.

Went to Valencia yesterday to pick up the tickets for the spectator boat Sunday and to meet our fellow guests. Getting to the tickets (a department building in the heart of Valencia) was – well the roundabouts are free flow with no marked lanes and perhaps 4 to 5 and sometimes 6 across the road. Taxis and mad drivers cut in and out at breakbonnet pace and if you are not sure where you are going it does not pay to slow down, the risk of being hit increases in inverse proportion to the speed you travel. We made it and then went to the very busy airport for some peace and quiet. Getting lost is a regular occurrence - always get a car with a good turning circle. U-turns have become my forte.

I must say I’m getting good at barbecuing prawns. With the right amount of garlic and the right amount of cooking they can be awesome, look forward to that when we get home, mind you we haven’t got a barbecue and will have to sort that out! And my gazpacho has proven a favourite. Dave and Marylou are here now and Dennis too. We spent the day attending the Gandia market and then a lunch in town and off to the yacht club to watch race 2 and do email stuff over some wines and their superb calamari rings. This particular market was very strong on leather and clothing, particularly lingerie. Those knickers which are just slips of material on a string were stretched over round plastic displays in some stands. Dave called them steering wheel covers and that quickly got added to as the pattern looked like the Mercedes emblem. I was going to take a picture to show how apt that description was, but chickened out for fear of looking like a pervert, didn’t want to give away all my secrets! Thinking about it, they might cause the airbag in the steering wheel to deploy prematurely.

I must confess to be a little nonplussed as to why two boats can have such different outcomes in two races in such similar wind and sea conditions without seemingly any variance in outside influence like separation or wind shifts either, but I’m not complaining! I think if anything needs looking at before the next America’s Cup it is the statistic which says ‘win leg 1, win the race’, 93% true apparently at this point in the series where the boats are becoming more equal and that is too predictable to maintain adequate public interest. Perhaps the old reach leg should be brought back.

Tonight it’s Flamenco dancing at a hopefully not too touristy spot. Wow was that something, here’s a picture of some flying skirts.

The day on the boat. Marylou has 2 nieces Kirsty and Charlotte who headed over here from New Zealand some 6 weeks back to get involved in the Cup. They have jobs as child minders for Team New Zealand and other teams as their reputation spreads (in fact Kirsty is going with the Luna Rossa CEO to Italy after the event to care for his children for a time) and sometimes waitresses on super yachts. They have an apartment in a modern building near the Cup Village in Valencia and are loving it, don’t want to go home.

We parked at their apartment and they joined us on the boat complete with New Zealand flags that Dave had brought over for them. As New Zealand extended our lead in this 3^rd race the flags became cloaks and were wildly waved and the general noise level increased. The Italians on the boat got quieter and quieter but still seemed to enjoy the day out. The water we were in (outside of the race track) was churned by spectator craft and we rocked around in fine style. My camera’s image steadying features were needed and then some! There was a chap with a lens the length of his arm and it was either pointing at the sky or the sea most of the time. The boat had a TV downstairs and on our speed runs (getting to the next mark ahead of the racing yachts) it was good to be able to see the telemetry there.

Seeing the race from close quarters and in full size gives a far better impression of power and speed than I think the TV does. And of course there is the atmosphere! It was great. I’ve put in a picture of the boats manoeuvring prestart partly because in the background is the Club Med 2 boat that C and I did a trip on before it left the Tahitian waters for the Med some years back. Like the AC boats it is another fine example of applied technology as its 5 masts with their computer-controlled sails provide about 60% of its motive power.

Here’s a hilltop picture to show that the Visigoths were prepared for trouble from their next-door neighbours.

Went to Valencia yesterday to pick up the tickets for the spectator boat Sunday and to meet our fellow guests. Getting to the tickets (a department building in the heart of Valencia) was – well the roundabouts are free flow with no marked lanes and perhaps 4 to 5 and sometimes 6 across the road. Taxis and mad drivers cut in and out at breakbonnet pace and if you are not sure where you are going it does not pay to slow down, the risk of being hit increases in inverse proportion to the speed you travel. We made it and then went to the very busy airport for some peace and quiet. Getting lost is a regular occurrence - always get a car with a good turning circle. U-turns have become my forte.

I must say I’m getting good at barbecuing prawns. With the right amount of garlic and the right amount of cooking they can be awesome, look forward to that when we get home, mind you we haven’t got a barbecue and will have to sort that out! And my gazpacho has proven a favourite. Dave and Marylou are here now and Dennis too. We spent the day attending the Gandia market and then a lunch in town and off to the yacht club to watch race 2 and do email stuff over some wines and their superb calamari rings. This particular market was very strong on leather and clothing, particularly lingerie. Those knickers which are just slips of material on a string were stretched over round plastic displays in some stands. Dave called them steering wheel covers and that quickly got added to as the pattern looked like the Mercedes emblem. I was going to take a picture to show how apt that description was, but chickened out for fear of looking like a pervert, didn’t want to give away all my secrets! Thinking about it, they might cause the airbag in the steering wheel to deploy prematurely.

I must confess to be a little nonplussed as to why two boats can have such different outcomes in two races in such similar wind and sea conditions without seemingly any variance in outside influence like separation or wind shifts either, but I’m not complaining! I think if anything needs looking at before the next America’s Cup it is the statistic which says ‘win leg 1, win the race’, 93% true apparently at this point in the series where the boats are becoming more equal and that is too predictable to maintain adequate public interest. Perhaps the old reach leg should be brought back.

Tonight it’s Flamenco dancing at a hopefully not too touristy spot. Wow was that something, here’s a picture of some flying skirts.

The day on the boat. Marylou has 2 nieces Kirsty and Charlotte who headed over here from New Zealand some 6 weeks back to get involved in the Cup. They have jobs as child minders for Team New Zealand and other teams as their reputation spreads (in fact Kirsty is going with the Luna Rossa CEO to Italy after the event to care for his children for a time) and sometimes waitresses on super yachts. They have an apartment in a modern building near the Cup Village in Valencia and are loving it, don’t want to go home.

We parked at their apartment and they joined us on the boat complete with New Zealand flags that Dave had brought over for them. As New Zealand extended our lead in this 3^rd race the flags became cloaks and were wildly waved and the general noise level increased. The Italians on the boat got quieter and quieter but still seemed to enjoy the day out. The water we were in (outside of the race track) was churned by spectator craft and we rocked around in fine style. My camera’s image steadying features were needed and then some! There was a chap with a lens the length of his arm and it was either pointing at the sky or the sea most of the time. The boat had a TV downstairs and on our speed runs (getting to the next mark ahead of the racing yachts) it was good to be able to see the telemetry there.

Seeing the race from close quarters and in full size gives a far better impression of power and speed than I think the TV does. And of course there is the atmosphere! It was great. I’ve put in a picture of the boats manoeuvring prestart partly because in the background is the Club Med 2 boat that C and I did a trip on before it left the Tahitian waters for the Med some years back. Like the AC boats it is another fine example of applied technology as its 5 masts with their computer-controlled sails provide about 60% of its motive power.