Exciting times

After a bit of surf rowing training on Sunday morning at Bournemouth I popped round to see Bojangles (and Mick) Things are starting to move forwards very nicely. Some wiring is now in place. There are hatches all over the deck and inside the cabins. Mick and I sat down and talked about rowing positions and various solutions to the problems that we would face. I’ve been looking at rowing positions, seats, feet and slides for a while in various boats and trying to work out what is best for Bo.

The wheels are likely to be inline skating wheels with ceramic bearings in. While this means that they cannot rust it does mean than they cost a lot more. However, following the lessons I’ve learnt before I know that spending money on these items now will make the difference when it comes to the row. I want to give us the best possible chance of making it across and that means that we need the best possible equipment. I don’t want to be in the situation of being unable to row because the bearings in the wheels have gone rusty. We could easily be out there a long time in nasty weather and what is normally considered suitable equipment is very quickly shown to be inadequate. Hopefully with the experience that Mick and I have we will be able to make the right choices to give us the best chance possible.

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Ocean rowers cycle Pacific coastline

About 4 years ago I met a cheeky chappy who insisted on calling himself “Dr Laser” because he has a PhD in Optical technology or something similar. Far from being ego inflated. George Simpson is a rather nice lad who does a huge amount for his friends. He was part of one of the 4s boats in the Atlantic Race at the same time as Mick and I in 2005.

Another member of the Atlantic4 is Dave Martin who following a rather nasty car crash in South Africa has damaged his spine and is currently unable to walk. George has spent pretty much every weekend visiting Dave and is currently…as in right now…cycling down the American Pacific Coastline. He’s aiming to raise enough cash to buy Dave a handbike so they can race the marathon together next year. They’re going to be cycling past the finish point of our row next year and so I’ve told George to pop into San Fran to do some research into places to stay, currents and take a few photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. Wow! We’ve got an advanced scouting party.

Check out the website , send George and Tori a message and most of all send a few quid to help buy Dave that handbike.

http://www.pacificpedal.com/

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The thing that gives a rowing boat it’s name…

…is the parts of the boat that allow you to row. Otherwise it’d just be…well…a boat!

I’ve just ordered the oars for Bojangles and we’ve opted for some real meaty beggars. Following on from my solo Atlantic venture (where I broke all my oars, got 2 new ones delivered then broke, and had to mend one of those) my thought on oars have become clearer. Oars are one of the few essential items on the boat. We cannot be without them and without a support yacht we simply cannot afford to become oarless. This means that we have ordered 6 oars which are of considerably tougher construction in the materials they are built from (more glass fibre and kevlar and less Carbon fibre) a solid wooden handle and half as big again in terms of the shaft’s diameter. I won’t tempt fate and say these are indestructible but they are tough as old boots. The process of turning Bo into the best ocean rowing boat ever has begun and I’m dead excited.

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Two boats - one weekend

Owing to time constraints of work and other things in life it’s taken Mick and I a fair while to sort out our first meeting with Bojangles. Finally this weekend was the time so I drove down to see Mick. His boss had put on a party for the build team of his new yacht that Mick is overseeing the build of. What an awesome opportunity. The following day after a suitable recovery period we went to look round the first of two boats that we’d be looking round that day - Motor Yacht Nana a 108ft Sunseeker Predator. Likely to be a little bit faster than our Pacific boat but maybe without the range, Nana is a beautiful boat. While having a nosey round the best part was seeing the looks that everyone was giving us as we were on her. Beautiful!

M.Y. Nana - Sunseeker Predator 108

The next boat we saw was a little smaller but none the less beautiful in my eyes. With under a year to go until the off, Mick and I discussed the best places for various pieces of equipment to be placed. Most importantly we’ve got waterproof speakers and a music player all sorted!

Bojangles is special because it is a one off. Specialised construction techniques and materials have produced an awesomely tough and resilient boat but one that is lighter than most wooden boats. We’ve got a plan. All we need to do now is to put it into action. Neither of us can wait to get Bo into the sea and give her some trials. It’s going to be great just so long as we can avoid the Tequila and keyring vendors of down town Poole.

Mick peers in at me in the aft cabin checking I fit in.

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Getting salt back into the blood

Over the weekend it was the first round of the surf rowing championships. For the uninitiated surf rowing involves jumping into a boat with 4 others (one of whom steers and shouts at you) at the beach and rowing about 400m out into the sea, round a buoy and back to the beach whereupon the bow man jumps out and races on foot for the flag. There are 6 boats in a race and the first one to get to the flag wins the most points.

I belong to a crew from Molesey (The Molesey Marauders) who are pretty novice at the sport. A few of the crew had done it before but with myself and Charlie Martell (Atlantic W-E 06) on board as novices it was an experience. As the races are quite short and depend a reasonable amount on luck there were 3 rounds with the crews you race changing for each round. We managed a surprisingly reasonable 5th, 2nd and 1st. The sea wasn’t quite as high as it gets mid-ocean but then again that’s probably a good thing the 2ft swell at Porthcawl did a good job to steady our nerves as we stood their shivering in our speedos. (There’s a reason why surf rowers wear speedos but I’ll save that for another post.)

It was a great day and brilliant to get some salt back into my blood. It’s been far too long.

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Getting crowded

The Pacific is starting to get crowded. While we are aiming to be the first to row unsupported across the North Pacific others are trying to row across the South Pacific. Roz Savage, the other solo rower from my Atlantic race in 2005 / 6 is trying for the second time to cross the Pacific Ocean from East to West in 3 stages. She has just set out from San Francisco and on her first leg is aiming for Hawaii. The power of the Pacific Ocean was proved rather brutally on her last attempt when she was winched off her boat by a helicopter. One year later she’s back and has just set out. You can follow her journey at www.rozsavage.com/blog

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CTP Awards night

Working for a company like him! has always been pretty good. Last night however was our big awards night at the Natural History Museum - somewhere rather special to me. I can remember visiting there as a child and looking amazed at the life size blue whale model for hours on end. Hopefully in a year’s time I’ll be able to see a real one in it’s natural habitat.

The CTP awards last night are the pinnacle of the convenience retail awards celebrating success both for retailers and suppliers. Just before I got on stage to hand out an award, Mike Greene the CEO of him! gave a rather ego massaging introduction of me and the Golden Gate Endeavour while in front of 400 of the industries good and great. The hall went quiet for a short moment afterwards (perhaps the only period in the whole evening) as people tried to get their head around what this was like and I was inundated for the rest of the evening chatting to several companies about the challenges that lie ahead.

Of course getting to the start line is half of the struggle and currently the boat is devoid of any sponsors logos. Hopefully having heard about it a little bit last night a few interested parties will get involved in the project. Please don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you were there and would like some more information about the endeavour.

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Adapting

Having been on my crutches for 2 weeks had seriously reduced my mobility and speed. It has however meant that I’ve realised something rather beneficial. Whatever situation you put your body into it will adapt to help you as best as it can. The first time I hobbled to the station in the morning it took ages and I had to keep stopping (that was if I didn’t fall over). Now it’s a breeze and about the same speed as walking.

I can only hope that rowing in the Pacific will be similar. At the moment it is almost impossible to imagine the work and pressure that will be exerted during the row, but I’ll bet my bottom dollar that after the first week at sea it will feel normal (well as normal as it can be) and life on land will begin to appear an age ago. I wish my crutches would adapt though. I’ve already worn through the rubber feet on the bottom and skid around on the metal poles sticking out. This week Mick and I will start to make sure that the same will not be the case for Bo. Exciting times.

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Remembering what it’s like

After over 2 years of sitting in a small box in my house I finally realised that it was time to do something with the videos and photos that were taken during my solo row across the Atlantic Ocean in the 2005 Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race. Luckily this surge of decision making coincided with me meeting video producer, Henry Dale. Having watched his way through all my tapes and photos he’s put together this brilliantly produced video in an exceptional format that makes Ridley Scott look dull!

If you’re not of the ocean rowing world then bear in mind that this is targeted towards those that are. Some of the bits surrounding the challenge have been omitted to provide a more concise video, of course if you would like more information on TransAtlantic Force then please feel free to get in touch with me or look at www.transatlanticforce.co.uk for more information.

Click here to view the video

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2 feet forward, 1 foot back

Well I’d rather it happen now than in 11 months time but breaking your foot is never going to be great fun. I fell off my motorbike on Sunday after a car decided to pop a U-turn in the middle of the road. I managed to avoid the car but did unfortunately end up pinned to the ground by my foot.

At the time it didn’t hurt that much and I was much more concerned being late for my surf rowing outing in Twickenham. However, after I got home and had a bath I realised I couldn’t put any weight on my foot at all. A quick(ish) trip to the A&E department at Kingston with a couple of X-rays quickly showed that I had a crack in my 4th metatarsal.

The prognosis is fine and I should be back to fighting fitness in 2 - 4 weeks. Until then I’m the slow moving guy taking the train rather than the bike to work and with increasingly large blisters on my hands thanks to the grip on the crutches. At least that part is good training for the North Pacific and I should be getting a good arm workout at the same time.

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