Volvo

After a busy week at home unloading containers and having fitness tests and planning meetings it was nice to escape the cold.

I have just been in Tenerife training with a good group of guys [including fellow Skandia Team GBR sailor Nick Thompson] at a location near the south airport. The wind has been great with strong thermally enhanced breezes most days creating some physically challenging conditions. It's been a good week working on a few technique changes with Nick and Australia's finest and coach for the trip Arthur.

Tenerife has some pretty cool landscapes. One day we hired a car and headed up to see the volcano. After getting the cable car up we walked to the crater. Leaving the cable car at over 3000m altitude the walk was quite breath-taking. We all felt a little light headed, dizzy and not to mention short of breath as we wandered passed people on the way up.

The smell was a little unpleasant, I think it was mainly sulphur but the views were really impressive looking down on the lava fields and the tops of clouds. At parts the rock was really hot as steam seeped through cracks. This was nice as it was -6 up at the top at over 3700m altitude, the highest point in Spain.

During the trip we played a bit of tennis, we definitely need to play a bit more as we were pretty poor. Arthur's brother may have coached Boric Becker but the skills had not rubbed off too much! Cycling was also pretty cool although it was pretty much up or down and not much in-between.

We've just spent the weekend in London for team building activities. The highlight was a visit to the velodrome on Friday night to see the track cycling, it was so inspiring and and really exciting to watch the cyclists. It;s going to be a great 6 months ahead. 

Paul

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