In two days time we should hopefully be on our way to Lanzarote to join Impossible Dream, just the small job of packing to get out of the way first, a few IT issues to resolve and some paperwork to clear up and then we're off.  Most of the heavy items were stowed on ID before she left, including the essential Christmas decorations, so it should (should..!!!), just be a matter of packing some warm-weather clothes, some suntan lotion and my copy of "Sailing the Atlantic for Dummies" - a great book, lots of pictures, it comes with a free compass and everything.

Dawn, Elaine, Susana, Alan, me, Tim

A huge thank you to everyone who braved the attrocious weather last night to come to our farewell bash at the King & Queen in Hamble.  I lost count at 50 people, but it was great to see so many friends and family there, I'm only sorry I didn't get a chance to speak to you all.  I won't mention everyone, but I would just say a big thanks to Dawn & Alan who drove down from Wales - if you've read the book, you'll know that I first met Alan & Dawn on my sail around GB a couple of years ago.  For those who don't know of the K&Q, it's a pub in Hamble - I've been going there since 1982 (I was not 18 until 1984 - you do the maths). It's been the location for just about every start / finish of every major yachting event in the UK, so it was a fitting, if not exactly the biggest of venues. Thanks too for all of the kind and generous emails, texts and "good-luck" cards from people who couldn't make it, they mean a lot so many thanks.

Our farewell card from everyone 

I'd like to quickly thank the Royal Yachting Association.  On Thursday this week, I was awarded the RYA's Francis Elkin Award at their annual awards ceremony in London. The award "recognises an individual who has made a significant contribution, in time, effort and personal endeavour in enabling people with disabilities to become involved in sailing".  It was a real honour to receive the award and very humbling too.  Francis Elkin was an ex-Chairman of the RYA and he was also a Trustee of RYA Sailability during my time as Chairman, sadly he died a few years ago and the award was created in his memory.  For a video of the ceremony, CLICK HERE.

The RYA Awards were presented at No.1, Great George Street in London which is the HQ of the Royal Institute of Chartered Engineers.  It should have come as no surprise then that the HQ of Engineering should have designed what I believe to be the most amazing wheelchair lift I have ever seen - and I've seen a lot of them in the past 25 years.  Take a look at this video. I'm afraid you will have to turn your head 90 degrees (blame Elaine) but do watch it to the end to see what happens to the steps.  CLICK HERE

I'll sign off now. Next Blog from Lanzarote this coming week and they will be increasing in frequency too, hopefully two or three a week as the departure day draws closer.

Monday 9th November

Only 2 weeks until we fly out to Lanzarote to join ID. Most of the "to do" list has been done and we got confirmation of the satellite communications 3 days ago which is wonderful news. All we have to do now is get the kit out to Lanzarote, get it fitted and learn how to use it - it will enable us to have access to the internet and to send back video for onward broadcast on TV so you might just see film of us mid-Atlantic on your televisions over Christmas. My thanks to STRATOS for the loan of the kit.

Today we are off to the Raymarine offices for refresher training on the C140 which is the chartplotter / radar system on the boat.  It's like a Sat Nav in your car except it uses sea charts instead of road maps.  The radar lets you see where you are and, more importantly where everyone esle is at night and if there is fog.  It also has something called AIS which will show every other boat fitted with AIS in the vicinity, their course and speed. So it's like a Sat Nav in your car where you can see all the other cars, only much fewer and, hopefully, at a much slower pace.  In particular, I need to learn about the alarms, so I can set them for when I sleep to notify me of other shipping in the vicinity.

I want to quickly mention last Wednesday, 4th November. My friend Nick lawson invited Susana and me to the unveiling of a statue of Sir Keith Park in Trafalgar Square.  Park was instrumental in the winning of the Battle of Britain in WW2.  He was a New Zealander and was in charge of the RAF squadrons who fought in the skies over England.  It was quite an emotional day to see so many surviving pilots from WW2, both men and women, with their racks of medals. The ceremony finished with a film which ended by listing some 30,000 men who lost their lives in the Battle of Britain.  Afterwards we all, some 1,500 of us, went back to a reception at the IoD on The Mall. Very humbling to be in such great company and, of the surviving 65 BoB Spitfire pilots, there were 20 or more present on the day.  CLICK HERE for more details.

I look at this photo to remind me of good people. Dawn, Sarah, Spike, Juliet and Alan

Can I end by sending my thoughts to a young lady called Juliet.  If you've read my book, you'll know that Juliet has chronic arthritis and uses a wheelchair but, having followed my sail around GB two years ao, decided to take up sailing and, within months was winning races.  I often cite Juliet as one of the sources of my inspiration, she's a wonderful lady. Unbelievably, she was mugged in her wheelchair some months ago by a 17 year old heroine addict who stole her money. The mugger was caught but, last week, the judge sentenced her to a 9 months suspended sentence which basically means popping in to see a Social Worker twice a week for the next 9 months.  At what point in time did we go from those heroic men and women (some as young as 17) giving their lives for our freedom that I mentioned above, to these detestable people who mug disabled people.  Some times I'm proud to be British, other times not so.

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.