Qingdao - Day 3 of Sailing

August 11th

Before I go into my daily rant….. I must stop and thank a couple of people who have made this trip possible – and honestly – make it possible for me to do what I do for a living.

My neighbors, Deb & Malinda - hey take care of my house. Get my mail, paper and packages daily. Make sure the trash goes out, water the yard, the plants – all those tedious tasks that I am forever grateful for. Most importantly, they also keep my squirrels and birds fed! Basically – they make sure my house appears to be “lived in” when I am away. And keep me posted on neighborhood gossip!

In addition, there is Dave. He does the yard work and pays the bills. (Okay, he fills out the signed checks I leave – he doesn’t literally “pay” the bills) He also provides endless emotional and comical support.

Thank you guys – I couldn’t be here without you!

On to Monday….
Got up and worked out again.

Decided to spend my morning looking for the beach – which is close to the hotel.

I ventured out on the bike. Found the various parks and shorelines. It was a nice day – hot – but nice for a bike ride.

Here are shots of the marina from this side of the bay

Looks like the algae is coming back

Here are just some shots along the way

Part of our coverage for sailing includes cameras that are up in helicopters. The camera man has to have military clearance to be in the helicopter. There are also many things they are not allowed to shoot with the camera. The camera man is to point the camera up at the blades when they pass over these areas (I met of the camera guys the other nite).

Anyway – apparently behind this big billboard are ground to air missiles – one of the places that can’t be shown on camera


When ever China wants to hide something – the put up these huge Olympic billboards. Be it military secrets, slums, construction, etc. Anything not pretty, gets shielded with a billboard.

Anyway – I was really enjoying my ride. So nice to be out and feeling the ocean breeze. I had gone several miles and was almost to the beach.

Then one of my pedals fell off!

I stopped and tried to put it back on and had no luck.

I was this close to the beach, I decided to just walk the bike the rest of the way.

After seeing the beach (and getting no where near the water), I attempted to put the pedal on again. Nope. Even cut my finger this time. So I decided to walk until I found a police stand – they are everywhere.

Of course, this is the time I can’t find one.

BUT, I did find a Olympic Info & Help tent – which are typically every few blocks.
I mimed what happened and one of them spoke a little English. So they made me sit down to rest while they tried to fix. They couldn’t figure it out either.

The guy that spoke English said – “wait, we get someone to fix”.
So I sat there a while and one of the girls noticed my bloody finger. Out comes the first aid kit and something is being spread on my finger. I told myself it was benedictine on a cotton ball – so lets just keep with that theory. I was then bandaged and they tried to ask me questions while we waited. One of the girls gave me a bracelet. I have no clue what it says.

I was to the point that I was about to tell them to get me a taxi because I had to get to work. I figured I would deal with the pedal once I got to work cuz there are tools there.

Then runs up this man with a bag. I guess it was one of the volunteers relatives cuz he wasn’t wearing the volunteer uniform. They all swarmed around him and helped fix the pedal.

I was amazed at how eager they are to help here. I have heard other stories from people on the crew as well that have needed help from these volunteers.

On the way back – I found this statute which is the symbol for sailing.


There are things like this all over Beijing. But we are finding that there is very little here in Qingdao about sailing. We can’t even find sailing specific Olympic gear.

Got back to the hotel and quickly got ready for work and on my way.