I'm delighted to tell you about a wonderful initiative that I'm supporting called Speaking up for Heroes. My friend and supporter, the wonderful, record-breaking yachtswoman Dee Caffari is one of the keynote speakers so it's worth going to hear Dee speak, if nothing else.  It's a great cause and it's going to be a great night. Do please come along if you can.

Speaking Up For Heroes

Dee Caffari will be joining forces with BBC’s John Simpson, TV presenter adventurer and former Royal Marine Monty Halls, bestselling author and ex-SAS soldier Andy McNab and polar explorer Ben Saunders on 16 July when they will be ‘Speaking up for Heroes’ at the Royal Institute, London.

On the evening, these experienced speakers will share stories and draw on personal experience in a series of talks about courage, achievement and overcoming impossible odds to celebrate heroism and raise money for Help for Heroes, the charity formed to help those who have been wounded in Britain’s current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.  ‘Speaking Up for Heroes’ promises to be a memorable, entertaining and thought-provoking evening. 

It is sure to be a real night to remember, so for more information about this fantastic event or to buy tickets please click here

Venue:         Faraday Theatre, Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albermarle Street, London, W1S 4BS.

Nearest tube:  Green Park

Date:           Thursday 16 July

Time:           1800 – 2200hrs

Buy tickets:   click here

Thank you for your support

Saturday 27th June 2009

After a long wait, I'm delighted to announce the arrival of Susana, my crew member for the Atlantic crossing.  I have updated The Crew link in the top menu bar with full details.  CLICK HERE.

Susana and I visited Hyde Sails at their sail loft in Curbridge yesterday.  Hyde have kindly cleaned Impossible Dream's 3 sails and are making some repairs and strengthening some areas of the cloth so there is no chance of failure on the voyage.  Our first impression was how enormous they look laid flat on the floor. Thanks very much to Gareth at Hyde.

Fischer Panda, makers of ID's generator visited ID in Plymouth this week to inspect the generator. Having a reliable power source will be incredibly important on the voyage as we need to power the autopilot and the many hydraulic devices on the yacht. Thanks to Fischer Panda for their help and support. The generator is due to undergo a full service and overhaul back in their workshop. One thing is for sure, neither FP or we can afford anything other than 100% reliability. Thanks to Barry and Chris at FP.

I feel a bit tired today as I was on the 10.00pm to midnight shift at the Young Carers Festival at the YMCA in Fairthorne Manor yesterday CLICK HERE.  My Rotary Club, Hamble Valley RC, act as volunteers in the canteen and I went for the late shift, unknowingly the busiest shift of the day.  We made about 200 burgers and hot dogs in 2 hours - I wasn't much help opening the bags of burger baps and hot dog rolls but we had a fun time.  There are in excess of 1500 young kids there, all carers for their parents.  Organised by the Children's Society, it is an annual event to give the youngsters a fun weekend away from caring.  As someone who needs full time care myself, it is moving indeed to see just how many, and how young these kids are. It also raises all sorts of questions about how, in a civilised society, we allow children so young to do a job that could/should be provided by the state. Wish me luck, I am back again tonight for the 8.00pm to 10.00 shift.  What a great event and a privilege to be involved with. Without exception, the kids were so polite and good humoured.

Comment of the week goes to my sons 7 year old friend Charlie.  He came home to tea with Tim on Wednesday. Whilst eating their sausages and mash, Timothy announced they had a supply teacher who "had the most enormous boobies" and revealed that "Charlie couldn't stop looking at them".  To which Charlie added, very matter of factly, "I didn't get any work done all day".  Boys heh?  We never change.

It's 10.30, Saturday morning, the day of the JP Morgan Round the Island Race - the first boats started at 7.30am this morning - a total of 1779 boats competing.  I was on the Island last night as a guest of JPM and there was a great atmosphere.  I got the last ferry back at 00.15 this morning and there were still hundreds of crew members partying hard - I bet there were a few sore heads this morning.  Sadly I couldn't do the race this year but I am going back this evening as I've been asked to give a talk at the prize-giving dinner.

So, what’s new? Well, it’s been a busy week (again).  Last week I was delighted to be asked to give my support to a new Sailability group, but this time, on my home patch..!!  It’s remarkable to think that, despite there being more than 150 Sailability groups around the UK, despite the charity RYA Sailability and the RYA being based near Southampton and, despite the Solent being home to some of the best and most famous sailing waters in the World, it seems crazy that there has never been a Sailability group in Southampton – the nearest has been Langstone (near Portsmouth) in the East and Ringwood (New Forest) in the West.  Well, that has now been remedied with my Rotary Club, HambleValley, presenting two special Access dinghies to the local authority run, Southampton Water Activity Centre on the River Itchen where they have decided to set up and manage their own disabled sailing programme.  It’s pleasing for me on a personal level too – it’s the very first place that I sailed again, some 7 years after my accident.

Talking of my accident, if you have read my book, you’ll remember three characters I shared a hospital ward with 25 years ago, Dave Howard and Tim Clare.  Well, we still keep in touch and see each other, usually at the rugby at Twickenham.  It was Dave’s 50^th on Thursday so he had his party at Ascot which was quite an experience.  It was Ladies Day and the Queen and Princess Royal were there looking very smart – which is more than I can say for some of the other, so-called “ladies”.  Blimey, lots of sights and plenty of sore eyes – the “fashion police” would have made hundreds of arrests.  Elaine had to put my eyeballs back into their sockets and roll my tongue back into my mouth on several occasions – I’ve booked my tickets for next year…!!  I will confess to a flutter but my reckless selection process for placing a bet, mixed with Elaine’s cautious approach, meant we left Ascot £2.50 richer – though Elaine will tell you it would have been £55 richer were it not for my reckless 100-1 punts.

We left Ascot headed straight for London, specifically the magnificent Apothecaries Hall in the City.  I was guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Guild of Fuellers, my friend and ex-Round Table Chairman, Mike Husband, now being the Grand Master of the Fuellers – does that make him the Grand Master Flash??  A great night and a great honour to speak to such an illustrious group in such a prestigious venue.  I was justifiably shattered by the time I parked the car on our drive at 02.00 am.

Well, the sails are now off Impossible Dream and are back in Hampshire with Hyde Sails who are giving them the once-over and we are now only waiting on the electronics to be fitted before ID makes her way back to the Solent.

Right, I need to crack on – I’ve got my speech to write for tonight.

No pictures I'm afraid but I wanted to give a quick update on Impossible Dream. Apologies for the technical stuff, but there will be those who like to know these things.

The owner of ID and myself set off at 0600 last Thursday morning in my van to Plymouth.  By the time we arrived at Mayflower Marina at 0930, some of the guys from Multimarine were already on board getting on with various maintenance jobs. Having only ever seen ID in Malta 6 months ago from a stern-to mooring perspective in the marina, it seemed strange seeing her side-to the pontoon in Plymouth and I was able to rub my hands along her hulls.  First impressions were "enormous".  Her hulls are more than 2 metres high and her 60ft length made her look more like a football pitch than a yacht.  "Awesome" with a capital "O" as my Kiwi crew tells me (apparently it's an "in-joke" in NZ).

Another first for me was going aboard ID in my electric wheelchair. When I flew out to Malta, I had take my lightweight, push along wheelchair which I only ever use when flying.  But as I will be using my heavier, bulker, electric wheelchair for the Atlantic crossing, it was important to see exactly how we would get it aboard.  Luckily, ID was designed with 2 stern hydraulic lifts, one on the port stern quarter, the other on starboard.  Although it was a tight fit, we managed it without any difficulties - phew..!!  Another worry crossed off the list.

I spoke with one of the boat builders on board and discussed the 2 most immediate jobs; converting the saloon table into a bunk so I can sleep in the saloon which is alongside the Nav Station (that way I am on-hand with the controls immediately if there are any difficulties whilst at sea). And secondly we are removing the sliding Captain's seats which slide in an arc on tracks around the Nav station.  Ideal for a paraplegic who can transfer into them, but an obstacle for me in my wheelchair.

One of Hyde Sails' top guys was on the boat by 1100 and we talked through our various options on the 3 sails; the genoa (the big front sail), the staysail (smaller, inner sail) and the big mainsail. All are a few years old and somewhat weathered and suffering from UV damage. It was agreed they will be taken off the boat and they come back to Hyde's sail loft in Southampton this Wednesday for an inspection and some maintenance.  A big thanks to Hyde. Followers of my previous voyage around GB could not fail to miss ther huge "H" on my mainsail.

As Hyde left an hour later, so a senior engineer from Raymarine arrived to assess the electronics.

I regard there being 4 main cornerstones to the success of this project;

1. Having the boat itself which is designed for sailing by a disabled person in a wheelchair
2. My ability to sail the vessel
3. The power management of the boat
4. Having the latest electronic technology to enable me to navigate across the Atlantic

There are obviously other requirements, but these 4 underpin the entire project. So it was with much excitement and gratitude to learn that Raymarine, the world leading marine electronics company, have agreed to completely replace all of the navigational electronics on ID with the most up to date suite of electronics. This comprehensive set will include radar, GPS, auto-pilot, weather instrumentation and remote control systems.

This entire Atlantic project is not only intended to demonstrate through example, the abilities of disabled people and inspire others to take up sailing, but it is also an opportunity to showcase state of the art technology; from the design of the boat itself, to the systems which operate it, and the systems which allow me to sail the boat independently. Having the latest Raymarine kit has well and truly knocked item 4 on the head so their engineer spent a long time talking through the various options available.

Of the 4 main cornerstones, all we need to satisfy ourselves on now is item 3, power management.  It looks as though we may need to replace the existing generator and we are looking at acquiring an additional, completely independent, power source, in case of power failure.

And so, at 1530 hrs, and very tired, having had our meetings, I drove home again, satisfied we had completed a good days work.

A final word to say the With Sails+I gig in London last night was great fun. It was Phil Jupitas' first stand-up gig in 7 years and his imperonation of Eddie Izzard was inspired.

First of all, I'm delighted to say that Impossible Dream is back in the UK.  Owner Mike and his delivery crew sailed ID into Plymouth early Monday morning. Now begins a month of hard graft making modifications, servicing her many and varied components and updating her electronics.  All being well, she should be in the Solent by early July in time for a few months training in the build-up to the grand launch of the Atlantic Challenge at the Southampton Boat Show in September.  I'm going down to see ID tomorrow so I'll get some updated pictures.  A big "thank you" to all of those delivery crew who helped bring her back safely.

Well, what a wonderful week of sunshine, which made for a fantastic 3 day Old Gaffers Festival in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight.  I had the very great honour of opening the OGF last Friday.  I would guess there were 10,000 or more visitors and it was quite something being applauded as I made my way through the streets, led by a marching band, to the platform where I did the "honours" and released hundreds of helium balloons (all bio-degradable).  The local BBC did a great piece on the Friday evening TV but I can't find it online.  I did however find this write-up, CLICK HERE for more info [Be sure to scroll down to the pictures at the bottom of the link]. Thanks to the organisers for asking me and thanks too for all the support from everyone I spoke to during the weekend.

Many of my followers will know that Peter Harrison (in my view, it should be Sir Peter Harrison), has been a very good friend to me.  If you have read my book (pp39-42), you would know the story of how Peter and I first met and how he has so generously donated more than £30 million (yes, thirty million) to disability sport programmes in the UK in the past few years.  Well, Peter's charitable trust, the Peter Harrison Foundation, has just launched a new video and I was flattered to see that he cited myself as being the reason behind his choice of philanthropy. If you want to see the video, CLICK HERE. If you too feel that it's an outrage that Peter has not been given any recognition by his country for the good work he has done, then write to the Honours Committe CLICK HERE.  The irony is, had he given Tony Blair £100,000 10 years ago, he would already have one. I challenge anyone not to watch the video, to see the incredible work he has done and not feel the same sense of injustice that he has not been honoured. It really is quite appalling.

OK, I'm off my soap-box now.  Talking of "boxes", I had a Google News Alert email for "Geoff Holt" pop into my in-box a few days ago.  When I opened it, I see that BBC correspondent Frank Gardner, himself a paraplegic, very kindly made reference to me and my book in an interview he did with The Independent. CLICK HERE for more details. Cheers Frank.

A couple of years ago, I was fortunate to meet a young University student called Alastair Callender who was studying Marine Architecture and Yacht Design. Well, Ali has now graduated and amongst his radical designs, including a hydrofoil to be sailed by me single-handed (now you know where I get my ideas from), Ali has just designed the world's first "green" superyacht. CLICK HERE for more info - no doubt we'll be hearing more from Ali in years to come.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll leave you with 3 final requests;

1  If you have not done so already, please register using the box on the right hand side of the screen. It is free and all we ask is your email address and user name - you can make up a name but please use your real email address so you continue to get my blog updates

2  If you have a TWITTER account, why not follow me on TWITTER and get my regular TWEETS (this will really become essential during the voyage itself when I will be TWEETING my every move) CLICK HERE

3  A final call for your attendance at the comedy show this coming Sunday (read previous BLOG). I shall be there as too will comedian Phil Jupitus so do come along, it should be a great night.

If you are in London or nearby this Sunday, do come along for a great evening. These are the guys I told you about in my Blog recently. I'll be there too.

Or CLICK HERE for more details

And another week passes by at lightening speed.  Impossible Dream set sail from La Coruna in NW Spain last night and could be arriving in Plymouth as early as this Sunday depending on the weather which is terrific news. Then at last we can crack on with the essential jobs before bringing her back to the Solent.

On Monday we drove to Lowestoft from Southampton.  I had last visited Lowestoft in August 2007 as one of our ports-of-call around GB. It seemed very strange returning by land and I did not immediately recognise the car park of the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk YC where I had stopped for one night. Outside the club, it was like a different world. About a mile of promenade, sandy beaches, fish and chip shops, none of which I had seen on my brief visit. Of all the buildings I did recall, it was our hotel, a large Victorian brick building on the cliff which I recall seeing as I left early that morning in 2007 and sailed south to Felixstowe Ferry.

We had returned to Lowestoft as guests of Waveney Sailability, for info CLICK HERE.  A small group had visited me that night back in 2007 to wish me well. Now they had asked me back to open their new boat house. So on Tuesday, in pouring rain, we went to their club on Oulton Broad and with over 100 guests, I had the great pleasure of declaring their new boat house open. And as I stopped talking, so the rain stopped and the sun came out - typical.

I'm off to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight first thing in the morning for another official duty, this time I have the honour of opening the Old Gaffers Festival which should be a great day and even the weather is looking promising - I'll get some piccies and upload them in my next Blog.  For more details CLICK HERE.

I'll finish by showing off my fishing prowess. Last Sunday I smashed my all-time fishing record, with a haul of 26 Sea Bass, 15 mackerel, a Black bream and a Garfish for good measure, all caught by me and my friends Andy & Paul in the Solent.  At last, I seem to have broken my duck.  I can assure you that the sea bass and mackerel tasted delicious and there's plenty in the freezer.

Fellow quadriplegic sailor Hilary Lister has commenced her attempt to sail around Great Britain. Hilary and her team had to make a really tough decision and call off her attempt last year due to bad weather and a few kit problems, but she set off again from Plymouth on Wednesday this week and, as of this morning, is already in Newlyn - almost exactly 2 years to the day since we were there on our very same voyage. Hilary is sailing a different type of boat to me as she has different requirements to me but it will be interesting to see how the two boats, the two routes, the two crews and the two sailors compare.  I guess I'm in a fairly unique position to understand exactly how tough, both physically and mentally, this voyage will be for Hilary but she's a strong-willed lady and will no doubt succeed.  When she does, no doubt there will be some debate in the bar about "who did it fastest". If you get to meet her en-route, don't for heaven's sake call her brave or courageous - like me, she finds such attributions misplaced and inappropriate.

So, last week, I told you I was on my way to the House of Commons to give a talk for the Jubilee Sailing Trust.  It was a great evening and they raised more than £20,000 for a great cause.  I had the pleasure of sitting next to the former England no.8 Dean Richards and the not-so-pleasurable honour of sitting opposite to Sir Peter Viggers MP who looked decidedly nervous throughout the evening.  With subsequent revelations about his ornamental duck house costing the taxpayers more than £1500, it's no wonder he was so uncomfortable - if only I had known, my speach would have been 10x funnier, that info would have been an absolute gift.

I visited Farmoor in Oxford last Saturday for the Challenger Class Association national championships but the weather was appalling and the wind blew constantly above 20kts, often reaching up to 30kts.  They managed a race but many competitors made the brave decision to either not start or to retire.  On the positive side, I got to see many of my old sailing buddies and all 3 of my former Challenger dinghies; Douglas Hurndall (the first boat I ever sat in and sailed as a disabled person in 1991), Billy (the boat I sailed twice around the IOW in 1992 and 1997) and of course, the wonderful Freethinker.  They are like old friends although managing to keep their looks unlike those sailing buddies - only joking Val and Judi.

On Thursday this week I met up with 2 comedians, John "Hoppo" Hopkins and Richard Glover for a day out filming in my boat. It's a long story, too long for me to write up in full here, but briefly, these 2 guys have no boat, no money and they have never sailed before. They have booked a venue at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in September this year and intend to sail from Glasgow, over the top of Scotland to Edinburgh in time for the festival - and they are making a documentary of their journey. For full details, CLICK HERE. Yesterday was a hoot with an unhealthy amount of naked bodies cavorting on my boat at 25knots in Southampton Water - goodness knows what the passengers on the Red Jet ferry thought as we "flashed" past. Seriously though, if you can help the guys find/borrow/steal a yacht (ideally a Contessa 32) for a few weeks in the summer, contact me and I'll pass on the info.

Having a beer with Hoppo and Rich

Impossible Dream left Lisbon this morning and the latest ETA in Plymouth will be in a week's time where she will undergo some work to make her more suitable for me.  These modifications include lowering the saloon table so it becomes my bunk, that way I will sleep right next to the nav station so I am there in the event of an emergency without the need to come up from below decks.  We are also moving the existing helmsmans seats so I have completely free access in my wheelchair to all of the nav station.

I have a new TWITTER page which you might be interested in. I'm uncertain as to its true benefit but do sign up and let me know what you think.

What a strange week it has been in politics. So it is with some amusement that I find myself as guest speaker for the Jubilee Sailing Trust at the House of Commons this evening. I thought I would take a copy of my Trans Atlantic budget and see if any MP’s might like to put it through on their expenses. After all, it only equates to 8 moat-cleanings or 22 swimming-pool servicings. And they could have their name splashed all over the boat, far bigger than anything the Daily Telegraph can offer. Joking aside, it should be a great evening in aid of a very worth cause, and I get to share the stage with the all-time best no.8 rugby union player, Dean Richards. CLICK HERE for more info on the JST.