Yoanna and Michala have started in the Hobie 16 Gold Fleet, which is the final competition in the European Championships, with 63 other sailors coming from all over Europe as well as Australia, Venezuela and Canada.

This morning the HobieGirls got brand new sails from the Hobie trader all the sailors including the girls were very busy putting the new battens in the sails and rigging the boat.

The weather conditions have turned a little harder, with the wind picking up and as a result, the girls did not do so well in the first race having had a bad start. You have to imagine 63 boats fighting to get off the mark in what is a reasonably small start line. But in the second race, they were a bit cheeky (no Michala, fræk is not the right word) and got off to a good start against the best Hobie sailors in the World. Larofa from New Caledonia would have been proud of the girls as he was the one who taught them how to challenge the start line and insisted that if you did not get at least one black flag, you were not hungry enough/or good enough. A black flag means that you are over the start line and therefore disqualified from that race.

They luckily did not get the black flag and their timing was perfect. Michala did manage to get out into the trapeze, she was getting bored sitting on the trampoline (its beginning to sound like they are at the circus, isn’t it??) Anyway Michala got stuck in the trapeze at one point and nearly capsized the boat, which resulted in getting behind 14 boats, but they still managed to be amongst the top 25. The third race was exciting as the girls were ready for another amazing start but the winds picked up and they nearly capsized at the start line but in the end the wind was too hard and Michala’s knee was not up for it; they decided to surrender and go on shore.

Back on shore the girls decided to go into the sauna …..what a bad idea! Michala managed to press the wrong button and got 230 volts electric shock. She could not get her thumb off the button and they could hear her screaming all the way down to the restaurant. Yoanna came to her rescue and together they tried read the note next to the sauna, which read …….if you have metal on your body don’t use the sauna (well Michala has metal plates in her body) and don’t go into the sauna if you have contact lenses in (ok, Michala wears contact lenses). Looks like its was a bad idea to use the sauna and it is becoming clear that it is a bad idea I am not there to look after them. What else can go wrong???

Otherwise they girls love being in Castelldefels, Barcelona. Everybody is nice, smiling and helpful. The party at the sailing Club yesterday evening was very well organized and they had great fun. They have met so many wonderful people and they are very proud of being Danish, especially as the two brothers Daniel and Nicolai Bjørnholt won the Hobie Youth Spi European Championship; they are absolutely unbeatable and so cool, relaxed and helpful.

Here you can see a film from the Championships:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI7iyA3S53U#t=113

Blog writer Kirsten Larsen. Photo: Cristayn Fletcher and Erik Olsen.