On the Road

Jen here,

Well, after what seems like endless planning we're finally on the road for our three and a half months of racing and adventuring.  Erin and I caught the ferry over to Vancouver this morning and it was a beautiful sunny ride.  Now we're waiting for our flight to Hamburg here at YVR.  There was a moment of stress when we tried to check our sail tube at the check in counter. The ten foot long tube proved to be a bit of a challenge and for a moment we thought we would have to pay an extra four hundred dollars to get it on the plane! Fortunately Erin is an amazing planner and had pre-registered the tube.  Her organizational skills combined with a bit of left-over Olympic fever with the airport staff saw our two full sets of sails onto the plane for a mere thirty Euros.  Nice work Erin!
We were also objects of interest as we put our rudder through airport security.  The woman at the security gate took a look at the rudder through the x-ray machine and was very confused about what she saw. We explained that it's for steering a sailboat, and is made of cedar and fibreglass.  Out came the rudder for inspection and a bit of general confusion. Finally the security staff decided that it was safe to take onto the plane and off we went, breathing a sigh of relief. 
We will be in Kiel tomorrow evening, and our first day of racing is Saturday.  We race in Kiel until June 24th, and then it's off to the Worlds in Den Hague, Holland.