Silvaplana translated means “water in the air” or at least it should be… I’m sure I’m not the only one who had a crystal clear mental image of Heidi skipping through flower filled meadows surrounded by butterflies and other wildlife, sun streaming through her hair as she beamed her jolly little smile…..

Coming from England I should be used to rain but shit on a stick,  it’s been relentless with most of the british team having relocated to warm and most importantly dry chalets, leaving behind their sodden tents.

Good news all round as Rod is once again a beaming bundle of joy having recovered from the cold he picked up and spent a night in a toasty room. I feared yesterday he was going down with lung rot or something.

Today all of that changed and we got a glimpse of what makes this place special. First thing in the morning we awoke to sunshine and a fresh dump of snow just a few hundred metres above our location and clearly visible from our hotel room. Then surprise surprise it started pissing it down again even heavier than before.

The practice race started without me on the course as I just couldn’t motivate myself to get it together with all that rain and the sharp drop in temperature.

It was great watching the big guns tear it up… Nathan Outeridge and Scott Babbage steamed in to an early lead by miles after just the first beat. Cool to also see so many moths in one place.

Then the wind switched off and the racing was abandoned by most who probably thought it best to preserve energy for the racing proper tomorrow.

At this point the rain also stopped and by the time everyone got in, the sun came out and the wind returned. Finally time for me to get on the water.

It was an awsome couple of hours with Martin Fear, Jonnie Hutch and Rodders amongst others. This lake is the flattest water I’ve ever sailed a moth on. Gybing was brilliant and for once consistent. Even tacking on the foils (although not quite finishing them off) was easy.

Scarily though, I was out of breath to start with as the air really is thinner than down at sea level!

Once back in, I had time to knock up a new rocker arm for the wand block as the last one was a little short. This should give me a little more ride height as I was maxed out at 450mm from the horizontal and couldn’t get any higher which I know changed when I reset the wand block angle to nearer 30 degrees as opposed to the 60 previously as I chopped a little too much off!).

So tomorrow things will kick off and I guess everyone will go into serious mode including me so good luck to everyone and hopefully we’ll get some good racing in.