Sick and Tired for Open Week …….. literally

by Sarah Blanck (Sarah the Sailor) on 17 Sep 2003 After arriving in Cadiz after my trip to Athens, I got sick... first I thought it was from having a couple drinks at presentation at the Athens regatta, but I thought I couldn’t possibly have such a hangover after only a couple of drinks! Really!

Then I thought it was the mousaka I ate the night of presentation...but why would the symptoms take 36hrs to happen? Then I thought I was ill from drinking a glass of water from the tap here in Spain, but my stomach pains were too severe. Well I, continued to not really listen to my whining stomach and ate yoghurt and other things until two days later I was still in terrible shape and couldn’t hold any food in my body.

A few other Australians turned up and seemed to have similar symptoms to me...so I finally realised it wasn’t the drinks, or the tap water...I had a stomach virus which was not overly comfortable ... so I went to bread, and more bread and have now been eating bread for seven days which is really boring!!

Open week started on the 5th, I decided to sail even though I was not feeling that great.... On day one I had two 11th places. Not great but it was OK considering... Then on the 2nd day of open week we were sent out on the water at 12pm, and waited in the sun, and waited some more...we had one race which I came 9th in, then we waited some more in the sun, and more...buy this time I was feeling just OK and had the biggest headache ever.

We finally sailed the second race and I came 6th in this... but not sure how?? I was so dehydrated by this stage that my headache was the least of my worries, I started to feel like I was not be able to breath as my throat felt like it was closing up on me, and then I just cried as I was a bit scared by this stage, so here I was sailing downwind in a race a bit hysterical, crying!!!.... I finished the race and then just crawled into Craig’s coach boat and he towed me in... so after seven hours in the sun we came in. Thinking now it was pretty stupid not to come in, especially because Open week really does not mean much, it is just a warm up regatta.

Well because of this episode, I did not sail the next two days of the regatta. I slept for most of the next two days, watched a DVD and read a book! So I missed five races unfortunately.

Today was the last day of Open week, there was only one race, and so I went out sailing for the... I came 12th in this race. It was not great, but at least I was starting to feel like my normal self again today. I felt like I was getting some strength back, which is good, as the World Championships start in two days!!

So as of Friday, it is all happening... Glenn arrives tomorrow to help me out with the Worlds, which is great, as I need it right now. My dad arrives on Saturday to watch me race for a couple of days, which is great too. I am really looking forward to the support after such an interesting few weeks in both Athens and Spain.

Oh, by the way, I finished 42nd of 100 girls in Open week. Not that bad I guess, considering I only sailed five of ten races.

You can check results for the Worlds at: http://www.cadizworlds2003.com/