Flat Calm

It's all diet and daytime TV now I'm back on land! Perhaps a metaphorical flat calm in comparision to what the last few weeks have been.

But, I'm not sitting on my laurels for fear of getting a fat arse! I'm off running tomorrow evening, the first trot for quite a while. The lyrca will be coming out of the drawers and the flouro jacket will no doubt make an appearance (the nights are creeping in again aren't they). 

Next week I'm mooching off to Portugal for a day ... it's a bit hush hush, but I'm sure you can keep a secret ... something to do with the Portugal Round the World Race, solo sailing and a press launch. Would love to tell you more, but that would be giving it away! Don't worry I'm taking the wellies, just so they know what a prepared sailor I really am!

Off to enjoy the gentle swell for a while,

'Safe on Land' Sal

First Week's the Worst!

From this...

Floating Hotel

To this...

Sea-Caravan

Having done this ...

Tent with Oars

And I still do this!

Sick bag

It's all looking a little concerning especially as this Friday I head out into the Channel for my first week of training for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race!I don't go until May next year but as the yachts set sail in September all novice crew need to be trained up and ready to roll. So by the end of August I should be a hardy racing yachtswoman, but as I sit here lamenting last weeks experience I'm feeling a little less confident!

Last Friday I stepped off one of the world's biggest ships... P&O cruise liner Ventura. A 'work' week, which ironically culminated in feeling seasick on the very day I had to do my talk. As we coasted through the Gibraltar Straits and headed out into the big Atlantic swells, myself and half the 3000 passengers on board felt decidedly queasy. Typical, the only day I have to hold it together and there are tables toppling on the top deck!

So I'm stockpiling anti-nausea medication, four boxes so far, a pulse point wrist band, a bag of cystallised ginger and a card with a line drawn across the centre of it for those moments below deck. Although if one more person tells me to look at the horizon I will garrote them with the wristband, because that doesn't work either!

I'm packing a bucket with my wet weather gear and wooly hat; maybe by this time next week I'll have gained my sea legs, but I'm not holding my breath. But with every cumulus cloud there's a silver lining - as the country falls into the grip of the swine flu pandemic perhaps counting carrots off the coast is the safest place to be!

Sally x