33 Days to Go: Some dates - UK to Western Australia

We still don't have all the dates/ports confirmed, but here is an overview:

Leg 1

Official crew joining date: 28 August

1 September 2013: departure from Tower Bridge

Arrival window Brest, France: 3- 4 September

Start from Brest to Rio, Brazil: 9 September

Arrival window Rio: 1-5 October Brazilian Host: Marina da Gloria,

Rio de Janeiro.

Leg 2

Crew changeover date: 8 October

Start from Rio to Cape Town, South Africa: 11 October

Arrival window Cape Town: 26- 28 October

South African Host: Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town

Leg 3

Crew changeover date: 31 October

Start from Cape Town to West Australia: 4 November

Arrival window Western Australia: 23-26 November (Note – although we have not confirmed the port, we can calculate the estimated arrival window because it makes little difference to the great circle route and total mileage through the Southern Ocean to the relevant part of the Western Australia coast.)

38 Days to Go: Making our mind up.

At the moment, there is a lot of chat within Team Matt.  Chat about the dangers of a pressure cooker, whether we should take a freezer, and if so how many, and what storage capacity, and what about a back-up if it all goes wrong? Should we share toothpaste and save weight, or try to avoid sharing the same infections round the team and cope with the extra 100 grams per person.  The truth is, we've never done this before, and its a case of the blind leading the blind.  The decisions that we make could make the difference between a happy boat, and a god-awful miserable boat.  Problem is, we have not a scooby - and we end up with the chat,  a lot of chat.

45 Days to Go - In training

For those of you that know me, I can't imagine I'd be in your top ten of fittest people you know.  Which is a bit of a problem, because sailing halfway around the world is not something you do everyday.  They say its a marathon, not a sprint.  But actually its more like 20 sprints a day.  There are times of intense action, followed by bouts of nothingness.  So I really do need to get the fitness levels up, so I'm ready for action whenever its needed.  And for the month of July - I'm going hard at it.  

I've hired a personal trainer - Ibby - who is putting me through my paces.  Because I need to do this for a specific activity, he has tailored a programme to cover three main areas.  Legs, arms and general cardio. Obviously, the cardio day is by far the worst, and I spend most of my time wanting to puke my guts up. But it does seem to be working. Legs is pretty bad too - as I do endless squats and jumps adding different weights and even a Bulgarian Bag.  Arms and upper body is going well.  Ibby has rigged up a rope simulator where I have to pull down or across a thick rope for 40 sec intervals.

I play squash with a friend - and when I started 5 months ago, I would need to collapse in the corner after every game, and we only managed 4 before I passed out completely.  Now I'm nearly matching him, and sometimes even beating him!  

I don't know if I'll ever feel truly fit enough to take on this challenge.  But by the size of my ever increasing biceps, I'm well on the way.

 

46 Days to Go: Just hit my first £1000 fundraising barrier!

And as a present to everyone who's donated (and an incentive for those that haven't!), here is a video of me trying to get out of my drysuit whilst desperate for the toilet!
(Thanks Smack)

50 Days to Go: What am I in for?

So with 50 days to go, things are beginning to heat up.  What that really means is that more and more of my day is spent watching endless YouTube clips of previous races, and showing anyone who's near me some of the crazy weather we'll be experiencing down in the Southern Ocean.  When someone says to you 60ft waves - what does that actually mean?  Well - I can show you. And another one.  Has anyone ever fallen in?   I can show you a video of that as well. The below video is probably my favourite... Enjoy!