NZl Yachting Trust Optimist Team- Forward to the Past

by John Jennings on 13 Oct 2014 In time honoured tradition the first in the travails of the Jennings Travels, but the beginning of the end for reporting on anything Opti :-)).

So the NZLYT Optimist Worlds Team 2014 departed AKL at 1615 Sat 11 Oct and arrived in BA on schedule at 1625 Sat 11 Oct. All fairly drama-less although the boxes to take up our Mk IV rigs (charter boats only provided with Mk III) made for an impressive site and required a lot of careful manoeuvring around the airports.

Full flights on LAN air first into Santiago on Airbus 340 and then on to BA in a nice new Dreamliner (joined by one Oz sailor in Business Class no less) didn’t allow any room to spread out for a snooze. The entertainment systems all got a pretty good hammering from everyone with not a lot of sleep managing to be caught by anyone other than our seasoned traveller coach Chris Steele (new nick name Crystal cos that what it sounds like when the local pronounce his name and it goes well with Sam’s Princess which has well and truly stuck).

Whilst acknowledging that several of the movies were indeed blockbusters in Hollywood parlance its hard to imagine how they ever achieved that status appalling as many of them were (I managed a paltry 3 (avoid Bad Neighbours at all cost) compared to Jonathon Bacon’s (JB and hence now known as Justin (as in Bieber)) five). The selection of music was extensive including Coldplay but funnily, and wisely, enough no Neil Young.

The drive from airport to San Isidro took longer than expected with very heavy traffic on the motorway/freeway. Fascinating drive it was though. The grass verge on side of the motorway is used by all and sundry for romantic picnics, kick arounds etc (saw more kids wearing a Messi shirt during that drive than I think I have seen in my whole life wearing an AB shirt!) Lots of clapped out looking cars and multiple breakdowns, which I think might have been reason for the heavy traffic. Homeless people under motorway bridges and no house without completely gated drive way/windows. Majority of houses looked to have seen better days, i.e. a salute to Argentina’s past rather than present. The bus’ horn seemed to be much more important than the indicator and looked like might had right in most scenarios. Check out the steering wheel which had me thinking of Brin Wilson to complete the refurb!

Almost dark when we dropped the sailors and official parents (Justin and Crystal) at Hotel Sovia. Actually looked less like a (ex-)Hotel and more like an old fashioned Butlins Camp or similar. However a visit today in daylight all looked a bit more encouraging and no doubt Kerensa, as the only girl, got the best deal with a room to herself including en-suite. Quite how Jackson scored the double bed in separate room within the boys room I’m not too sure.

Rob and Anna Anderson and myself got dropped at our B&B approx. 2 k from the Sailing Club and settled down to a couple of huge takeaway pizzas and beers. Wasn’t expecting the Quilmes to come in 1 l bottles nor be 6.9%. So one bottle (shared) + no sleep for 36 hours equalled crash.

Caught up with the sailors at Club Nautico San Isidro around 1030 this morning. Looks like the YC is part of a much larger 'Country Club' affair with tennis courts, golf course, swimming pool, gym, restaurant etc.

Boats weren’t available so sailors had a kick around before heading back to the Sovia and then out for lunch. Everyone in good spirits and shape and ready to assemble boats and hopefully check out all that brown water tomorrow (our Monday).

No complaints on the culinary side where the portions served and value go hand-in-hand. Dinner for three with an excellent bottle of local red at what appears to be a relatively upmarket eatery+ 'Remis' (taxi) setting us back the princely sum of $NZD (all up) . Which makes it difficult to account for seeming lack of signs of obesity, as observed so far - but we might have a crack at doing something about that.

Buenas noches