Ian Walker's Olympic Diary - 5th September

More wild weather as British Star sailor and 1996 470 Silver Medallist, Ian Walker, writes about his experiences in Sydney

On Sunday night we were picked up at 4 pm and taken off to the Olympic Village at Homebush Park, about 45 minutes away, to attend the British Olympic Team official welcome. It was a short ceremony in which school children sang an Aussie song called ‘G’Day mate!’, did an Aboriginal dance and sang the National Anthem to the raising of the Union Jack. What an effort to do that for every Olympic Nation - there's over 200 (I think).
The Olympic Village and the sporting facilities are an amazing site and a tribute to the Australian organisers. The scale of the village is vast and demands its own bus service as well as buses to the Olympic venues. Each country has its own residential area and the accommodation is two to a room in four bedroom houses and smart portacabins.

There are currently 4,720 athletes from 120 countries there, but the number will soon swell to 15,400 athletes and officials. It was a good feeling to be there and it is fun to see athletes of all shapes and sizes in their team kit. It is a bizarre kind of existence behind the security curtain of an Olympic Village. And you can detect a sense of purpose and nervousness about everyone.

For recreation there is a nightclub, huge video arcade and internet café, but no alcohol. Everything, including all food and drink, is free. The on-site McDonalds just has slides delivering burgers down to the customers direct! For the non-burger eaters there is every sort of food available in the huge communal dining areas, these can seat 5000 in a sitting. I am looking forward to spending some time there.

Back on the water, things have been looking up. Despite not doing as much testing as we may have liked we had to make a decision and we have decided to use our new boat. It has generally had the edge and on Monday we had our most encouraging tuning session to date - matching the World Champions from the USA, the Italians and the Kiwis.

We have also ruled out some of the specialist sails that we hoped would work in the local conditions. We have no time and need to go back to some standard gear, to try to match the other teams in all conditions and then rely on racing skill.

To test our racing skill, we are doing a practice regatta organised by the RYA and today was day one. What a day it was! Sailing about a mile outside the harbour we were half-way through a race when the wind rapidly increased to gusts of over 40 knots.

We pulled out and sort shelter under the cliffs while others dropped sails or got wiped out. I saw one Tornado catamaran somersaulting downwind on its side before being rescued. The Star is one of the worst boats in such conditions and we were happy to make the five miles back to the sailing base in one piece. We had gusts of 46 knots at the club and it was impossible to crane our boat out until 6pm tonight when the wind decreased.

Lots of sails and masts were damaged and I was pleased not to damage the mast I was just beginning to like! Thank goodness it wasn’t during the Olympic period. It was no half-day for us though. We have a huge job list to continually work through and we also decided to do a full check on the mast after such extreme conditions. We finally left in the dark at 1930.

As I write this I am tired and disappointed that another day of crucial practice has been lost. I am also excited that my wife Lisa arrives early tomorrow and happy for Mark who is sitting down to watch a video, sent out by his wife, of his 14 month old daughter, Emily. Home seems a long way away despite the wonders of e-mail and the internet.