Sailing in Iceland :O)

by Lilja
(Akureyri,Iceland)

Hi,

My name is Lilja, I am 14 going on 15 and I live in the north of Iceland.

I have been sailing now for around 5 years and sailing is all I think about and the only thing I am capable of talking about (which can annoy my friends quite a lot).

I sail a Topper Topaz with my sailing partner Fríða. Next year i'm going to start practicing on Laser 4.7.

The last time I sailed was yesterday, the wind was from the north so it was quite chilly, but the waves were not too big.

I was sailing with an old friend, so it was pretty cool, because he is a really good sailor and we haven't seen each other in about a year.

We were practicing for Íslandsmót which is when all the dinghy sailors from all over Iceland meet up and compete. It is only 3 weeks away!

I first competed 3 years ago in an optimist. I did terribly.

I touched the top buoy almost every time I turned around it and then did not take the penalty for it, even though people where shouting at me.

I didn't treat it like a competition so when people overtook me, I just waved to them.

For some strange reason and I had only been to one practice before the race :S.

I came second to last and only because the girl in last place had to stop because she hit her head badly.

My first capsize was on an optimist. I was 10 and I screamed a lot, but the boy that was sailing with me calmed me down and then we just laughed our heads off until the speed boat came to get us. I love everything about sailing, absolutely everything.

I would like to try sailing somewhere hot or just somewhere not in Iceland :D.

Sailing in Iceland is excellent, but the only downside is that it gets too cold for us to sail in the winter, so that means around 5 months no sailing every year (pure agony) .

You can check out our club site http://www.nokkvi.iba.is.

It is all in Icelandic, but you can see the pictures which are interesting.

I have many sailing stories that are really funny and really weird, so many in fact that I don't know where to start ... so I won't :).

Thanks for listening :O).