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

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 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. Whilst we are away we will be blogging as much as we can so if you all start to sign up now and get involved that will be great. You will also be able to track our progress through our home page once the race begins.

Thats Guy out…

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

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 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.

We’ve settled back into the UKSA in Cowes this week and got our Short Range Radio license out of the way yesterday. We had our first day in our ‘Nav 1′ Class today in order to break us in before starting our Ocean yacht-master Theory this coming Monday. The days are going to be long, a bit of a lie-in before breakfast at 0830 with lectures starting at 0900 and running through until 1700, we’re then doing an hour and a half on the ergo, with two brand new Concept 2 rowing machine which seems like have been solely purchased for us! Then its dinner and then back to the class room for revision & homework! Then it all starts over again…. so on that note its goodnight from me.

Thank you to everyone who came last Saturday to wish us a fond farewell. Although we are not officially off until March it was great to see all our friends and family showing their support for our row.  The total money raised on the evening was £6,000, which will go a long way to achieving our final target.

We will be in Cowes as of Monday for two weeks at the UKSA while we complete our Ocean Yachtmaster Course before spending two weeks back at HQ prior to departing for Australia.

The Leaving Party is just over a week away and if you haven’t got a ticket yet then there’s still time to get one! Everyone is welcome and please feel free to bring friends and family.

The venue is the exquisite 5 Star Grange City Hotel in the City of London just a stones throw away from Tower Hill Tube Station and over looks The Tower of London. Set in the magnificent Auditorium we will entertain guests with champagne and canapies on arrival, then an introduction from our title sponsor Mike Moss from MSS followed by a short film of Team MSS’s progress to date (put together by Petrol Media). We will then have an Auction with some fantastic prizes on offer. Finally we will make our thanks to everyone for their support and start the disco.

Time: Saturday 7th February 7pm - 11pm +

Tickets: £15 each

Venue: Grange City Hotel 8-14 Coopers Row, London, EC3N 2BQ

For more information & tickets please email us at info@indianoceanrace.com

We hope to see you all there!

It’s the early evening of Wednesday 14th January and once again I am hosted by the fabulous surroundings of the Captains Club Hotel down in Christchurch. As of today I have officially started my 7 month sabbatical with work and have wasted no time in making sure I use everyday productively. So straight down to see FF at Rossiter Yachts Boatyard and I will again send a big thanks to the hard work of Alex, Charlie and the rest of the staff, because of them FF is almost ready with the steering system the only outstanding item on the check list to complete, then we’ll be home and dry (well not quite and excuse the pun).

It’s quite reassuring knowing that the boat will be going out to Australia with only personal touches to add and minor adjustments to make, although more time on the sea would have been nice, but it seems that the saying of experienced ocean rowers bares some truth in that a successful project encorporates 3 vital ingredients: 

1. A well built & equiped boat, ”check”

2. Sufficient funding & sponsorship, “check”

3. Time on the Ocean ”hmmmm” 

Although we still believe that the first two will make up for the lack of the third and besides our sheer grit and determination will prevail and you can’t get more time on the Ocean than 3 months! As Vince Lombardi once said ‘ I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfilment of all he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.’