Well, it is Saturday, 27 March, and we still are waiting for our boats. We are in Hyeres, France, now, where the boats are supposed to be delivered.
The next regatta starts Tuesday on an island off the coast of Spain. It takes one day to get there, so we may end up missing that regatta also. This is very depressing.
We drove from Ansio, Italy, to Rome, Italy, yesterday (about one hour) and changed rental cars. We found one that would have no drop off charge in France. Then we drove from Rome to Hyeres. This took about ten hours, and we got to Hyeres at midnight. Lots of tolls and tunnels to go through. (Note from Beanard: Fortunately, our boys were not caught in the tunnel fire disaster which occured this week in one of those tunnels connecting Italy and France. The fire was in a tunnel under Mont Blanc, far to the north of where they were traveling. We are thankful for their safety.)
Our teammates had left a note on the port authority door with the directions on where they were staying. We found them and got to bed at about one a.m.
U.S. Sailing said the boats would be here Saturday, but the shipping agent in France said we might get them Monday.
It is now 1:30 p.m. here in France, and still no boats.
We wait.
Well, time to go for a run.
More later.
Paul
Footnote:
This has cost us about $5,000, not to mention the wasted chance to race. In the 470 class, we have to travel to Europe to find Olympic level competition. So every race we do over here is extremely important to our success in the Olympic games. When something like this happens, not only is it a waste of money and time; it also means we are less likely to bring home a medal from the Olympic games.
Paul Foerster