Wed 29 July: another light air morning after a cool but most pleasant night aboard – more wind in the afternoon and we drop to a 32nd, our worst finish EVER – serious need for medicine from the Coach – Paul Taylor, after yesterday’s sinking in the Yellow Submarine, has elbow problems and the lads have decided to move on– but not before the free beer which today is accompanied by several good things: 

1. arrivals: super-cruiser Ralph Roberts and wife, Betty, who have given up trying to sail the Wayfarer World up from Rantzausminde, but the World is now anchored by the launch ramps, available for all to examine and/or to try out – SWS Chairman, Jørgen Hansen and his Wayfarer (now anchored by the ramps, complete with a very roomy, comfy-looking boat tent) have sailed up from Rantzausminde – Keith Proctor has also arrived (in time for tomorrow’s WIC meeting)
2. verse 2 of Jesper’s song 
3. photocopies of articles about George from two local papers
4. photographer Niels is there to hand out a package of two 8 x 10" photos of each crew in action – excellent work, the man’s a real pro! 

Thurs 30 July: sunshine, fine, relaxed shower & breakfast as there’s no racing today – a productive WIC meeting whose highlights are:

1. 2001 Worlds to be held in Ireland
2. Ian Porter reports Wayfarer World no real racing threat to established Wayfarers – a bit soft (ed. note: like the Mk 2s) in the rougher waters

Sat 1 Aug: late breakfast after a good long sleep, then leisurely packing with a couple of others who have decided to forego the last race – Anders and Steen appear shortly thereafter, having not started the last race because Steen had forgotten his cigarettes and Anders was suffering from a damaged fingernail! – a marvellous awards dinner highlighted by the Coach and Jesper Friis’ son, Christian, as waitresses for our table – fine victory speech by Ian Porter whereupon the championship Trophy was passed around full of red wine and many got to drink from it - for photos of the festivities, click here - special presentations to Regatta Chair, Torben, recognizing his and the Committee’s superb efforts, and to Uncle Al for doing the Worlds Whiffle again – the latter replies with a one-line speech in Danish with what’s left of his voice after being struck down with Desmond’s Disease – lots of drinking but the 150 mattresses bought by ESK and put in the Optimist Building’s loft in case people did not feel like driving home, did not get used

Sun 2 Aug: Poul found someone who could tow the boat back to her owner, Finn, so everything was all set - emotional farewells to Torben and others – no bus/train ride for Marc and me as Jesper squeezed us into his car – big news: the ferry we took from Århus to Sjælland was the same one that averaged over 45 knots on a world-record Atlantic crossing from New York to Liverpool which took well under three days and won her the Blue Ribbon for the fastest Atlantic crossing ever by a ship – it was strange to realize as we sped down the highway towards Farum that we were now going slower than we had been on the ferry…

Mon 3 Aug: this was our day to relax: leisurely breakfast at Jesper’s – the a day in København where we met Nick, Søren and Jetta in the old harbour district, Nyhavn - for a few photos, click here – lovely boat tour of the harbour and canals and then a relaxing few beers in a sidewalk café where we were soon entertained by a gentleman in a red cap who spent some time playing various entertaining tricks on passers-by (e.g. combing their unruly hair from behind, squirt gun shots, the trick you see in the accompanying photo, plus one that did not go so well: he hooked a retractable doggie leash to someone’s very plain-looking female companion) – when Nick & Co. had to leave for dinner at home, Jesper and Aida took Marc and me to Tivoli Gardens where we spent a couple of great hours – Aida knew a restaurant that she had really liked the one time she’d been there, so on our walk back to Nyhavn we stopped at RizRaz, ordered a meal which included a sumptuous hors d’oeuvres buffet and started on a bottle of wine. One hour later, our meal had still not arrived and we left with Jesper explaining that we would not be paying… Later, Jesper would remind us how he had generously treated us to dinner at RizRaz!

Tues 4 Aug: another relaxing day with a pilgrimage to Hellerup SK, site of the ’78 Worlds and home club of many notable sailors such as Poul Elvstrøm and Hans Fogh, and home of a topless beach – alas, it was only about 15°C and too cold to attract sunbathers – in honour of the continuing ‘summer’ in Denmark, Aida served us a genuine Danish Christmas dinner complete with "rødgrød med fløde" (red gruel with cream) – I think this was our best dinner yet – lots of fun meeting Jesper’s daughter, Martha, again and her new husband, Anders - good news: Aida, who hates cold weather, got herself and Jesper booked for a week in Crete starting that Saturday (last I heard it was 45°C that week in Crete!)

Wed 5 Aug: a day of naps, laundry, etc., and for Uncle Al, putting into Jesper’s computer the information gained from the mark rounding sheets that gave the positions of each boat at each mark in every race of the Worlds – a big farewell dinner at Jesper’s with the Ammentorp family and Søren Jensen who brought the pièce de résistance, a magnificent ice-cream based dessert!

Thurs 6 Aug: chauffeured to København’s Kastrup airport for morning flight to Frankfurt, 5-hr stop-over and then back to hot, muggy Toronto that evening – just as we had left it.