Annie’s First Blog!
Well the timer on our website is counting down towards race start at quite an alarming rate I have to say, and my little brain is struggling to keep up! We’ve still got over a week before we actually fly out to La Gomera but suddenly there are all sorts of ridiculous things to sort out…
My beautiful Landrover and I, took a trip ‘up North’ to Shropshire last week to pick up our medical kit from Shropdoc, where I used to work in Shrewsbury. It’s huge and I have no idea what half of the stuff does! Can anyone tell me what Clarithromycin is, or what you do with a Glycerine suppository?? God I really hope we don’t have to use any of this stuff – especially the ‘skin stapler’!
A couple of days later, Mel and I took another trip ‘down South’ to Saltash, near Plymouth, where Woodvale are based. We saw our boat for the very first time ever! She’s painted red, in the colours of Explore, our sponsors… but that’s about the only positive thing I can say about her…. Where were the oars? Where’s the water maker? Where’s the auto pilot? Considering that she’s being towed over-land to La Gomera in less than a week… those boys at Woodvale have got a lot of work to do that’s for sure. They’d best pull their fingers out, else they’re going to encounter two very unhappy bunnies indeed.
We did, however, take the opportunity to get some branding put on the boat. Carnival Graphics in Bristol kindly printed up loads of vinyl stickers for us… so we got sticking! (Whilst we were busy sticking, we were listening to the guys in the Woodvale workshop talking about the best bars to hang out in whilst in La Gomera – apparently The Blue Marlin is where it’s all happening!)
With Explore’s logo slapped across the majority of our boat, I have to confess she looks gorgeous! Even Simon (Boss Man at Woodvale) said she was one of this year’s best looking boats! (I only hope we can do her justice).
We’ve loaded “Explore” up with 90 days worth of freeze dried food (worst case scenario) and sent her on her way to La Gomera. Next time we see her, she’ll be on the water and we’ll have to start some rigorous sea trials on both her and us. I wonder who’ll come out on top?
Annie
If you would like to find out the full story behing Annie & Mel’s epic rowing adventure across the Atlantic, and why we are involved with them, you can find out more here.
Tags: atlantic world first, Woodvale
