I had a great lead up to this race. Training has been going great and the weather in the UK played along and was perfect training weather right up until we left for Portugal.

Landing in Portugal on Thursday at 9:25am after an over night journey was not the best, but Rui (Race Director) picked us up at the airport and took us to our Hotel. The Hotel is literally 5min walk to the race venue! I was told that the mini bus and trailer would be leaving at 5pm for a paddle on the course. So with some time to kill and the sun shining the best would be is to have a look around the beach and Marina. The Hotel staff convinced us that there was a storm coming and so we headed back to our room. Minutes later the storm came through Portimao – wind, lightning, thunder and rain!! At 4pm it was still pretty stormy, so just before 5pm we went to the trailer and the storm had moved on (slightly) and we headed for Alvaro for a downwind. When we got there the wind vanished – typical – but there was some good swell left and it was still fun to get out on the course and it certainly woke me up!!

Friday was registration day and boat loading time, so feeling fresh after a solid 12 hour sleep and the biggest buffet breakfast in town we headed for the race venue. More people had arrived and the vibe was picking up. Everyone testing and setting up their boats. This is a great venue, the boat rack/storage is on the beach meters from the water. Which makes it really easy to get things sorted, as well as Rui and Sara there to provide us with anything we needed. So after a nice light paddle it was time to put the stickers on and load the boats ready for the race tomorrow.

Saturday and race day, the race was only at 4pm so we had until the bus left at 2pm to relax (or get nervous)! The race venue started to buzz just before 2pm, everyone standing around chatting waiting for the bus. The bus dropped us off and we had about 1.5km walk to the beach, not ideal but glad I took plenty of water, great warm up :-).

The race was a Le Mans start and it was quite a steep run to the water’s edge. So downhill followed by downwind!! I got off to a decent start and the paddle out to the buoy was quite sheltered by the harbour wall so I only felt the wind and chop once we were closing in on the buoy. When we turned we had a great tail wind, it was not directly towards the finish line and neither was the swell, but that made it more fun. It was quite technical and then about halfway I knew there would be some rebounds off the cliffs, so I was keen to get some waves back out to sea. I decided that the best way to tackle this course would be just to get as many runs as possible and to make sure I don’t track to close in shore. Everyone takes their own line so you just have to race as hard as you can as you never know where you are lying in the field. I am always left wondering whether to go out wide or stay in close, so this time I just followed the runs but made sure I was not too close in. It was a great race and I had great fun out on the runs. Once we got into the harbour it was about 600m or so of flat paddling to the finish – I crossed the line in first place and then to top it off I found out that I was only 13seconds off finishing in the top20 against the men. Mira Falch was 2nd followed by Ana Bebiano in 3rd.

I still have a lot to learn as I know there were many runs missed, but that is what this sport is all about – learning!!

Jasper Mocke had a great race and defended his title taking 1st place overall with Sean Rice in 2nd and Joep van Bakel in 3rd. Young 17 year old Jordan Roberts from the UK had a great race he was first Junior home and finished 12th overall. Definitely one to watch out for!!

Back in Poole now with gale force winds with heavy rain.