Beautiful Baikal

Photo: Igor Bassearab

Over on the other side of the world, the annual Lake Baikal Ice Yachting week began today.  Three “locals” are there, Chicago’s Chris Berger & Marcy Grunert, and Minnetonka DNer Mike Bloom who sent report below. Follow along on the Baikal Ice Yacht Racing Facebook page.

First day.
Nice breeze when I got up. Having traveled through 13 times zone my body is so confused from jet lag I don’t know what time it is. So today, getting to ice very early was easy. A few folks came down to empty the shipping containers so we could all set up.

The amount of gear in the containers was impressive. 35 hulls, masts, planks, sails and runners take up a ton of shoreline. Here’s a picture when we were about 1/2 way done.  The best part was watching the sailors get to the ice. It looked like Christmas morning as the sailors all picked out their gear. Opening ceremony was at 11. Then wind died. We’ll try again tomorrow. Should be wind tomorrow.