IOR 2009 Blog Archive

Guy, his brother Tom and two friends Chris Law and Mark Cawthorne will be running the Real Berlin Marathon in September to raise money for Orchid. Mark is a fitness instructor at the Everyone Active Fitness Suite in Worcestershire and on top of his training for this years marathon he has also set up a competition; to row the distance of the Indian Ocean on indoor rowing machines.  Through June, July and August gym members can make a donation to Orchid and on their own or in teams will attempt to cover the 6,000 km distance that Guy and I will have to endure next year. For the full story please click here. Also, Mark will be writing a regular blog on the lead up to the Berlin Marathon and on how the rowing competition is going, to read more please click here.

Monday & Tuesday of this week saw us complete our MCA qualifications in Sea Survival & First Aid at the United Kingdom Sailing Academy in Cowes.  The UKSA is recognised as the worlds leading sailing academy and has the reputation as the number one international maritime training organisation, which is why we are both extremely pleased to have them sponsoring all our necessary courses for next years race.  The lecturers and facilities are superb and some extremely useful learning's came out of the two days, hopefully most of which we will never have to use! We will back at the UKSA for two weeks in February to complete our Short Range Radio Licence, Nav 1 & Ocean Yachtmaster certifications.

The last two weeks have been spent in Cowes at the United Kingdom Sailing Academy to acquire our Ocean Yacht-master Theory certificates, the first of which being a pre-requisite for Ocean theory. Going into the course pretty much blind, we were advised to take our Nav 1 (Offshore Yacht-master Theory) first to give us a grounding of the Ocean Theory. It has been a hard slog and we managed to pass both thanks to the great tutors at the UKSA. Are thanks especially goes out to John Walsh who was extremely helpful, relating a lot of the theory to our Indian Ocean Challenge and advised on routing for the passage we will be taking. One last thanks goes to Kirsty, Gemma, Jodie, Tim & Ben for arranging our stay and putting up with us around the house for 10 days. Ben is planning to sail single handed around Britain before entering the Mini Transat in 2011, please take a look at his website, www.benrogersonracing.com.

On Tuesday morning we had a photo shoot at Visions Photography in Horley by Linda Sillence, who spent over an hour with us getting new photos for the website with us wearing our new Adidas eye-wear and various clothing. These will be added to the website over the next week. We were both quite nervous to start with, as neither of us are very natural in front of the camera. However, once Andrew had been snapped a few times he started to work the camera and was enjoying himself so much that at the end I couldn't get him to leave! No, only joking, it was good fun even with some of the cheesy shots we had taken! 

 Thanks again to Linda for her time and use of the studio, we would definitely recommend her to anyone who is looking to have a professional photo shoot, please click on the logo below to see the website.

The last two Wednesdays has seen us present our Indian Ocean challenge at the Business Builders Club. It started back in 2006 and has now become firmly established as a key networking event in the calender of local businesses. We are looking to get the support of local businesses for the race as we plan to build on already existing sponsors from the Sussex area. We have good links with local press and look to  utilise the opportunities for both us and anyone thinking of getting on-board.    Last week we talked at Pizza Express in Horsham to over 30 'networkers' and had great response, one being a donation from DAB Hands of Horsham & Worthing. We also talked in Crawley this week and again had some really good feedback. We would like to thank Tim Fifield & Greg Rhodes  from the business Builders Club for giving us this opportunity and everyone who attended for their support.

Photos courtesy of Andrea Sarlo

So with 33 days to go before the big race i'm feeling pretty anxious. Just want to get out to Australia and finish off the last few prep bits now.

Packing up the house today. Not long now until we depart for Australia. Weigh in today - 17 St 10lbs.  Bring on the king of fatty..   Guy out.

A little bit of a stressful day sorting out flights and other things to do with the race but at least we know when we're flying... Tuesday I think? Went for a walk today down to the river to get away from it all only to find it's the Head of the River Race tomorrow! Also saw the Cambridge Crew out training, looking pretty good ahead of next weeks boat race and I reckon they may just take the crown away from the dark blues this year. So enough of the rowing, it's my last weekend in the UK and it will be spent packing up the house and making sure the support team know what their supposed to be doing while we're away - oh what fun! Bring on Heathrow airport that's what I say. As guy would say, 'Andrew out'

So we have now got flights confirmed and will be heading to Australia tomorrow evening. Thanks for all the messages of support so far - it really helps. We were interviewed by Mercury, a local radio station two weeks ago. See our press page to hear the interview and click here to see info on their site. Keep signing up to the blog and get commenting...  Guy out Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, our chosen charity.

Both Andrew & Guy have now left the UK and are heading for Hong Kong. After a short stop they depart for Sydney !  Emotional day for all involved. Looking forward to a few comments on the blog from now on in. Tom out

We had a good flight out to Aus courtesy of our good friend Andy at Virgin via Hong Kong and arrived in good time. Jules & Simon picked us up at the airport who we are staying with in Mosman for a couple of days before heading on to Perth. Now off to get some breakfast and see the sights so will be back soon! Andrew

Well the flight from Sydney to Perth only took 4 hours so arrived early yesterday (Saturday) with Simon a friend of the Pascoe household whoi is kindly putting us up for the next few days. Thanks again to Simon & Jules back in Sydney for their kind hospitality and for showing us around we really did have a fantastic time there and only wished we could have stayed longer! Definaltey a place I want to come back too.... Sarah? It was also great to meet up with our school friend Emma at Bondi Beech on Friday, we did the coastal walk all the way to Coogee Bay which was amazing. It's always nice to see a familiar face when your so far from home!

Click here to donate money for the fight against the spread of male cancers and support Orchid, our chosen charity.

So we have been in WA for a few days now and are loving the way of life out here. Simon has been a great host kindly letting us use his Nissan Z sports car which means we have been able to get out and see some sights, go to the beach for some surfing and yesterday meet up with Sarah Outen.  For those that don't know Sarah is attempting to be the first women to row the Indian Ocean. Sarah departed 2 weeks ago from Freemantle but encountered some difficult weather conditions and a few technical issues which meant she had temporarily abort the crossing.  We managed to catch up with her on Tuesday and with the help of Lloyd, Gerard, Lina & the Royal Perth Yacht Club we were able to follow her this morning for a few hours as she made her way back out to the ocean. Team MSS wish her every success, a safe crossing and a beer in Mauritius!  

We arrived on Friday afternoon in Geraldton with 32 degrees of heat but where thankfully saved from walking anywhere with our kit by Peter Groom from Geraldton Yacht Club who has been very kind in letting us stay in the Yacht Club hall. The boat arrived safely the same day and all equipment & food have cleared customs! To keep updated on the other boats in the race and the various goings on here you can also check out the official Woodvale race website www.indianoceanrowingrace09.com   We have finally settled and have regular Internet access so we can now keep you all updated on a daily basis. Scrutinising on the boat starts tomorrow which means we'll find out how much work we'll have to do on the boat...or not. So, all the relaxing of the last week has finally come to an end and the hard work is about to begin! Andrew

Well the holiday is over and it's back to some serious work, we had the boat 'Scrutineered' today and in actual fact it wasn't to bad! It took just over four hours as we went through a thorough checklist of all equipment and the boat specs so that we  comply with Woodvale's strict race rules. These are mainly for our own safety and to make sure that we are prepared for a self sufficient crossing of the Ocean. We have been to the local chandlers to get the final bits and pieces that we needed and also had to call upon the local steel makers to rig us up some support plates for a couple of the boats fixings. However, there is no real major work to do and we reckon by the weekend we should be race ready. From then on it will just be minor tinkering and getting the boat in the water. We'll put some pictures up of the boat in the next couple of days and keep you updated. Still on the search for Haribo... Andrew

Great picture of the boats today, everyone working hard to finish off any last bits before the boats are put into the water on Monday/Tuesday. Flying Ferkins has had it's deck paint put on and we have managed to track down all the gear needed to pass Woodvales scrutineering, so not a bad day at all. 10 days to go!

As the final touches to the Flying Ferkins boat get put into place, the opportunity for friends and family to leave a small motivational message has come about. The message will get written inside the cabin using a "magic pen"! Please leave your message in the comments section below. This will mean alot to the boys so the more the merrier. Ground Control Out

Yes she is finally on the water! Craned in this morning and rowed round to our berth. Still a bit of finishing touches to be made but we will be ready for the race come Sunday.  More photos will be added to the photo gallery page shortly. For those of you tracking the race either through our website or the official Woodvale site there is also an additional tracking website for the support yacht.  Desiderata is skippered by Mark Terry of Rowtec and you can see where she is throughout the race at http://blog.mailasail.com/desi. They will be putting pictures and messages up of the boats they come across during the race. 

Well here we are, 2 years down the line and the date that has been stuck in our heads for so long is upon us.  We are just finishing off the last bits and pieces on land before bed, the boat is 99% ready and the weather forecast for the next couple of days is favourable. Thanks for everyone's kind words, they mean a great deal, they are actually written in the cabin to keep us trucking along thanks to Tina Watts! Keep up to date with our progress and keep the messages coming. The next time I update this it will be on the cusp of the Indian Ocean - that's pretty scary! Andrew

We woke to a brilliant day sun shine and no wind!  We said goodbye to our accommodation at Geraldton yacht club who have been a fantastic support.  After last minute tweeking of the steering and stowing away of supplies we headed off to the main beach where the race was to start.  Geraldton had done us proud and the beach was full of supporters.  Our family and friends were on board a boat to see us on our way courtesy of Peter Groom.......................we have cleared land and are currently 10 miles off shore.  We are about to experience our first night aboard Flying Ferkins....................watch this space for our next update.