Hi all,
Long time no post! Been incredibly busy over the past two months going from competition to competition in one big European tour. Now I'm finally back home in England for more than 12 hours I've got some time to write up about my progress over the last few months starting off with Princess Sofia Regatta, held in Palma de Mallorca. Read all about it below:
Just before leaving to go to Palma the UK experienced some pretty weird and wacky weather conditions, with freezing snow and ice descending to the usually warm south coast. Unfortunately this meant no sailing (again) but at least we could still get outside and do some form of fitness pushing giant snowballs up hill!
Swanage covered in snow.
On my final few days in the UK the weather cleared and normal life resumed. I had great fun one Saturday doing a Parkrun at Upton house with the family.
The sailing club with the snow clear.
All the bad weather meant I had a bit more spare time and I was able to create this custom carbon fibre compass mount for my Laser, thanks to Neaves Rowing Services Limited who helped me make this.
Finally I was off to Palma!
Arriving there I was greeted with the classic Mallorca sun and some great wind. A couple of days training and I felt ready for racing.
Unfortunately after a promising start I had one bad day which put me back into silver fleet, a real disappointment.
At least we had some stunning backdrops to our racing!
I sailed well on the windy day of racing.
Difficult racing in Palma. Whilst I didn't finish the regatta as well as I hoped I knew what I had to do to improve and the fire inside was definitely burning!
Reflecting on the week on the last night before the P3 training camp started the following day.
No time to rest as we went straight into a group P3 training regatta. We had some fantastic conditions in a wide range of weather, here is an example of some of the nicer stuff!
Classic Palma light winds & chop.
Our last day of training was MASSIVE. 20-25 knots of wind, sometimes more, with huge swell rolling into the bay. Check out this short clip below of one big wave I encountered on this day!
293 Likes, 9 Comments - Sam 🐳 (@samwhaley97) on Instagram: "BIG day in the boat ⛵️😮😂 @britishsailing #lasersailing #waves #windy #huge #trainhardfighteasy"
Unfortunately when our planned ferry was cancelled our coach was forced to leave a day early with our boats meaning we had a day free to explore the island.
A small group of us decided to climb the highest open peak on Mallorca, a very scenic and wonderful 5 hour trek with some spectacular views.
So overall a very informative trip full of many learnings and experiences. There were highs and lows but overall I had a great time and there is nothing more satisfying than progress. Onto the next one!
Sam