On
June 22nd the East Coast half of the U.S Atlantic Challenge team met up
in Boston to begin our journey to Wales. The “challenge” of the competition
started early for us East coasters, as our plane departed late and we had
to sprint full speed through all of Philadelphia’s airport terminals to
catch our plane to Dublin. Upon arrival we boarded a tour bus and rode
down the beautiful coast of Ireland to the small town of Rosslare
where, we again were met with a minor setback. The ferry we had been booked
on had broken down, it was a six hour wait in Ireland and then a four hour
ferry ride before we finally reached Wales. As soon as we got off of the
ferry we were met by smiles and helping hands (even though it was around
one o’clock in the morning) who directed us to a place to stay for the
night before continuing our trek to a sheep pasture overlooking the Irish
Sea.
The hospitality that we were met with our first night was carried over throughout all of our stay in Wales. The people of Cwm yr Eglwys, where we were camping and training, got to know almost all of us by name and offered to help us in any way they could, opening up their homes to us for much sought after showers, inviting us to barbeques and even baking us welsh cakes to satisfy our sweet tooth.
Unfortunately the hospitality of the people was not matched by that of the weather. The first day of our stay in the sheep pasture was met with high winds, making the setting up of camp very tricky. The disagreeable weather carried on, only hours after the west coast kids arrived and had gotten their tents set up another front came in bringing rain and high winds, causing almost all of us to pick up our tents and move them into the woods. The poor weather did not deter us from our training, we persevered sailing at times with only a double-reefed mainsail and practicing for the two miles rowing event in swells, which at times would break over the bow of the Gig.
Although we were challenged both mentally and physically during our few weeks of training it brought us together as a team and also prepared us to the highest degree for the competition in Fishguard. The small town of Fishguard became a bee hive of activity as all of the countries arrived, moving into the tent city where all the teams lived as well as unloading gigs off of trailers and out of containers. The whole U.S team lived together in one of the tents, although we had a tent to ourselves we were all almost always out either in the entertainment tent across the street or down at the docks talking to or just hanging out with all of the other teams. The experience of living with so many different cultures is one of the most amazing aspects of Atlantic Challenge. Everyone took advantage of the opportunity to learn with, talk to, and compete against kids from countries such as Italy, France, Russia and Denmark.
The events of the competition, which included, sailing, rowing, man overboard, knots and navigation (just to name of few) were all met with a great attitude from the U.S team. The great team spirit which we had built up during our training allowed us to work as a well oiled machine for the competition; we won sails and oars as well as sailing by fairly large margins. Our successes did not mean that we were in a league of our own for all of the events, as all of the countries competing were top notch and every team had the ability to win. Our final standing in the competition was third, a very novel finish for one of the youngest teams attending.
Regardless of the final outcome, all of us won. The experience of training and becoming such a tight knit group with kids from all around our country and then to be able to become part of a larger community of people of all ages who share the same passion and goals is unmatched. The U.S Atlantic Challenge team is especially grateful to Lee Scarbrough, Scott Leonhardt, Kathy Arcangeli, Janet Lindahl, our parents, and all those organizations and individuals who have contributed funds to help the Cape Challenge group not only get to Wales but also to run our program here on Cape Cod.