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Atlantic Rowing Race: Blog 2

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Annie’s blog 2

I’m sorry that it’s me blogging again, but Mel is at home celebrating an early Christmas with her folks in Henley tonight. I celebrated with my parents last weekend, but sadly, weight restrictions on the boat won’t allow for much in the way of pressies or Champagne. Baa Humbug.

We’re literally leaving England on Friday so as I write this, we only have one more day to say goodbye to people. Personally I have different emotions on this subject depending upon what hour of the day it is… Sometimes I think: “I’m going to be away for 3 months tops, what’s all the fuss about?” But then other times, someone says something really unhelpful like: “You might die – I might never see you again!” – and I must admit, that hearing someone say that, does bring home the enormity of the task Mel and I are about to undertake. I think at the end of the day, we’re both mentally prepared (if not physically!) and it’s now just a case of getting on with it. (But hey, what do I know? I’ve never rowed an ocean before!)

Annie and Mel

Annie (right) and her rowing partner Mel during preparations

So. With only a day to go, what’s been happening? Well, the lovely Paul from Explore came down yesterday to pick up my WaterRower (torture exercise machine) (I was so gutted to see the back of that I can tell you!). Apparently, the staff at Explore are going to row 3000 miles across their office whilst Mel and I row 3000 miles across the Atlantic! (Ha! Can’t see it happening myself!). He also gave us lots of new kit to wear. Annoyingly, the shorts don’t fit me. I guess I did far too good a job of bulking up! Never mind – they’ll be falling off me once we get to Antigua…

Special rowing top

Special kit for the girls – all logo’d up!

This might well be the last blog before we actually leave for La Gomera, so I just want to take the opportunity to thank all those people who have put their faith in us -  I won’t name names because there are far too many to mention, but you know who you are… some are special to Mel, some special to me, and some special to both of us. It’s a cliché I know, but we couldn’t do this without you.

Excuse me… I may cry now…. X

Annie

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Atlantic Rowing Race: Blog 1

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

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.

Annie & Mel's boat

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!)

Explore branded boat

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.

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