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Qingdao, China
June 28, 2008
Qingdao and the Olympic Sailing venue, already under the public spotlight for fog, light winds and strong currents, now have another difficult phenomenon to deal with. Actually, it’s more like a roadblock. The talk of the town is the blue green algae, seaweed bogs, monsters, islands, or whatever you want to call them, that have taken over the coastline.
 Company in Fusan Bay
Seaweed farming is an important part of life here but the algal blooms that have choked the waters along the coast since early June have kicked off a massive cleanup effort. This week 3,000 workers and 400 boats have been working to remove the green goo from Olympic sailing venue and the surrounding waters.
Team 7 has always taken the attitude of "Roll with the punches" so we are learning to deal with the seaweed, the fog, light wind, and strong current. Funnily enough, amongst all of the negative reporting going on around us, we have been logging some great training.
 Gold statue welcomes us back to harbour
We have been fortunate to encounter more wind than we have experienced previously during late summer. We’ve had sailable wind every day of this training visit. Our focus while here is mainly to get comfortable racing in the elements that Qingdao brings to the table. We work on speed and boat handling throughout, but a major part of our training is to understand and race in the current and wind in our particular course areas on this Bay. We will be racing on two separate courses during the Olympics. Our opening day’s racing, and the final Medal Race will be on Course Alpha which is closest to the venue and harbor entrance. The rest of the time we’ll compete on Course Echo, which is far offshore. We have come to know that these course areas experience quite different racing scenarios each day.
In order to create diversity for the 30-day training session, we have incorporated four "Two-Day Mini Regattas" run by coach Gary Bodie. We’ve invited all the international teams training here and we’ve had up to nine boats at a time. The races are run in whatever conditions the day provides, whether it is extreme fog or an attack of the weeds, and they are raced with full focus and with the intent of adding something to our logbook of lessons learned.
 Waterfront weddings and seaweed blooms
Sometimes the racing looks a bit dull, slow or stopped with an anchor but other times we have had proper breeze and always-tricky decision making to keep us and our coaches on our toes. The concept has been a great learning tool but the workers on the hundreds of workboats out on Fushan Bay attempting to clear the never-ending algae look at us as though we are crazy because we set up our courses in the middle of the green stuff. Our coach Gary Bodie cautions that "it drifts with the current so it will run you down if you try to move!" so we persevere. We have had to add some new weed clearing techniques and weed dodging tactics into the mix, after we learned some harsh lessons in the first few days!
As more and more reports emerge about the water pollution that has bred the weeds it makes us think about precautions that we need to be taking. We have always heightened our guard here in China in regards to air pollution and food. We have decided that on the water we should bring antibacterial wash to use on our hands before eating and should always rinse soon after sailing.
In general terms it is more difficult to be a foreigner here than in any of our other stops around the world. It is extremely rare to be able to communicate at all with any locals. We have all mastered "Shay Shay" and "Nihao" (Thank you and Hello) but that’s about it.
 Hotel staff at our home away from home
If anything has made us feel at home, it is our home base at the Sea View Garden Hotel. US Sailing has found us a great home away from home. We couldn’t be more looked after. It is actually quite crazy! The staff works hard to communicate with us, reminds us to step up each time there is a staircase, holds our bags, and raises an umbrella when there is a drop of rain. I am almost certain there is a ratio of one staff to one guest and they all try hard to learn what we like and want. When we want to relax, the hotel offers all sorts of fun activities such as pool, ping-pong, bowling and several lounge areas to conduct team meetings and have dinner.
We know our stomachs are sensitive to local foods and cooking methods and so we play it safe. When you know something works you stick with it. The food standards at the hotel are high and incorporate enough western-style meals that we do not venture out much.
I laugh everyday when I go to my half-completed gym. In other parts of the world, the facility wouldn’t be open to users, but not in Qingdao where workers are laboring every day to get it completed in time. The spiral staircase is not finished and I have to climb makeshift stairs to each floor. The workers are building walls, floors and staircases around me as I lift weights on the new machines. They are nice machines at least!
Every day is an adventure as we cruise the streets and byways on our mini- bikes and that makes it fun. We just remember to keep learning and laughing, and take each day and each lesson learned as an adventure.
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Carrie Howe
for Team Seven Sailing -
- Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi, Carrie Howe |
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