The last few days have been really exciting with all that has been happening which is great. It has been a quiet month or so which was really frustrating, but now I hope things are moving forward and will continue to do so!

Firstly, I picked up the boat I am going to use for the race yesterday. Formerly ‘Roberto Coin’ of the 2009 Woodvale Atlantic race, she completed her inaugural crossing in that race in 67 days, rowed as a pair by Charlie Marlow and Matthew Mackaness. The guys came 4^th in the pairs class and considering the conditions, 67 days is a fantastic time. Much more information can be found on the website and I have put up so photos on the gallery. I can’t wait to get her out on the water and start training and will get some more photos up once that has happened. When we picked her up from Suffolk she was a lot bigger than I remember her, probably not a bad thing considering what it is I am rowing in her!

Secondly, the hard copies sponsorship brochure arrived on Friday and it looks absolutely fantastic! I have uploaded the final copy onto the website so please take a look and let me know if you want me to send you one in the post. Alex did a fantastic job on them, both in terms of the photos and the design of it all so it’s great to see them now printed and ready to send out. I was very fortunate to have the cost of the brochures paid for and I think they add so much to the project so thank you once again to Johnny Nadler at Art and Tonic.

The last few weeks I have spent looking for a venue for the fundraiser I am going to be hosting at the beginning of October. This will be a dinner and auction in London and already it is shaping up to be a fantastic evening. I will confirm later in the week the date and venue but I hope to see all of you there for party time!

I am also currently organising my big charity challenge (apart from the row!!). I am planning on doing a non-stop 24 hour row at a location in London toward the end of August. Again I am just waiting to confirm the location, but I will be requiring people to join me for an hour at a time throughout the 24 hours! So next time you are in the gym, get yourself on the rowing machine and get practicing. Joining my challenge will really help to raise a lot of money and exposure for the charity and all the good work that they do. I will send out application forms once it is organised for you to sign up for a slot, make sure you get in on the 2-7 am slots early as they will be going fast!

So we continue on moving towards race day which is now 166 days away. I know that time is going to go incredibly quickly so it feels great to have the boat and now it’s down to converting all the interest into sponsorship to make sure I am at the start ready to go.

Again I apologise for the lack of updates recently and I will endeavour to update on a much more regular basis!

That’s all for now, folks.