The US Disabled Sailing Team heads to Athens.

One of the first guys I sailed with after getting hurt in 1998 was Roger Cleworth. He had only been hurt about 6 month prior to my injury. We sailed a couple of times together and then drifted to other teams. Roger sailed the 2.4m for a while and then hooked up with some Sonar teams. Finally ending up with JR Duggan as an alternate. Here is Rogers account of the preparations for the trip to Athens. We are looking forward to his updates as the games begin. Enjoy

Once again and for the final time this summer the USA Sonar SAILING Team Including John Ross Dugan, JP Creignou, Brad Johnson and Roger Cleworth, have assembled to train for one more week before heading over to Greece. Joined by their coach, Colin Parks, we will practice from Monday through Sunday in the strong breeze and fast currents of Narragansett Bay.

We have trained so much this year that it feels like a career. We have traveled often this summer in hope of finding conditions and breezes similar to what we will face in Athens. We were also in Newport in June for a week. Newport provides almost constant breeze in the summer time, although rain has a habit of sliding through every once in a while, as long as there is wind rain can be shut out with some excellent foul weather gear GILL Sailing Gear has provided us.

Early July found us in San Francisco for almost two weeks. San Francisco does not require an insurance policy for breeze. It blows every day. Our training there along with the Canadian team polished our high wind skills. The reports we have from Athens is that it is extremely hot and there is a chance every day of 20+ knots of breeze. When you look at the ocean and see white caps on the waves before they are close to the shore, this can happen as early as 14 knots, so you can imagine what the seas will look like in 20+. San Francisco has a similar breeze to Athens in that the mountain range nearby creates a thermal suction which pulls the air off the water and up into the atmosphere. In Greece the Mountains are called the Meltemi’s.

We were only home for a few days in July and after San Francisco, we quickly found ourselves in Marblehead Ma for another week. This time we were working on crew dynamics and used a local regatta of Sonars to work on individual responsibilities on the boat. Another successful training camp! At the end of our stay in Marblehead, we spent a day loading our boat and Van in shipping containers to send on ahead to Athens. We were told it would take two weeks but we wanted to err on the side of caution and get them there early. The boat fit so tightly, that we had to slant the boat on the trailer and protect the sides with plywood as we shoehorned the boat into the trailer. The 4000 pound boat and trailer, literally scraped both sides of the container as we hand pushed it in, no easy task!

With a few weeks off before we would again be together we caught up on personal business preparing to go to Greece for 4 weeks. Some of us did some individual sailing in our home towns. Roger flew to Maine and sailed the 2.4 meter, a single man boat, in a training camp with Tom Browns Paralympic campaign. Tom lives in Northeast Harbor and invited 5 top 2.4 sailors to train with him for 4 days.

Gene Hinkle pulled the Sonar we trained with in San Francisco all the way to Newport for us. JP, Roger, and Bill Marois arrived Monday afternoon to set the boat up for this weeks practice at Fort Adams State Park. This boat is not the polished, finely tuned, boat we shipped to Greece but one John usually sails when he is at home in Newport Beach Ca. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we will be in a regatta here in Newport with thirty other boats. The Sonar North Americans will give us our final race practice before heading to Greece at the end of next week.

September 4th is our travel day and we arrive in Athens on the 5th. We will be sending out emails to keep you up to date with how we are doing. Please feel free to pass this along to others.

Links:
International Paralympic website
US Disabled Sailing Team website

Thanks for your support and your prayers.
Roger

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Arriving in Athens.

left to right: Brad Johnson, Betsy Alison, JP Creignou,
Roger Cleworth, Colin Park and Anne Allen

Trying to escape the grip of hurricane Frances, Jp, Roger and Brad left Tampa a day early and spent Friday night in Washington DC. The US Olympic Committee arranged hotel accommodations for us at the Marriott. JP and Roger made good use of the extra time before heading to Greece and toured Downtown Washington. What a great city! Fantastic architecture!

Colin Park, our coach, as well as Anne Allen the team Doctor and Betsy Allison our team assistant, joined us at Dulles airport to begin the trek overseas. It was one of those flights where you take off in daylight and land in daylight, flying through the night. Munich airport was brand new and beautiful. Our plane arrive late and with only 20 minutes before our next flight, the agents at the gate, golf-carted us through security and to our Athens flight.

Arriving in Athens we were pleasantly pleased to see that all of our luggage including a huge box of sails had made the journey with us half way around the world. Our next step after realizing there was no customs to go through, was to contact the US Olympic Committee for transportation to Glyfada. They brought an Opel Van which seats 9 people complete with visa card for gas. $0.80 per liter roughly $3.20 per gallon. Athens has many new roads, seemingly prepared for the Olympics and travel to Glyfada our small town south of Athens was quick and easy.

Travel around Athens though, is not so easy. It is almost comical how difficult it is. One wrong turn and you find yourself on tiny little streets with no turn around room. So the wrong turn feeds you onto another winding one way street and soon you are well away from your chosen path! So you start looking for street signs. Hah! If you find one forget, it they are in Greek! Greek is not like Spanish or French or German where you can crudely pronounce the word you are reading. Greek words, you are unable to even make a guess! The expression “It’s all Greek” hits a home run here. Since you can’t find or read the street names, you guess, based on the what the different people whom you have stopped to asked have told you. However, “500 meters and take a left” once again leaves you guessing at how many meters you have traveled. We were laughing hard at one point at the irony taht we were all college educated and couldn’t even follow directions we had been given. I personally believe the maps are labeled wrong and the streets curves and twists are fictitious. The map makers have guessed at where they should go!

Today is Tuesday and we are waiting to hear from the Shipping Company about when we can come get our boat out of the container

Links:

IFDS
International Paralympic website
US Disabled Sailing Team website

Thanks for your support and your prayers.
Roger

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Unpacking and Cruising

The whole team has finally assembled in the town of Glyfada. I can hear the volume starting to turn up as the games are drawing nearer. Tom Brown and Serge Jorgensen arrived today.

Tuesday we unloaded the container in industrial storage yard in Athens. Our dry run from before, paid off and this time we found the place with few wrong turns. Our ride back home with the boat was flawless. Victory! We have conquered the street maps, sort of.. more later…

The boat came through its journey well. No scrapes or scratches. There were four longshoremen there to help us unload and I think they were impressed with these disabled Americans. They stood back often to watch us work, no slant on them they were great. Many Greeks are awed by seeing handicapped people walking down the streets. We have seen no natives with disabilities.

This morning we delivered the boat to the sailing venue where it was searched by about 12 armed coast guard people and a sniffing dog.

Wednesday was our first day of leisure and we took the day to drive to The Temple of Delphi, about three hours Northwest of Athens. Greece is beautiful and the temples and ruins are definitely treasures to behold. Along the way were the cutest quintessential towns. We were driving in US SAILING’s bright fire engine red Suburban. Definitely a head turner in a country where most cars are smaller than Volkswagen beetles. One of the funniest car stories we have is when we were coming into a small town with narrow streets, people had to step up to the foot and a half wide sidewalks to get out of our way and stare at this red monster coming towards them. To add to the effect we plugged in Led Zepplin “ Hey Hey Mamma, said the way you move…” rolled down the windows and cranked up the volume. The look on their faces was fantastic! The laughter in our car was hysterical. We stopped in the same town for lunch and walked down the streets, crowded with cafes, kiosks and small shops. Roger ducked into a small family owned bakery and bought some of his favorite cookies kollrakia (forgive my spelling, its phonetic only). Brad and Roger were also told not to pay for some of the things they wanted to buy. The Greeks are fantastic people.

The Delphi region is in the mountains along the coast and there are several small towns perched on cliffs overlooking olive treed valleys. Fantastic spots to come for a get away. We came back through one and ate dinner at a restaurant built on one of the cliffs. The valley floor was at least a mile below, spectacular, spec-tac-q-lar!

Delphi was incredible. Way up on a mountain, overlooking a fantastic valley and the scenic mountainscape rising on the other side. Since it was built on the mountainside, the climb up was exhausting for Brad and Roger. The climb down was treacherous as the marble steps have become very slick from all the years of use (500 B.C.) The attached picture is in front of the Temple of Apollo. One of the greatest sites was the Stadium built near the top. If the spectators got bored they could always marvel at the view!

Links:

IFDS
International Paralympic website
US Disabled Sailing Team website

Thanks for your support and your prayers.
Roger

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Practice Time

Practice is over for the sailing team. Tomorrow there will be one practice race. Some teams are planning on only sailing part of the race, thinking it is bad luck to sail the whole thing. Our first day of the paralympic regatta start at 1:00pm Saturday. Athens is 7 hours ahead of EST. You can check for updates and race results here.

The attached photo is of Brad, Jp and John sailing in the waters off Athens. Each day brings them confidence that they are on top of their game. Many other teams are out practicing at the same time and use each other to practice. Towards the end of the day today there were 7 countries doing practice starts. Germany, England, Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Singapore and the United States caught a glimpse of what their competition could accomplish.

The winds have been very tricky here. We have been discussing the best way to use them to our advantage. Often the wind will die down and then come from a different direction all together. If you are on the wrong side of the course you may find yourself going from first to last or even better, going from last to first. Everyone is sailing on the same course and using the same wind and current so it actually becomes a great test of wits.

Our stay in the Olympic village reminds me of the Star Wars movie which had the Ewoks dancing and partying in the trees. Each country has their own block with many three story apartments. Many countries display their patriotism by hanging flags or signs on their balconies. Many people stay up well past midnight talking outside on their balconies. Although the weather is generally in the high eighties during the day it cools off to jacket weather during the evening, making it perfect for sitting outside. Athens looks similar to southern California. There are no mosquitoes and no screens on the windows. It is basically a dessert.

Last I heard there are over 235 paralympians from the United States. Even better the tickets sold for spectators has already outsold the entire Olympics and the games have not even begun.

Links:

IFDS
International Paralympic website
US Disabled Sailing Team website

Thanks for your support and your prayers.
Roger

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