Weymouth Sailing Olympics

Better in LARGE.

We could not avoid Weymouth during the Olympics being right on our doorstep and were very fortunate to have been asked down to an enclosed gathering on the coast by our solicitor and his firm. They had asked a lot of local people from our area - good PR work!

We drove on the new road from Dorchester over the ridge were viking burials have been found during the recent excavations and dropped down to the Park and Ride. Brand new buses in mauve and pink leaving half empty every few minutes to take us to the town centre. The town was weird, devoid of traffic and just masses of people silently walking through the streets and along the old harbour towards the Nothe Fort where the ticketed area was situated. We had to hike on to the other side of that to a secure enclosure which used to be the site for under-water torpedo manufacture during and after the war. There is now a conference centre with a terrace in one of the old buildings (soon to be demolished and made into pensioners' flats) and this is where we spent the day.

Sailing is a difficult sport to watch since the wind surfers and many different classes of boat are right out at sea. Luckily we had brought our binoculars and there was a large screen inside. My zoom lens was not powerful enough to take any pictures of the sails against the beautiful undulating chalky cliffs as a backdrop so here are a few team boats moored in the old harbour. We sat in the sun watching the races, sometimes several going on at the same time in different areas of the bay. A naval warship was moored further out and two helicopters were filming from above.

We walked back along the sea front at the end of the day where the usual donkey rides and Punch and Judy, and small fairground rides had been in full force on the sands entertaining the families. There were masses of "ambassadors" in the town, every few yards, with smiling faces and giving help were help was needed. An enjoyable and different experience. It was amazing to think we had been watching people from all over the world in little ol' Weymouth. The teams have been living and training here for a couple of years now and so the locals will miss them when they have gone.

Weymouth, as has London, has suffered with the Olympics, with many empty beds, empty shops and restaurants. The usual holiday people have stayed away. I just hope the town recovers during the last fortnight of the holidays.