Another beaut day here. Warm, dry nice breeze. It's noon, and all have launched except China Team, Luna Rossa and Desafio Espanol. Check that, while I was drafting this the Spanish have splashed their boat. Looks like the other two are not practice-sailing today.

Practice race tomorrow, opening ceremony Wed, and the first day of Act 8 racing is Thu. Two matches per day beginning at 12:30, a half-hour later than in Malmo.

Our scheduled matches:

Thu (29 Sep) -- UITG, Shosholoza
Fri -- Mascalzone, K-Challenge
Sat -- ETNZ, China Team
Sun -- Victory, +39
Mon -- Desafio, Luna Rossa
Tue -- Alinghi

Wed and Thu next week are reserve days, should we need more days to complete the round robin.

Fri the 7th Oct is the first day of the fleet racing Act 9, but is also another reserve day should the match racing RR still not be completed. Otherwise two fleet races on Fri and Sat, and one on Sunday.

Same format and schedule as Malmö.

What about the Dream Princess a.k.a. the "Love Boat?" OK, it's not the QE II, but all in all just fine. Some rooms are apparently better than others, but most seem happy with theirs. And it's tied up just behind the team bases, making for a very convenient three-minute walk. Only real complaint I've heard -- from a sailor on another team -- "no visitors are allowed onboard."

The city center of Trapani is on the other side of the harbour, about five minutes by bike. Nice, quaint, just like the travel brochures (er, websites) say.



Nice pic from the lead story (check it out) on today's ACM website, of
our hook-up with Luna Rossa yesterday.



Dream Princess: Home away from home, parked just behind the team bases.



Electrons Matthew "Mugs" Ulvr-Green (AUS) and Rodney Ernst (USA), and
data whiz Martin Dack (AUS) after checking to be sure all on-board systems
are "Go" prior to 76's dockout a few minutes ago. Trapani city center is
behind them, on the other side of the smallish harbour.