We have bought our boat! It was surveyed last week and the report said that it was in sound structural condition. It needs some repairs; the towing eye needs replacing, the pintles need fixing, etc and some kit needs to be bought or replaced but generally it is as we hoped. We have taken it to Saltash where the race organisers are based, who are making the repairs for us. This should take no longer than a couple of weeks; we’ll then thoroughly clean and polish it, after which it’ll be ready to use. So by mid-August at the very latest we’ll be out on the water training. This should allow us a minimum of 2 months to learn everything about it, before it is shipped out to La Gomera, some time in October. There are pictures of the boat in the Gallery section – quite a contrast to the one that we were using for PR!

We have had our first session with our sports psychologist, Amanda Owens. We discussed how to help and react to one another in pressured and stressful situations and have been given homework – firstly to write a risk assessment; so all the difficult and dangerous scenarios listed with ways and means to deal with each one written next to it. In a capsize, flood or similiar difficult situation, we need to be able to react instantly, calmly and effectively. By preparing thoroughly like this, learning the correct procedure for every situation, we should reduce our impluses to panic, be able to react approriately and ultimately increase our chances of success. The second, is to complete a 24hr non-stop row, on the rowing machine, 2 hrs on, 2 hrs off; the same pattern that we will use for the crossing. This will give us a better idea of how we deal with sleep deprivation and prolonged exercise, so that we can best prepare to cope with these obstacles that we will constantly face.

We recently had the extremely exciting news that Heritage Oil have chosen to be a Gold sponsor. This has given the project a huge boost and given us faith that some companies are willing to support a project such as this during the recession.

A big thank you to everyone who has helped and given us support so far.