Hi all!
We had a two hour-long meeting last night where we got a LOT done in preparation for our trip.
First off, the final tally is in: we raised a total of $22,000 !! This includes donations from family, friends, sponsors, and team member's personal donations (several of us put in our own money to ensure we would make it). Thank you, again, to all of you who supported and believed in us. We can't tell you how excited we are to have this opportunity!!
We also finalized our positions on the boat and ran through who would be doing what throughout the week. As you can imagine, things get pretty crazy on the water, especially when winds are blowing 20 knots and you can barely hear the person next to you. It's really important that everyone knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing at all times. We will have Sunday as a practice day before racing starts next week, so we hope to get familiar with the Grand Surprise (the type of boat we will be sailing--these are only available in France, so only those of us who have attended the CCE in the past have experience on them) and get everything down in a day's time!
Finally, we are teaming up with Oklahoma City University to make chili and corn bread for the International Dinner! Every night, a team is designated to make a traditional food from their home country to feed the rest of the international teams...Germans bring sausage and pretzels, Canadians bring pancakes and maple syrup, etc. We think a good bowl of hearty chili after a day of cold sailing will go over well!
Finally, we are teaming up with Oklahoma City University to make chili and corn bread for the International Dinner! Every night, a team is designated to make a traditional food from their home country to feed the rest of the international teams...Germans bring sausage and pretzels, Canadians bring pancakes and maple syrup, etc. We think a good bowl of hearty chili after a day of cold sailing will go over well!
For those interested, here is a cliffnotes version of our schedule for the coming week:
Thursday, 4/15
- Depart LAX 12:30pm
- Arrive CDG 8:25am
- Take bus to Paris, spend day sightseeing
- Spend the night in Paris
- Spend the morning sightseeing in Paris
- Take train to Brest!
- 9am Check In
- Paperwork, forms, licenses, prep work on boat, etc.
- Spend afternoon practicing
- 9am Skippers Meeting
- 11:30am First Start
- 8am Skippers Meeting
- 10am First Start
- 7:30am Skippers Meeting
- 10am First Start
- 10:30am First Start
- 10:30am First Start
- Finals
- 4:35pm train back to Paris
- Depart 11:30am CDG
- Arrive 2:25pm LAX
That's the gist of it. Keep checking this site for updates from France! We will have access to internet and will hopefully be keeping up with our blogging :)
~Morgan
