We started off in mid-June with a trip to Cricklade for the annual town festival, a traditional summer extravaganza that brings together the two big circus families who live locally. We took Barbara Ivy there for the day, and camped for a couple of nights at Mayfield Park near Cirencester. As long term supporters of the challenge, it was great to see the Mayfield Park team again. Plus, Lin's dad John lives and works in Cricklade, so there was plenty of interest from those in the town who had followed our progress. Even better, the weather stayed dry and we raised a reasonable amount to go towards our target.

The following weekend was Women's Henley Regatta. Last year we had torrential rain at this event and wondered if we'd need to actually get in the boat to row home, but this year the weather was much kinder, if still dull. There was also something really nice about meeting people who spoke to us a year ago, when even we were wondering if we could actually make the start line, then being able to come back and tell them that we actually did row the Ocean!

It also gave us chance to meet up with plenty of other rowers and some of our wonderful sponsors. Being an Ocean Rower is membership of a fairly exclusive club and we are proud to be associated with such a special group. But catching up with sponsors is cool too - to be able to show them that their support was well placed and that we did deliver on our promises to them.

The weekend was a bit mad though. Rachel took the boat to Henley on the Thursday and set up our space, then worked there all day on the Friday as Lin wasn't able to take a day off. That night she drove back to Chester for the Eddisbury Tangent annual luncheon, where she was the guest speaker, leaving Lin to work the Saturday alone. Rachel was definitely nervous about this speech, not least because the organisers had booked her over 2 years previously - showing great confidence that she could actually complete the row, and produce a great speech for them.

In the end it all went really well and there wasn't a dry eye in the room. But there was no time for rest and she was straight back into the car and heading for Henley. Luckily we were staying with our friend Philippa, who has a wonderful hot tub that certainly helped us relax! We worked the Sunday together and amongst others, met up with Tom and Rich, who came to view Barbara Ivy. They've since put in an offer to buy her, subject to survey. We really hope it all goes well as they are great guys who remind us of ourselves 2 years ago, and we think they will look after her properly.

The next weekend involved more travel, but also a lot of fun as the Woodvale Challenge prize giving was being held on a boat on the Thames. It was a brilliant night and we met up with lots of our old buddies from both our race and other years. It was especially good to catch up with the teams who had left Antigua long before we even arrived, hear their stories and give them a big congratulations hug!

On a more personal note, Lin is now busy packing and preparing to go to Ivory Coast for her wedding to Charlie. She did manage a suitably grown up send off (not a hen night!) with some friends in London in July. She'll be away for two weeks for what's bound to be a magical experience in Africa.

Meanwhile Rachel has managed to jump start her sail training with a yacht delivery trip from London to Brixham in Devon. It was 5 days of incredibly hard work, but great to be back on the water again. On the last night there was a beautiful sunset and she had a couple of hours driving on her own while the other two slept. Just Rachel, the boat and the Ocean... fabulous!

Being in the South West, it also gave Rachel the chance to pop in and visit our friend Debra Searle, the original inspiration for the rowing challenge. She hadn't actually seen Debra for four years, but had kept in touch while Debra encouraged and supported right through the adventure from start to finish. In fact, Debra is the only person (apart from the race organisers) who we told about our capsize. It's amazing to think that just 10 years ago we were all heading out to Rome together for the European Dragon Boat Racing Championships where we picked up or first ever international medals. How far we've all travelled since then!

There are a few more talks booked over the next few months, but the challenge is drawing to a close now and certainly by the end of the year we will be able to wind up our accounts and publish a report of the project, complete with fundraising totals and a summary of how we did it.

That's all for now, but we'll keep in touch until the final report is ready.

Love & hugs, Rachel and Lin x