15-21 Aug

One of the things we’ve planned for a long time is to have a really long practice session - about a week or so. We spent quite a while looking for a stretch of UK water that would do us for this - we wanted somewhere that would offer an idea of the Atlantic conditions, but also somewhere that would be reasonably safe when it all inevitably went a bit wrong. This is a remarkably difficult thing to find - bearing in mind that we can row at a top speed of about 3 knots, any decent wind or tide in the wrong direction can completely stuff us, and an intimate encounter with rocks or cliffs would not be a good thing. Add to this the fact that the Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world and you have a recipe for disaster.

So we decided to go for a week to the Mediterranean, which has negligible tides, no major shipping, and generally mild winds. We set ourselves the date of the August bank holiday week, and generally thought little about it - until this week when we realised we probably ought to get ourselves sorted for it!

Much of the week was therefore spent calling people up, getting the requisite bits and pieces for the trip and making general preparations. Amongst other things, we got hold of a satellite phone, which allows you to make a phone call anywhere in the world - much like a mobile but using an international system of satellites. This is a very cool bit of kit, but not at all cheap at 800 quid plus a pound a minute talktime. We also got a life raft - the race rules specify that we need a top-range four-man raft, containing a survival pack with rations to keep us going for a couple of weeks and some other bits of kit. No pocket scrabble though - don’t know what we’d spend our time doing if we got stranded!

This week was also when our main sponsor CHP became more involved in the race preparations. Ed Jones and Rebecca Welbourn are doing a great job of supporting me with the non-rowing side of things - producing a micro-site off the main CHP external website as a reference point during the race, liaising with our PR officer to get increased press coverage, and sorting out a myriad of other bits and pieces. I have to thank these guys for their input - with the amount of stuff I have to do, it’s nice not to feel alone. Also worthy of mention are Anna McCreadie, doubling up as a brilliant PR officer and general sounding board for all kinds of ideas, and Kate MacGregor, my long-suffering and amazingly supportive girlfriend - thanks guys.

The end of the week brought a wonderful respite from rowing - a couple of my good friends got married, so I had a whole weekend off. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, and it will probably the last one until Feb, so I really made the most of it. Whilst I am well up for this race, and I’m prepared to make the sacrifices, there is certainly a piece of me that looks forward to the day when I can rejoin the rest of the human race!