Full on weekend!

Monday morning and I can look back at a busy weekend and overall everything went very well! We had about 300 hundred guests for our Warm up evening on Friday, which went very well! It was a success which feels good after all the different formats we tried, but this worked in the US. Saturday morning we had a breakfast for 200 persons, which also went very well with the Swedish sailor Roger Nilson. Most of the guests though didn't show up until later in the morning, but by the end we were full house.
Then we had the Inport race. As I'm responsible for this port I had to stay onshore. We got all the boats out there with our guests and commentators and they had a very good day, even if there was not a lot of wind and quite foggy. Christina and I took the chance when it was calmer to go for lunch at the Barking Crab. Very nice! The only emergencies during the day was when we had to get the Saudi Prince off the Swedish Kings VIP boat. Considering that the race track was about 40 minutes boat ride out, I believe we did a great job in getting him in! When they called about an hour later and wanted a sea sick lady to come ashore I didn't think we would solve it, but we did and she got to shore too thanks to our TV Team. Felt like a good job done to get them in!
Saturday night we were invited by Marge to a Clam Bake. They had steamed lobster, mussels and steemers and it was great! Very good food and a lot of fun!
Sunday we had the Pro Am race in the harbour with a lot of guests. It was a great day with sun, but a lot of wind, so they had to change the format of the racing to match racing instead of fleet racing. They were timing the laps and then adding up the totals. I believe both guests, crews and public really enjoyed the day! And in the evening the weekend ended with the Leg Price Giving dinner. Edward and Johan lurd me into a couple of beers and Raspberry Vodka before we even got there, so we were quite late, but it was a great dinner, which continued at a bar until late. I've taken a sleep in this morning, but now it's time to get into the shower and down to Race Village.
Tomorrow I'm off work and will try to go to Newport with Ingrid and Annika. Really looking forward to that!

After Sail in the Volvo pavilion

We had the last After Sail in our pavilion yesterday. It was a huge success! Very good with a lot of people showing up! Edward and I bought matching t-shirts at the Puma store. Mine saying "Lookin for a drunken sailah" and his saying "I´m a drunken sailah"...

Mikes pastrys

We ended the evening at Mikes pastrys. What a great place! The cakes are huge! I finally had a cannoli and it was great! It's in the North End of Boston, also known as the Italian quarters.

Union Oyster House

Monday night Ingrid, Marge and I went to the Union Oyster House. A great place, Americas oldest restaurant that has great boiled lobster!

A car in Lego!

Yesterday it arrived, the car built in Lego! It took them about four months and over 200 000 pieces of Lego.

The frogs and lizzards are great!

Boston Bruins semifinal!

The four of us went to see Boston Bruins vs. Carolina Hurricanes. Elenor and I. Most people had the team colours, black and yellow. It was great to be there, but the bruins lost and the hockey was not that great... Anyhow a great evening!

Lunch at the Barking Crab

This place has quickly turned into my favourite restaurant in Boston! It doesn't look much from the outside, but the lobster roll is to die for! Three times out of three I've had the lobster roll, so I guess I need to try something different next time... This time I got Ingrid and Marge with me. Marge works for Volvo Group North America and is spending the week here with us.

Saturday in Boston Common Park

Had the Saturday morning off so I took a walk to the Boston Common Park in full bloom. Had breakfast at a café, went past the pub Cheers (from the sit com series) and eventually ended up in Fanueil hall that had a lot of shops, market and very nice atmosphere! Did some shopping before I had to head back to the hotel.

More images in http://picasaweb.google.se/Grahn.Jessica/BostonUSA#

All boats on land!

Green Dragon was the last boat to be picked up on land and is now being worked on.

Delta Lloyd arrives at dawn!

Telefonica Black and Delta Lloyd arrives!

Bright and early on Monday morning Telefonica Black and Delta Lloyd arrives to Boston with just some minutes appart them! The two hour call came about 3.30 in the morning and I was down in the pavilion by 4 am. The teams did customs in our pavilion and we had some coffee and tea available for the teams, so someone had to be there.
So with the two teams safe home, I'm heading back to the hotel for some sleep...

Ericsson 3 comes into Boston in full speed!

What a finish!

Ericsson 4, Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Blue all finished within about 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon. Very good for the public and considering that they spent about 14 days at sea! We went out with Mattias to meet the Ericsson boats. A beautiful day with almost summer heat!
All images are under Boston in my web album:
http://picasaweb.google.se/Grahn.Jessica

Morning walks..

Got into the routine of taking a walk along the harbour every morning. (Except the other day when it was a little bit too much white wine and late evening to get up early...) It's interesting how different it is in the different countries. In Rio, when going out at 6.30 in the morning, you often met a lot of people still partying or on their way home from the pubs. In Boston, people are on their way to work and you meet the commuters coming with the ferry. They have arranged a very nice board walk along the harbour. The weather has been lovely the last days and now it's also getting a bit warmer. It's nice to feel totally safe when going out. Ingrid came yesterday, so now I also have company for my walks. As the breakfast is not included we bought some at the cafe on the way back and after a very leasury morning, it's now time to get going. We're opening the race village today and with the nice weather it's hopefully gonna be some people.
Hope the warmth has come to Sweden too!

Boston!

In Boston! Very nice city! The Race Village is still looking like a construction site, but hopefully they get done in time for the opening on Saturday the 25th of April.
The boats are due around Sunday/Monday depending on the winds.
Weather is like Spring home. It was very nice this morning when I was out for a walk along the water, but now it's raining and around 10 degrees... Everyone says it's going to improve this weekend with sun and 25 degrees, so that's gonna be good!

Boston

So we reached Boston! Boston is great! We're staying at Seaport Hotel, where we are staying during the stopover. Very good and conveniently close to the Race Village! Still suffering from jetlag so for the third day in a row I had some time on the "girly machine" (as Peter calls them) in the gym in the morning. It feels great afterwards, but not to fun when you go down there at 6.30.. They have a class similar to BodyBalance three times a week. For you that know how much I love Body Balance it's gonna be great during the stopover to be able to take up that class again!
We had a tour today of the venues we are using during the stopover for management hotel, environmental seminar, cocktail receptions and charter boats. Seems very good and everything is very close by! We have also managed to identify the closest Starbucks! Crucial information in a country where the regular coffee is undrinkable! As I said the other day it is though very expensive. About 45 Sek for a small latte... Hope the exchange rate is improving fast! Otherwise I'm going to be ruined on Caffe Lattes!
Hope everything is well in Sweden! Take care til next time!