Hi, its Guy’s brother Tom!  So they have left and over a day has been done on the Flying Ferkins.

There are a number of reasons why the updates will be short and possibly infrequent during these early days. The boys are going to be hardening to the trials of being at sea on an ocean rowing boat!  A steep learning curve as we can only imagine.  

They left Geraldton and followed a North West course. They will continue on this course for a while with the aim of taking a left hand turn at the reefs (Alborhos North Island). The weather wind conditions are typical for the area.  However, turning left is tough going!

I’ve taken the following off the Indian Ocean Rowing Race 2009 site progress section: “We apologise for the intermittent tracking updates, the data suppliers have confirmed there is a problem with the tracking system and are investigating.” I think this is for all the teams tracking.

Guy & Andrew’s support crew will be in regular contact with them.  Please, please, continue to leave your comments and thoughts on the blog. These will be relayed to the boys.

Tom out

Fellow bloggers, if you want to find out more about the ‘flying start’ then check out the official Woodvale Indian Ocean race website: www.indianoceanrowingrace09.com/news/ 

What happens next ?
For those that are wondering……(apart from lots of rowing!)

If you want to follow all race teams progress then follow this link:  www.indianoceanrowingrace09.com/progress/

If you just want to follow Flying Ferkins progress then stick with the boys homepage map.

How is it going to work ?
From now on a few dedicated bloggers will be keeping this site posted with Guy & Andrew’s progress. Comments really welcome, everything so far has been inspirational and has meant the world to the boys.

We will be keeping a watchful eye on the comments section.

We’ve heard that BBC Radio 1 covered the race in the news this morning ? Yeehaaa - keep the publicity flowing !

 Wishing the boys a safe first night on board….

Tom out

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.

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

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. 

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

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!

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

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

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!