SLAM Sailing Centre
It was a different story for the Oppies—both waves and wind
were strong and the standard was very high. The starts were
fast. The first two races were very equal with both following
each other most of the time. In the last race, Arthur did well
despite a crash in the top mark while Timothée was unlucky
and capsized twice.
All four races were won by the Danish team—five sailors in a
row followed by New Zealand and Singapore.
—
The next and last day started at 05:00 with an earthquake
of magnitude 60—the strongest since 2011, according to
the news. The whole room shook and some glasses in the
bathroom fell to the ground. It was quite impressive as we could
hear the whole structure of the building ‘squeezing’. Outside, a
few traffic cones were on the ground.
對Oppies來說，情況截然不同。風浪很大，同場選手的水準
很高，各人起步也很順利。在首兩場賽事，Arthur和Timothée
大部份時間都緊貼對方。在最後一場賽事，Arthur雖然撞到頂
標，但他的表現很好。而Timothee就比較不幸，翻了兩次船。
四場賽事均由丹麥隊伍勝出（五名選手名次並列），其後是新
西蘭和新加坡隊。
之後的一天，也是最後一天，早上清晨5時已開始了，因為當
地發生了黎克特制六級的地震（根據新聞報道，這是2011年以
來最強地震）。整個房間都在搖晃，浴室裡有玻璃碎裂，我們
可以聽見整座建築物擠壓的聲音，實在令人難忘。 在室外，路
上有幾個「雪糕筒」倒下了。
This became the topic of the breakfast but it seemed like none
of the Japanese were talking about it. We decided it would be a
good idea to read the emergency advice posted in each room!
Back to the race—unfortunately the sky was grey and the wind
was too light. The launch took place on time—09:30. By the
time Alfie and I finished tidying up the trolleys, we found out that
the spectator boat had left! We asked if somebody could drop
us off despite the fact that all the safety boats had gone.
Finally one of the race officers decided to take us with the New
Zealand and Singapore teams. When we left the harbour, the
engine stopped. Our host was very embarrassed, what with
Japan’s reputation for being a country where everything usually
runs so smoothly! He checked to see if the gasoline tank was
open and found that there was no tank! We were in the middle
of the channel with a strong current…Paddling was next to
impossible. Luckily, the anchor was long enough to reach the
bottom of the sea. Finally a safety boat came to rescue us and
offered us a tank.
這些都成為了我們早餐的