A different Christmas in store
Written by Hannah Mills | 15 November 2011
We’ve been back on the water in Weymouth, and getting used to the boat again, this week after having three weeks off. It’s been a full on year for Saskia and I.
We had a really intense summer and trials period and, being such a new pair, we couldn’t afford to take any real time off. After being selected for London 2012 a few weeks ago we knew this was going to be our best chance for a rest.
After spending the first week getting on top of my mountain of paperwork, it was great to get back to Cardiff for a bit and see my family. My brother, who lives in Geneva, was home too so it was lovely to catch up with him. My best friend also lives in Portugal so I enjoyed some time out there just surfing and chilling out. But now we are fully back on it as we begin our preparations for December’s ISAF Worlds in Perth.
This event is a going to be interesting for us. A lot of countries are using the Worlds as their Olympic trials and will be fully fired up for it, but this isn’t our trials, and although you always want to do as well as you can, we have other goals to achieve from Perth.
We have to make sure we are in the right mental state to try to grind out the best results we can, while making sure we achieve our own objectives for the event.
We will be gutted if we don’t do as well as we think we can, but we have some really, really solid goals for the event, especially in heavy winds. As long as we achieve what we set out to achieve that is the most important thing.
This is also the first event we will be working together with our new coach Joe Glanfield, so getting the right routines in place with him and feeling comfortable together as a team is also a big outcome for this event.
Joe has been a bit of a mentor to me over the years having coached me in 420s for the Youth Worlds and also a few weekends in 470s. He’s someone who has always been there for advice, and he also coached Sas when she was previously campaigning with Sarah Ayton.
I’m really not too happy about the sharks in Perth though. As weird as its sounds for a professional sailor I’m scared of the water and I hate the sea! I’d be alright if it was clear and I could see what was underneath but it’s the not knowing what’s there that freaks me out. I love surfing and windsurfing too but it doesn’t mean I have any less of a phobia!
We head to Perth on 24 November and Joe arrives on 30 November so we will have a few days acclimatising and getting the boat ready before we really start training with the rest of the British 470 squad. I’m looking forward to the race training against the other international sailor too because that is always really competitive and really focuses you.
For the rest of this week I should probably start thinking about Christmas presents for my family because for the first time ever I’m not going to be going home for Christmas. A load of us are stopping in Bali on the way back from Australia. I don’t think my brothers are too happy about it, but as long as they get a good present from me I’m sure they will be alright!