In between the lines by Sue

Hi to Everyone! Harold has posted the last couple of blogs because I've been so totally exhausted at the end of the day that I just put on my eye mask, earplugs and go to sleep! Today I'm on the public computers at "race central". My big race is not until 3:30 this afternoon, so I have a little spare time to write.

So to recap. Four of us raced away from our first day of practice to catch "The Mikado" at the Sydney Opera House. WOW! What a production, besides arriving just 2 seconds before doors shut and lights down, the show was fantastic! What beautiful sets, music and fun. Well worth the effort and money it took to get there. Thank you to Wendy Bryden for getting it together for us. We made it back to the hotel around 1 a.m. but still had a second day of practice starting bright and early.

The first race day was Saturday (Friday your time) and it was soooo stressful. We had been on the course, but now it was packed with boats and time keepers and other officials telling you to move! The wind continued to blow and made it hard to keep the boats in line until the start. One race we had such a huge bottleneck that we "rafted up" and laid along the reeds. That worked great until it was time to move through the bridge! We had quite a tangle and Rhonnie had to jump out of our boat to push us off and then again to catch our bow number that had been knocked off. Once the race is actually going it's no problem, but the wait was the worst!

Last night (Sunday here) we caught the opening ceremonies. So impressive, a little bit like the Olympics, with a parade of athletes, flags, emcees, exotic dancers, live music and fireworks. LOUD and crazy, but really exciting. We didn't get any dinner, (except for a couple of high priced beers) and got home at midnight, but our races started late today, so had a leisurely morning breakfast before heading down here to the race central.

I hope we get a couple pictures on tonight, but there's no telling...... sue