Poland diaries : The VIP treatment !

As the theme of our recent work trip to Poland was "sport as a vector of integration", we'd been invited along to various sporting events, such as the press conference for the upcoming 2015 Iron Man Triathlon and also the opening ceremony for the Gdynia/Gdansk/Sopot Sailing regatta.

Our Polish hosts had said they would see if we could go on one of the boats to try sailing first-hand. A couple of the girls in our group weren't at all keen and said they'd stay on dry land ... 

... then they saw the boat ! Wow ! Suddenly everyone was keen to climb on board the rather swish private yacht and hang out like a celeb !

In the middle of the deck was a huge transparent bowl filled with mini bottles of Woda. One of the members of the delegation was a bit of a sailing enthusiast and said that it's normally illegal to have alcohol on a private yacht on the sea ... but it turns out that these bottles are actually mineral water, disguised as vodka !

I'd never been on a yacht before so I was impressed to see how big it is - the living quarters are comprised of not just a bedroom but also a lounge area, complete with sofas.

We stayed on the deck though, making the most of the sunshine. (And yes, it's water in the green bottle too !)

We just sat back and let the skipper get on with untangling the sails and keeping us on course. I didn't realise yachts have automatic pilots, like aeroplanes, so it was a bit freaky seeing the steering wheel turning all by itself !

We went quite some way out to go round a buoy that looked like a red dot from the marina.

Ooh look, it's the pirate ship again ! (I'm not sure if is the restaurant one in Gdynia or the cruise one from Sopot as they both go out to sea.)

It was lovely to relax with the sails flapping madly above our heads, thinking "ahh I should be in class right now in a normal week" !

No rest for the wicked though - it was time to head back to Gdynia and carry on with meetings !