Miss Meliss…

Well…it has been a little while since my last blog but I finally have some time to sit at the computer without feeling guilty about not doing study for my uni exams or stressing out about the state of my desk with lecture notes and textbooks spread out all over the place.

I finished my last exam, Comparitive Managment, last Thursday night and then migrated over to the uni pub for a well-earned celebration. I am now half way through my uni degree!! It finally feels like I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I am really enjoying most of the subjects and have made some really great study mates and friends along the way. I have to wait until the 5th July to get my marks back, but I think I did reasonably well, considering I picked 2 3rd year courses, in an attempt to spread them out over the degree…it was a great idea in theory but the workload was considerably higher than the 1st and 2nd year courses. I now have four weeks to recover before we get back into it for another 16 weeks.
Now, for the fun stuff…enough about uni

I have made a few developments in my efforts to get some more sailing back into my life. My 420 is, officially and more publicly, for sale now. I have had some interest from Victoria, where the 420 fleet is substantially bigger, however when they realise the boat is in Queensland, they usually lose interest quickly. We have priced it very reasonably so hopefully it will sell a little quicker.

Meanwhile, I have purchased myself a second hand 4.7 Laser rig! These are like gold at the moment…and you are lucky to see any advertised for sale..they are selling that fast. It has been perfect timing for me as I have been hoping to be able to sail at my LAST EVER youth training camp that is being held at Runaway Bay Yacht Club this weekend. The age for this camp was raised to 19 for some reason? I dont mind because I had thought that the training camp before Sail Brisbane was my last “youth” experience. So now I had the 4.7 rig…just the minor technicality of the hull… hehe I have been lucky enough to get some help to organise to borrow a laser by some of the awesome women involved in laser sailing here in Brisbane. I now have a boat to borrow and my rig!! All set! I went out and bought myself some new hiking pants, I have done a race here and there in Lasers before without them but everyone has told me I was mad! They weren’t so necessary in the 420 either

Now for the best bit…..I got to sail yesterday afternoon for the second time since Easter!! There has been a QLA training event on at RQ for the last two days, with 16 or so lasers getting some coaching from Peter Robba. I went out on the coach boat with Peter yesterday morning. It was great weather (for fishing), lovely and clear with almost a non-existent SW breeze. In the afternoon, I was very grateful to be offered a laser to sail. Ken was so kind to let me use his Laser Radial for the afternoon training!! The breeze was there, but nice and not too heavy, perfect for 50kg me in a laser radail. I did need a bit of outhaul and downhaul to depower the boat but i felt good..hiking out but not in survival mode! It was excellent…I think I had a permanent grin plastered across my face the entire afternoon. It even made going to work bareable…I was runnung a little late and I walked into work 5 minutes last still in my wet hiking pants and rash shirt, ran up to the locker room and got changed into my work clothes…got a few interesting comments!

Feeling a bit sore today in the shoulders from the mile-long mainsheet that lasers have (in comparison to the 5 m 420 mainsheet that I am used to!) but I feel great otherwise! Now I am really looking forward to the training on the weekend….only three sleeps!!!

Love always,

Missmeliss