From the end of the youth to starting the worlds

Although the first race of our final day racing in the youth championship was our worst start and, consequently, our worst race, we managed to learn a very important insight into the wind shifts! The wind was consistently shifting right, so at the start of the next race Anniversary immediately tacked to port and went way out to the right side, tacked to starboard, and were lifted high above the majority of the fleet (the Netherlands girls' team and our friends -- the other Netherlands team who were very friendly -- also went out right). We kept our lead and finished the regatta on a high note with a third!

Following the racing, we had a quick bite to eat before the awards ceremony and couldn't help but notice the outrageous number of police ('polis' in Swedish!) on the streets! We didn't want to seem like tourists or get ourselves in any trouble, but asked what was going on. Apparently there was a soccer game going on and they were out to prevent any trouble! After walking to our hotel and back, we realized that the stadium was less than two blocks away and we were right in the center of all the mayhem, what a surprise!

Anniversary was in a three way tie for 6th place, and after the tiebreaker was in 7th. Of course, at the awards ceremony prizes were given out through sixth place and USA was told to 'come back next year for prize!' Overall, we were happy with what we learned throughout the regatta and even being able to keep up with the boats who hired professional coaches and have been practicing together in similar wind and water conditions for years.

The first day of the Open World Championships we were confident in our sailing ability and speed after being critiqued by our coach on the last day of the youths! After working our way up the youth fleet, we were ready to take on all ages. We had been told by DEN 211 (the #1 youth team) that we had "killer starts" and those pulled through for us in a fleet of 34 boats, as well! Our first race we worked our way into a decent position, pulling out a 27th. We had another great start on the second race, but waited to tack to the right side of the course too long and got buried in the fleet during the first upwind leg; we were lucky to make our way back up for another 27th in the big fleet for an overall placing of 27th.

After a day of racing in the worlds, it is tradition for each country to host a party with hor'devours (however you spell that!) and drinks of their local venue. The Swiss and Aussies hosted the party on Monday and we were able to meet more of the international sailors. We talked to the people we already knew, but also met some new ones! Some very friendly people from Denmark and Holland who encouraged us to come back and offered to charter boats for us in 2010 when the regatta is in the Netherlands. I had also been looking forward to speaking with the Danish youth coach, who began the European Youth Championship regatta, regarding his youth team and I finally got the chance to meet him at the party!

Following the party, we walked out by the boat harbor to see the Swedish line dancers! Who would have guessed? Karen and I tried to pick up on their steps, but they were pretty complex! We had dinner with Bruce (the former United States Yngling Association President), who gave us his insight and answered lots of questions we had about sailing in a big fleet. After dinner, we went out to another restaurant where a hedgehog walked out from under a plastic tarp right by my feet! Talk about startling!