Friday 30^th October

At 4.00am last Saturday, Impossible Dream arrived safely in Lanzarote at the end of her delivery trip from the UK.  Julian and team cracked open a couple of bottles of Pol Roger champagne to celebrate which apparently had the desired effect as they watched the sunrise.  Good choice of champagne but a trifle early in the day for me. My thanks to Julian, Geoffey, Roger, Jenny and Nick for so generously giving up their time to help.  They are all now back in the UK and Impossible Dream is safely moored in Rubicon Marina awaiting our arrival in 3 weeks.

Susana & I were treated to a day at Ocean Safety earlier this week.  OS supply and service a whole range of safety kit including liferafts and lifejackets. Apart from being given a tour of their facilities, Chris Waterman spent a few hours with us going through the contents of our liferaft and other safety kit we have on board.  I’ve been sailing all my life and had no idea what was in a liferaft – have you?  It was quite an eye opener, particularly how the different makes and models vary from each other, so too the different distress flares which all seem to use a slightly different firing process.  I just presumed all liferafts for example had food, water, fishing line etc, but not so.  I may be sounding a bit like a newly-converted safety-geek, but I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to learn about these things in the warm surroundings of OS, rather than struggling to work out how to operate a piece of equipment whilst struggling in an emergency situation at sea.  Next time you drop your liferaft or lifejacket in for a service, ask to have a look around, you’ll be amazed.  And thanks to OS for our fantastic new KRU lifejackets, that was really kind. 

Just over a week ago, the Spinal Unit in Salisbury where I was treated immediately after my accident, celebrated its 25^th anniversary (I was one of the first patients admitted and spent 10 months there)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ).  It was opened in 1984 by Charles & Diana, in fact their photos still hang in reception either side of a commemorative plaque and the unit even carries his name, the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre.  So, which Royal to ask back 25 years later to celebrate it’s quarter century?  I guess there was a lot of discussion at the highest level, after all, you couldn’t have Charles and Camilla with a photo of Di hanging on the wall behind them could you?  Someone somewhere made an inspired choice and opted for Edward, Earl of Wessex.  I’d not met him before but he seemed a decent enough chap with a strong family resemblance, even his mannerisms are like his siblings, the hand-wring, the cufflink-twiddling, the faux-pas'…!!

Right, off to do some Christmas shopping now. I’m not going to get many other opportunities before we go.

Tuesday 20th October 2009

It's now exactly a fortnight since Impossible Dream slipped her lines on the Beaulieu River to begin her delivery trip down to Lanzarote.  Those of you tracking her progress will know that, as of this morning, she is currently in Cascais, Portugal. Click on the link on the top-left of this page to see where she is now.  They are about another 700 miles from Lanzarote and they aim to be there by this weekend.

Susana & Geoffey Find the Hidden Cakes

Skipper Julian and his delivery crew have had an eventful journey so far, motoring into strong headwinds along the south coast of England, a fuel-supply proplem with one of the engines (quickly fixed in Weymouth), fishing nets around the propeller in northern France, lobster pot lines around the rudder in Spain, both requiring the services of a diver, but thankfully no difficulties for the past 7 days and the farther south they go, the warmer the weather and the better their progress.

Nick saves the day by untangling the lobster pot

My crew member Susana did the first part of the voyage from the UK, flying home from Bilbao only a few days ago.  Although not making the journey to learn to sail, it was essential that she got some quality sea-time on the boat and, in addition to the 650 sea miles she logged, she started to learn where everything is stowed on the boat - apparently there's a lot of hiding places on board.

Dolphins in the Bay of Biscay

Back home, we are now only 5 weeks away from flying down to Lanzarote to get ID ready for the departure on December 10th.  Those 5 weeks will fly by.  We still have a few jobs to do back at home, not least resolve the Comms issue so, by the time we leave, we'll be in a position to fire back film footage which you will be able to see on TV, and for us to have good quality, and stable, internet access - how can I survive 3 weeks at sea without access to my emails? Anyhow, we are progressing the Comms well and we have a fairy-godfather who looks like he will be coming up trumps in the next week or so which will be a tremendous relief.  I also need to find a spare day to do my Christmas shopping - I will be at sea for Christmas but I think it will be a bit too mean to make master T wait until I get back from the Caribbean for his prezzies.  Besides which, I might need to buy myself a surprise Xmas gift - I don't know if Father Christmas will have Santa Nav or not and may not be able to find us...!!

I've been as busy as ever on the speaking circuit this past week, burning the candle at both ends, as I continue to promote the project and disabled sailing.  Last week I spoke to Whitely Rotary group and the Trident Forum, a collection of south coast professional services firms, at the Royal Marines Museum in Eastney, Portsmouth.  On Friday I gave a talk to another business group, this time at Chewton Glen, the world's 2nd best hotel (as voted for by Conde Naste magazine 2008) - it was actually every bit as good as I hoped, and then on Friday, I was guest speaker for the Royal Engineers Yacht Club on board HMS Victory - what a special honour that was.  OK, not the most wheelchair accessible boat I've been on, but with the help of the Navy boys and the Royal Engineers, they ensured I was carried to all the appropriate places, the Mess bar for drinks, the lower gun deck for dinner and the spot where Nelson, our most famous disabled sailor, was killed - a memorable night indeed. If you have never been to see HMS Victory, then you really must put it on your "top 10 things to do" list.

More talks this week, more meetings and hopefully a few more jobs ticked off the "to do" list.

0900 hours Tuesday 6th October, Impossible Dream slipped her mooring lines on the Beaulieu River and began the 3,000 mile delivery voyage to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands where I will begin my journey in December.  It seemed really strange knowing that the next time I see ID will be in Lanzarote.

ID at the Royal Southern YC

She arrived back in the UK from Malta early July for her refit at Multimarine in Cornwall but she didn't arrive back to Southampton until the 31st July.  Since then, in just 9 weeks, the boat has been worked on just about every day.  It's been a busy summer with no time for a holiday with all of the preparations, installing the electronics, calibrating the electronics, working with existing sponsors, checking and double-checking all of the procedures on the boat, the generator, the engines, the sails, learning the various power systems, working with my PR and Comms agencies to maximise exposure of the project plus all the hands-on training at sea.  And amongst all that, we had even found time to be at the PSP Southampton Boat Show and had a Royal visitor to endorse the project. The time has just flown by.

Me with John Beardsley, Commodore, RSnYC

The final phase, (it had to be the final phase), was buying and stowing the food provisions in two batches.  The first was essential bulk provisions for the Atlantic crossing itself, now stowed, albeit in a haphazard manner, somewhere in the starboard bow locker until it is unpacked in 2 months time (don't tell anyone but it's where we've stowed the emergency Snickers & Maltesers).  I can not mention our food-stowing without giving a special thanks to Ken from Bognor Regis Sailing Club for providing Susana and me with a dozen, home-cooked curries for our trip - HAPPY DAYS indeed...!! The second food batch was the delivery crew's food which was stowed less than 12 hours before departure, and what an eclectic mix of culinary delights that was; and I thought I was fussy..!!  Having spent over £1,300 on food at various stores in less than 48 hours, I can reliably inform you that Asda's really is the cheapest..!!

1/4 of the Big Food Shop

Talking of delivery crew, I need to make special mention of Julian, Geoffey, Nick, Roger and Jenny who have kindly volunteered to deliver ID safely from the UK to Lanzarote, all in their own time.  The owner and I are immensely grateful to them. But also because skipper Julian and his team have given up weeks and weeks of their time this summer to get the boat ready for the voyage and to familiarise themselves with the boat.  Oh yes, they have 1 extra crew member on the delivery, well, to Spain at least, and that is my crew Susana who is using the voyage to clock up some extra sea miles, to further familiarise herself with the boat and to generally get a better understanding of what life is like at sea.  Hopefully it won't be a "baptism of fire" but the Bay of Biscay can be a bit frisky this time of year.

Left to Right: Julian, Geoffey, Susana and Nick

They have been gone 24 hours and already, an unnamed 3, that's 50% of the crew, have been "feeding the fishes.."!!  That's actually more of a comment on the strong SW winds and big seas than their sea legs.  Typical, we've had all of this beautiful, unseasonably warm, dry weather for the whole of September then ID leaves and we get wet and windy gales.

The boat is currently in Weymouth waiting on the weather.  Website viewers will be able to follow the delivery of ID to Lanzarote. We have a wonderful OC tracker which will transmit regular location reports.  Please remember, this a delivery, not a race, and there are specific reasons why the boat is taking the route it is so, can armchair-skippers please keep their opinions and observations to a minimum.  To view the location of the boat, CLICK HERE.

This will also be up on the main website homepage today so you can tack the boats progress.

A couple of quick "thank you's".  Firstly to Steve Laver for installing our new sound system on the boat and waving all labour charges.  Anyone in Hampshire looking for a good marine or auto electrician, then Steve is your man, call him on 0791 941 7969.  Secondly, thanks to Dr Mark "Tommo" Tomson and Dr Spike Briggs from Medical Support Offshore Ltd www.msos.org.uk.  Not only have they provided us with a custom-built medical kit at cost, fully coded for offshore sailing, but they are also providing us with free, 24/7 telephone support for any medical eventuality on the voyage which is a huge relief.

That's it for now but I'll be giving regular updates during the delivery.

Monday 21^st September

Finally I get an opportunity to update on the past week.  The most notable event has been the 9 day long PSP Boat Show here in Southampton which finished yesterday.  And my special thanks to National Boat Shows for allowing the presence of Impossible Dream on a Feature Berth at the show for 4 of those days.  The reaction and feedback from the public was overwhelming, quite literally.  On several occasions, there were so many people, we had to actually secure the boat to stop more people coming aboard whilst we showed others around.  And if we were lucky to find a spare 5 minutes in the day, we would have to hide down below to have a bite of a sandwich.  The fantastic publicity undoubtedly helped raise awareness of the project but, no-one walking around the marina at the show could fail to notice us – we really were a “Show Stopper”.  And as though that was not enough, last Thursday the 17^th, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal paid a special visit to the boat to find out more about the project and to inspect the boat.  You may have seen some of the coverage on the National BBC News. (A full list of media coverage is given at the bottom of this Blog).  She was particularly interested in the array of Raymarine electronics and spent quite a while learning about the various buttons I push to sail the boat. Amongst the guests on board were Mike, Martine & Bob, trustees of the Sporting Activities for the Disabled Trust, Fiona Pankhurst from Raymarine, my cameraman Digby Fox, Elaine, Susana and a new performance partner, Charles Haymer from Pol Roger champagne, the last independently owned champagne house in France and, having a particular like of champagne, I can assure you it is by far the best. What a terrific sponsor to have..!!

Princess Anne meets Mike Browne and Martine Radville

Whilst at the Show, I had several other events to attend.  For example, I had to appear on the main stage in a bizarre attempt to set a new record for the sending of a mass-semaphore message with flags – I told you it was bizarre.  I held the record for 6 days, having got 239 people in the audience to spell out the word “R-E-C-O-R-D” but my short-lived attempt was smashed by Dee Caffari and Ben Ainslie who, together managed to get nearly 450 people to take part.

I also got to meet Tom McNally at the show who plans to sail across the Atlantic next month in his 3ft long boat.  And people say that I’m mad..!!  His boat needs to be seen to be believed.  Will he do it? It doesn’t matter really, at least he’s trying and helping to raise a lot of money for charity. And in case you are wondering, he sleeps standing up.  I would give you a website but I can’t find one, you’ll just have to Google him.

Timothy & Tom McNally in his record-breaking boat

My friend and ex-Personal Everest crew, superstar rower Sarah Outen was also at the Show with “Dippers”, her tiny rowing boat that she rowed from Australia to Mauritius a few months ago.  The voyage took her 124 days to row nearly 4000 miles making her the first woman, and the youngest person ever to row the Indian Ocean single handed – amazing. 

Inspecting Sarah's record-breaking boat

I should also like to quickly thank Pains Wessex for dropping off a complimentary MCA coded offshore flare-pack for the voyage. Obviously we hope to never use them, but at least they are all up to date now.

I took two days out of the Show.  On Tuesday 15^th, wearing my RYA Paralympic Steering Group hat, I attended the Sail for Gold regatta at Portland, the Olympic sailing venue for 2012.  To see 500 boats on the water, some 750 sailors from around the world, was quite a sight.  After the meeting, I got a tour of the top secret British training HQ – impressive stuff – my lips are sealed but overseas nations would be right to be nervous.  And on Friday 18^th, Elaine & I were invited aboard the Saga Ruby cruise ship by my publisher to celebrate a launch of a new book, Master Mariner, by Philip Rentell, captain of the Saga Ruby.  It was a great lunch and celebration, marred only by my near-arrest at the security check.  It’s the first time I’ve ever been on a cruise ship so had no idea the security was as tight going aboard ship as it is on an aeroplane.  Consequently, they took exception to my 10 inch fishing knife that I take everywhere with me in my back pack.  “Planning on doing any fishing aboard this afternoon sir”? asked the lady security guard sarcastically.

(L to R) Captain Peter Hore, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Captain Philip Rentell (Aboard the saga Ruby)

Susana is doing her 7 day intensive Ship’s Doctor medical course this week.  I took a peek at the syllabus and I couldn’t even understand the pictures, let alone the words.  Once qualified, she’ll be able to cut me open and stitch me up again, now there’s something to look forward to mid-Ocean on those long, boring night-watches.

Amongst all this, Elaine & I celebrated our 22^nd wedding anniversary on Saturday night.  Well, I say celebrated, we were actually at my sister Jenny’s 60^th birthday party, themed Rock n Roll party so not exactly a romantic dinner for two.  And as I write this, one of Timothy’s guinea-pigs has just died so we have a rather distraught young man sobbing into his boiled egg at the moment.  And if you think the thought of a young boy crying about his dead guinea-pig is a sad sight, you should have seen me yesterday when I learned the cost of insuring Impossible Dream for the Atlantic crossing, not to mention the Insurance Excess.  The boat leaves in less than 2 weeks, still much to do, and I have no doubt there will be more tears before then.

PHOTO's: Courtesy of OnEdition

RECENT PRESS LINKS

Sunday 13^th September 2008.

As from 0800 tomorrow, Monday 14^th September, Impossible Dream will be on Feature Berth 520 at the PSP Southampton Boat Show.  We are there until Thursday 17^th September so, if you are passing, do please stop by and say “hello”.  Thanks to our delivery crew team, led by Julian Mandiwall, for giving up so much time to get ID into a ship-shape and for taking her out on so many trips out for the press, including this latest trip to Southampton for the Boat Show.  Julian and his team will be leaving in 3 weeks to take ID down to Lanzarote where Susana and I will be joining her late November.

Barely an hour is passing now without some form of work being done to get ID ready for her voyage.  Thanks to Fischer Panda, the brand new generator is now installed after a 6 week, rather stressful, absence.  I was on ID this morning and it was purring away quite happily so that is a major job to be crossed off the list.  Just about all of the Raymarine kit is now wired and synchronised although the AIS system will be hopefully initiated this week.  The technical partners’ graphics are due to be applied to the hull tomorrow morning (before the Show opens) by my friends at Grapefruit Graphics and the genoa has just been modified thanks to Hyde Sails.  We still have the Comms to resolve to ensure we can fire back video footage from mid-Ocean and less than 3 weeks to do it so that is one job I’ll be happy to see complete.

Susana has completed and passed her RYA Competent Crew course, next stop, a gruelling and intensive 7 day Ship’s Doctor’s medical course beginning next week.

It’s been a great week for media coverage; a full page in The Daily Express on Tuesday 8^th September, we had a wonderful 10 minute slot on Radio 4’s You & Yours programme on Friday 11^th September  CLICK HERE and, to end a terrific week, we had the most incredible double-page spread in the Sunday Times “In Gear” supplement today, thanks again to KTB for such wonderful PR.

It has been as busy few days in other ways too.  Friday was Press Day at the Boat Show and I was asked by the Ellen Macarthur Trust, along with record-breaking yachtswomen Hilary Lister and Dee Caffari, to welcome back Scarlet Oyster, the EMT’s yacht which has just completed her Round Britain voyage to help raise awareness and funds for the charity which helps get kids out on the water who are recovering from cancer.  Immediately after that I was at the Raymarine stand to award some VHF radios to Tideway Sailability – they had several radios stolen recently and Rayarine kindly provided some new ones.  I was then fortunate to have lunch with Hilary Lister and to hear first-hand about her voyage around Great Britain which she completed last week – as the only 2 quadriplegics to attempt, and succeed in completing the voyage, we obviously shared many special experiences and memories.

Today, after an early visit to ID in Beaulieu to resolve the music system on the boat, was another visit to the Show to make my appearance on the Record Breakers stage where we were attempting to break the World Record for making a simultaneous semaphore message.  We set a record of 239 people but there are going to be several more attempts so there is a possibility that it may be broken but, as of this minute, myself and 238 others, are record breakers.  After a few more sponsor’s meetings and it was home early ready for an early start tomorrow.

I won’t have time to upload another blog for the next week but I hope to have plenty of good-news stories of a successful week at the Boat Show when I do.

PS: Sorry for the lack of pictures in the Blog. There is a problem with the CMS editor which we are trying to resolve.

Well, there are now only 4 weeks to go before Impossible Dream leaves the UK and starts to make her way down to the Canary Islands so work continues at a frantic pace. The extensive Raymarine kit has been installed and we are now just finishing off a few technical wiring and synchronisation issues.  There is so much equipment involved, that it is not an easy job ensuring that it all talks to each other. And this week, the AIS is being installed which will enable other boats to see where we are and our course / speed.  If you have not seen what AIS looks like, CLICK HERE to see boats fitted with AIS around the UK (in real time, right now). Click on an area to expand the map. Another useful piece of kit to be installed will be a remote control linked to the auto-pilot so I will be able to change course from the comfort of my bed.  Not quite sure why I will need to yet, but I’m sure I’ll find a reason.  And another great piece of news is that the generator is going in tomorrow too; after a 6 week wait, we’ve been getting somewhat edgy but that is really great news – we just have to hope that it works OK.

This Friday sees the start of the PSP Boat Show.  Impossible Dream will be at the Boat Show from Monday 14^th September to Thursday 17^th September inclusive on Feature Berth 525.  Visitors on the Thursday may have to wait a while as HRH, The Princess Royal, will be coming aboard to inspect the boat and meet a few of the sponsors.  I’m obviously delighted that the Princess has shown so much interest In the Project; hopefully it will help raise the profile of disabled sailing yet further.

Talking of media interest, my PR team have been busy in recent weeks.  I believe there is a piece in tomorrow’s Daily Express (Tuesday 7^th), a feature article in The Sunday Times this coming Sunday (In Gear supplement) plus loads of radio and TV.  CLICK HERE to see a piece on last week’s BBC TV South.  Thanks to Lucy at KTB PR for all of her hard work.

This weekend just past I was pleased to be asked to speak at the 25^th anniversary dinner for the Sailing for the Disabled group on the Isle of Man.  We flew in Friday for the dinner at the Hilton that evening with more than 150 guests.  SFTD on the IOM own a 42ft yacht and make in excess of 200 sailing trips a year which is a terrific % of usage.  Thanks to everyone there for making me feel so welcome and for looking after us and entertaining us, right up until we flew home yesterday.  Timothy was particularly impressed with the bronze statue of Norman Wisdom at our hotel.  For further info on the SFTD CLICK HERE.

Susana is earning her water-wings this week.  Having done her Sea Survival course last month, this week, she is on an intensive 5 day Competent Crew course; I spoke to her last night and she hasn’t jumped ship yet so that bodes well for the Atlantic crossing.

It’s been a busy week for sailing stories, what with Michael Perham becoming the youngest sailor to sail around the world (what an amazing achievement) and the young Dutch girl who wants to sail around the World aged only 13.  So many stories. So much controversy. So many views and opinions. I think perhaps I’ll keep mine to myself. Coincidentally, as I was giving my talk to the SFTD in the IOM this weekend, I realised that Saturday 5^th September was the 2^nd anniversary of the completion of my circumnavigation of the British Isles – my thanks to The Times, The Telegraph and the BBC for remembering my teams' achievement two years on. Being September 5^th September, Saturday was also the 25^th anniversary of my accident, not that it merited much of a celebration, more a moment of quiet reflection.

The circular email from my yacht club a fortnight ago would ordinarily have received a cursory view. But something caught my eye, and my imagination.  I had long believed the Brambles Cricket Match to have been an urban myth, part of nautical folklore. Allegedly, once a year, a notorious sand bank in the middle of the Solent, one of the busiest yachting centres in the world, would appear from beneath the waves for no more an hour. At which point, members of the Royal Southern Yacht Club and, representing the Isle of Wight, the Island sailing Club, would descend upon this tiny patch of seabed in their boats to play cricket. Yeah, right...!!

So the invitation to play a part in this very strangely English sport seemed too good an opportunity to miss.  However, as I was making my way down the Hamble River in my boat at stupid-o’clock towards the Bramble Bank on Saturday morning, I was beginning to question my judgment.  It was so dark, I had to put my navigation lights on.  As I neared the bank, dawn was just breaking and I was met by this surreal image - a mirage of people, many wearing full cricket whites, walking on what appeared to be the water.  I beached my boat and several spectators and players were quick to help lift me, and my wheelchair, down onto the pitch.  Well, I say pitch. I use the word with a degree of poetic licence.  The Bramble Bank at extreme low water is not exactly the same hallowed ground as you might find at Lords, home of the MCC.  To say it is undulating and slightly waterlogged would be an understatement.

Playing for the RSnYC, my fellow team members included Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and comedian Rory McGrath.  What followed was 30 minutes of complete and utter surreal madness.  After breakfast, yes, breakfast, our team flipped a coin and chose to bat second.  I was deposited in a “silly mid-off” position, centimetres from the batsman, completely unable to move, even had I wanted to.  Cricket balls, real ones, those hard red leather things, not some namby-pamby neon-green furry tennis balls, were soon flying everywhere as batsmen fired them into the crowd. People were ducking and diving to avoid facial injury. I should point out that the boundary was, how shall I say, well, it was prone to constant change as the moon worked her gravitational magic on the tide.  There must have been one point when we reached the giddy heights of 2 inches above sea level.  But even with the tide at it’s lowest, the boundary was never more than 30 feet away.  More challenging was scoring runs. Again, I use the word “runs” with some scope for interpretation.  More often than not, a barefooted batsman running between wickets would have been better equipped as a mountaineer wearing SCUBA gear in order to traverse the sandy hillocks and the underwater canyons, cunningly disguised as shallow pools of water.  Our ringer, Freddie “the Knox-Johnston” Flintoff had soon dispatched the opponents for 20 something runs and it was our turn to bat.  The McGrath / Inkster partnership was pretty impressive as they scored well over 100 runs in less than 5 minutes.  I was last in bat at number 6.  Believed to be the first quadriplegic to have played cricket on the Bramble in a wheelchair, I faced my young adversary as he made his run up to bowl.  I could see the white of his eyes as he let the ball fly, thumping into my chair.  There was a call for “wheel before wicket”, perversely from one of my own team, but with no umpire present to adjudicate otherwise, I faced the second ball.  This time willow connected with leather, albeit with hardly any force. I was so shocked, both bat and ball fell to my feet in a rather pathetic thud.  My nominated runner, with intuitive and inspired thinking, picked up the ball and threw it into the sea - we piled on another 30 runs.

For a video of the above cricketing highlight, CLICK HERE

And then there came a call that no cricketer wants to hear; “the tides coming in, everyone clear the bank”.  Minutes later, the flotilla of boats were making their way back to the Royal Southern YC for yet more breakfast and an obligatory glass of port. It was by now 8.00am.  We were the victors having scored some 200+ runs but apparently it was our turn to win anyway; the insignificance of the scoring strangely appropriate and fitting for such a whacky morning’s fun.

So it seemed odd watching England win the Ashes on Sunday, beating the Ozzies on that beautiful, flat, green wicket.  For their efforts, they win a little urn of ashes.  For our efforts, everyone went home with shoes and pocketfuls of sand, and memories of a bizarre day.

I will end with a quick note to say that I met up with my dear friend and record-breaking, Indian Ocean rowing, chocolate muching heroiness Sarah Outen last week.  She had only just gotten off the plane from her flight back to the UK but we found a layby in Rockingham to rendezvous, exchange hugs and salty stories for 5 minutes - she doesn't look like she's just spend 124 days rowing across an ocean does she - heroic stuff - fab girl - everyone on their knees to pay homage to Sarah.

Saturday 15th August.

Zip. And there goes another week. Departure day for Impossible Dream from the UK to Lanzarote is set for the 6th October which leaves only 51 days. We still have to install the new generator, synchronise all of the electronics, service the turbos on the engines, and that is just the tip of the "to do list" which has at least shrunk from 3 sides of A4, to 2 1/2 !!  Talking of delivering Impossible Dream to the Canaries, friend, Yachtmaster instructor and past Director of RYA Sailability, Julian Mandiwall and his crack team (including Geoff "the Wallaby" McNichol) have kindly agreed to get ID safely down to Lanzarote.  As I type, they are out in the Solent again, continuing to get to grips with ID's complex systems.  Susana and I spent the day with Julian and the team earlier this week and, slowly but surely, everything is beginning to make sense. As I have said before, it is one thing knowing how to sail, but ID is an incredibly complex vessel with 18 hydraulic devices, 3 power sources (4 if you include shore power) plus the ship's own computer to control all of the systems - this is completely separate to the twenty or so Raymarine navigational aids and electronics around the ship, all of which need mastering.

But don't shed too many tears for me, it's a real honour and privilege to be sailing her and I regularly pinch myself to remind myself how lucky I am.  I'd rather be out sailing ID and learning the systems than stuck at home all day. 

Life has been a bit quieter around the house this week.  We put Tim on a plane to Spain at 6.30am Wednesday morning to go and stay with our friends and their kids in Marbella.  There were lots of tears and tantrums as you would expect at the airport but Elaine had just about calmed down by the time she got home.  Tim on the other hand couldn't care less.  With so much time being spent on this project, we've had no time for even a short family holiday so far this year but Elaine & I did feel slightly guilty seeing our 7 year old son disappear for his first holiday without us.  We Skyped that evening and he proudly told us he had been sick on the plane and then asked if he could leave the computer to get back to playing with his friends.  It's been 4 days now and our evening chats are clearly becoming an inconvenience to his play schedule and are now lasting a matter of seconds. He won't want to come home at this rate. We are making the most of the peace and quiet but it does feel odd not having him around, even Max the dog can't settle.  Hopefully it will all be worth it and, thanks to the BA tickets, we will have that family holiday in Tortola at Christmas.

Talking of Tortola, the British Virgin Islands Sailability group are completely "on the case" and have all sorts of magnificent celebrations planned for our arrival - their excitement is infectious though the email I just received tells me that Tortola could be on Hurricane Watch this time next week - a storm is brewing. It's a reminder that an Atlantic crossing is no "stroll in the park".

Aly Gunn (Lymington Sailability), me and Dee Caffari

Had a great day yesterday. I'm a long-time supporter of the AHOY centre based in Deptford, London CLICK HERE. They cater for the needs of disabled and underpriviledged kids in inner-city London.  They have bravely defied the recession and commissioned the building of a magnificent 40ft wheelchair accessible powerboat.  Well, the boat just just been launched and I was asked to help crew her on the Weymouth (Portland) to Lymington leg of the delivery trip back to London.  First reactions, WOW..!!  She's quite a boat.  She's a completely different beast to Impossible Dream but she has some equally impressive technology, not least the scissor lift to raise the wheelchair helmsperson up to see the controls and to give full visibility. Effectively she is a workboat. Designed to plough up and down the River Thames taking out groups of AHOY members. But more than just giving them a ride, she is designed so that she can be navigated and steered by someone in a wheelchair.  I'm happy to be proved otherwise, but I don't know of a similar vessel anywhere in the world.  She is MCA coded too so she can be used to teach powerboat courses.  It was my first time helming a boat which uses twin water jets to power it - no propellers, no rudders, just water jets.  To be honest, I found it a bit tricky to get to grips with but that's not to say others will - one of the main reasons for them choosing jets instead of conventional propellers was water jets are less likely to get entangled with rubbish in the Thames which Zak (one of the AHOY crew) proudly told me could be anything from a plastic bag to a dead dog...  Mmm, thanks Zak. CLICK HERE for more info on AHOY and to contact them about opportunities to use this magnificent new new boat.

The day was topped off with a visit from friend and fellow sailor Dee Caffari who was trying her hand at a bit of journalism for a local radio station - watch out Jenni Murray.

Thursday 6th August 2009

Phew, what a week..!

Last Friday, (blimey, was it only 6 days ago?), Elaine drove Susana and I down to Plymouth where we met up with the owner of the boat and some guys from Multimarine who were finishing off the last few jobs onboard. Juliet, my one (and only) groupie had kindly driven to Plymouth to see us off and to have a sneaky look around ID.  By 3.00pm, I had escorted Juliet off ID as I took her threats to stow-away onboard seriously - visions of Juliet popping out of a hatch mid-way across the Atlantic had been troubling me for weeks.  With Juliet safely on the pontoon and a kiss goodbye for the Mrs (who then had to drive back to Southampton), we motored out of Queen Anne's Battery and out into the Sound.  There was a fresh breeze and choppy seas so it was quite uncomfortable for the first few hours. The overcast skies and drizzle didn't exactly add to the summery feel.

Me with owner Mike and Juliet just before departure

We had a great sail back and whilst grabbing only a couple of hours sleep between 2.00am and 4.00am, it dawned on me that it was the first overnight passage I had made in 25 years, and the first time I had slept on a yacht whilst at sea for the same 25 year year period.  That gentle rolling motion soon worked its magic and I was fast asleep.  Whilst the boat did most of the sailing, we spent our time learning as much as we could about the wide array of new Raymaine electronics on board - they really need to be seen to be believed - talk about "boys and their toys" - my favourite is the piece of kit which combines the chartplotter with the radar.  If you are not boaty inclined, imagine your in-car Sat Nav but the size of a portable TV set. Then overlay that mapping detail with radar which tells you where all the land is, where all the ships are (including their direction and speed), and even where the rain is.  It's a brilliant piece of equipment which also has, should you need it, a fishfinder too (I definitely approve of that and will be making use of it).

Getting onto ID using the aft hydraulic lift

By dawn on Saturday 1st August, we slipped passed the Needles with a favourable tide and barely any wind (the water was like glass) but we were still averaging more than 6 knots. An hour or so later, we arrived back on the Beaulieu River and were moored on the owner's private pontoon by 8.00am - we had travelled about 120 miles in 18 hours (averaging about 6.5 kts).

Since then we have been extremely busy going through the various on-board systems - electronics, hydraulics plus basic things like stowage. Much of the safety equipment will have to be serviced and / or updated and we are still waiting on the new generator to be fitted, hopefully in the next week or so.  One of my pressing jobs is communications - I want to be able to send back regular video updates to the website and to have the facility to have broadband internet access whilst at sea - simple to say but not so simple (or cheap) to organise.  Without a title sponsor, it's small things like this which make the difference between just another Atlantic trip, and capuring and sharing a truly amazing voyage with footage that will be disseminated quickly and widely via the web.  Anyone fancy sponsoring the Comms?  Anyway, we have 6 weeks before the boat leaves for the Canaries so time is running out fast.

Two quick pieces of news I want to share with you.  On Monday morning just past, my dear friend Sarah Outen completed her single-handed row across the Indian Ocean - I'm hoping you already know this through all the press coverage she received.  Over 124 days at sea, Sarah landed on Mautitius - how amazing is that?  Sarah was one of my crew when I sailed around Britain 2 years ago - she's such an amazing girl. Visit www.sarahouten.co.uk for more details.

And last, but not least, you may know but I am a patron of the Rose Road Association, a school and respite centre for kids with profound learning disabilities.  It's a role that I take very seriously and I am only too pleased to do what I can to help.  If you live in the Hampshire area, I'm hoping that you might be able to help them too. On Sunday 4th October, they are organising a charity walk around Lymington and Keyhaven nature reserve. For full details, CLICK HERE. The walk is only a few miles and it costs £10 per adult so please consider giving a bit of your time for them.  If you can't make it, then please visit their site and see the wonderful work they do.

Right, I'm off now to catch up on emails and my "jobs list" which is now 5x longer than it was this time last week.

PS: Click on the HOME PAGE www.geoffholt.com for latest pictures of boat.

Thursday 30th July 2009.

Remember that "calm before the storm" I talked about last week? Well, it looks as though that period is fast coming to a close.

I took a call yesterday from the guys at Multimarine who are working on the boat and the Raymarine electronics installers who have been working flat out this week, to say that Impossible Dream will be handed over to the owner at mid-day tomorrow, Friday 31st July. To maximise the time we will have on the boat, we are driving to Plymouth tomorrow at 0600 to sail to the Solent - we leave Plymouth about noon and, weather permitting should be mooring her up on the Beaulieu River about mid day on Saturday. This will be my first time on ID since the refit and my first over-night sail on her so I shall be able to test out the new saloon berthing arrangements.  It will also be the first time Susana has seen the boat, let alone sailed on her, so there's a lot of excitement and trepidation in the air.  We have a delivery crew of 6 bringing her back and the forecast is for light to moderate S to SW winds so it should be an enjoyable shake-down voyage.  Come to think of it, it will be the first time I have sailed a yacht through the night for 25 years so all sorts of memories will come flooding back I'm sure.  I'll make sure I take my new Henri Lloyd kit to keep out the chill and mustn't forget my Bovril.

We haven't fitted any internet Comms yet so I will try and update my Blog using my 3G Dongle but don't be disappointed if it is Monday before I upload an update. I will however be doing regular Tweets so make sure you follow my Twitter page (bottom LHS of this page)

Susana is currently on the Isle of Wight, at the UK Sailing Academy to be more precise, undergoing her Sea Survival training today.  I got a text at lunchtime which read "About to get into pool. Eek!" to which I replied (as an experienced water "bobber"), "just remember to hold your breath".  Whether she returns tonight or not will determine whether she took my advice.  Sea Survival is just one of the courses Susana will complete before we set off.  Others include VHF radio, Diesel Engine Maintenance, 5 day Competent Crew and a 6 day Ship's Doctor course.  Sadly the UKSA don't run a "how to gut and fillet a yellowfin Tuna" course or I'd have her on that too.

Another piece of great news this week, after a long search, we have found a film-maker / cameraman to join us on the trip.  His role will be to capture on film me navigating and sailing ID, and Susana's role as a carer. Not only will he be better placed to get decent film, but he will also be able to edit and send back video clips to my PR team in the UK.  Hopefully having such a great amount of footage with the possibility of it being made into a documentary, it may well encourage prospective sponsors to think positively towards the project.

It's Cowes Week next week so it is going to be even more busy which is no bad thing. We are going to take ID out several times into the Solent with potential sponsors and Press so, if you see us out there (you, can't miss us), give us a wave.

I will do my best to upload some pictures over the weekend.

On a technical note, please note that www.personalatlantic.com has been transfered to WWW.GEOFFHOLT.COM - you might like to reset your favourite bookmarks as the www.geoffholt.com website will now carry all the updates.

Now, where did I put my lifejacket and my teddy bear?