Six weeks of land based training to do before Gran Canaria training camp, and I am officially two thirds of the way there. Making great progress and hitting all the targets, which is always good! The gym in Weymouth has become my second home. I practically live in it. But it’s all ok when you get the reward of leaving the gym to a sunset like this…
It’s not all been gym work though (I’m not going to lie, it’s been mostly gym work…) There have been a couple of brief interludes in the shape of loading the container for Rio…
Fitting 3 Finns, 5 Lasers, 2 RIBs and everyone’s kit into one container proved to be somewhat tricky. I’m pretty sure we packed and unpacked it about four times to fit everything in. And of course it rained the whole time!! The solution was strapping Lasers to the sides and ceiling of the container. My ship the Mary Rose can be seen above suspended from the roof! Hopefully I will next see her in one piece in Rio at the beginning of January!!
The last couple of days have been great fun. The children’s sailing club, Salterns, down here in Lymington is where I learned to sail. It’s a great club, run by children for children with the help of a Senior Committee. It’s where my dream started, and I love spending time down there. This year was their 15th annual 24 hour sail for BBC Children in Need. It makes me feel very old to say I was there taking part in the very first one. I was heavily involved in all of them up to the 10th one, which I organised during my gap year. We raised a record £17,590.25 in that year. It was a great event. A couple of years ago I jokingly said they should try to make it a total of over £100,000 in 15 years. Anyway they decided to go for it! I spent most of Friday evening and Saturday daytime down there cheering them on, and even got a cheeky sail in for the last hour’s shift! I am very, very proud to say the total raised this year so far is over £17,000, bringing the total raised in 15 years to over £109,000. Absolutely incredible! Not too shabby for a little children’s sailing club!!
