Hi Everyone,
Just thought we would send you a quick email and bring you up to date on the adventure of our 2010 420 World Championship Campaign so far!
After a three day stopover in Hong Kong to do a bit of shopping and preparation, we finally arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel, at around 12.30am local time. We had an 11 Hour flight from Hong Kong which was delayed taking off by bad weather from a Typhoon so it was good to finally arrive safely! A 1.5 hour taxi ride in the back of what looked like a converted ambulance, with our friendly local driver Freddy, and we were in Haifa where the 420 Worlds are to be contested.
After a little bit of confusion, we were feeling a bit doubtful but fortunately with Freddy to help, we managed to find our accommodation which is a very nice self-contained apartment. In the dark it wasn’t so obvious, but in the morning we could see we are pretty much right on the beachfront and the view is spectacular so we are definitely looking forward to getting out there sailing! The weather is also beautiful and warm and sunny so that is also a definite positive change from the cold winter weather back home.
Yesterday we found the yacht club, met up with the rest of the Australian team and then spent a long day in the sun setting up our brand new charter boat! The Opening Ceremony held last night was very exciting and our first chance to see all the competitors from the different countries together in the one place – there are lots of them! The fireworks at the end were fantastic but getting back to the hotel was interesting as the German team who were staying at the same hotel as us and were sharing our bus left without us – at least now all the Australians know who we will be covering in the races!
Today we got to go for our first sail which was another exciting experience as it was our first time sailing in a new place and in a brand new boat as well and with our brand new mainsail so we were a little nervous but it all went pretty well 
After fixing a few things, we had a pretty quiet afternoon looking around the area and staying out of the sun.
The practice race is scheduled for 3pm tomorrow afternoon, July 24th, and then the actual racing starts on July 25th. Please see below the link to the event website so you can follow our progress throughout the regatta:
http://www.haifa420-worlds2010.com/
Also, we would just like to formally welcome on board our new major sponsor, Indigo Homes. Our boat will be named Indigo for the World Championships in recognition of this new partnership.
Thanks again to all our sponsors and friends for your support, without you our campaign would not be possible so we really appreciate it.
We hope everything is going well back at home and we will send another update again soon!
Sasha & Jaime
AUS 420 51858