Firstly, we're pleased to report that after a successful survey, Rich and Tom have completed the purchase of Barbara Ivy. She went to her new home a few weeks ago and will now be prepared for the 2009 Atlantic Race. We're so pleased that she will get the chance to racea gain as she's such a fantastic boat. On the plus side for Rich and Tom, at least they can be sure she knows the way even if they don't!

We'll be offering our support to the team throughout their preparations and you can follow their progress at www.rowingtheatlantic.com - you might even recognise some sections of their website that appear rather similar to our own!! But the big question is... will they keep her pink? You'll have to wait and see.

Lin has now returned from Ivory Coast after her wedding and has changed her name to Lin Diaby. She and her new husband Charlie had a wonderful time on their special day.  She has also started her new job with Brent Council and finally had an appointment to discuss her MRI scan results. However, she has also been referred for more MRI scans on her knees as a result of secondary injuries. Hopefully this will quickly lead to treatment and relief from the pain of the injuries that she picked up onboard the boat.

Rachel has been doing even more fundraising talks and has been accepted onto the books of a new all-female motivational speaking agency - www.motivationalwomen.co.uk as well as the Women's Institute speakers list. She also spend a day at the Southampton Boat Show and thoroughly enjoyed being able to visit sponsors and say a big thank you! There are a couple of pictures from the day below. She had applied to her employer for voluntary redundancy over the summer, but this was turned down, so she will be continuing as a marketing manager for the foreseeable future and fitting in the more adventurous stuff around the day job.

Adec Marine supplied flares & reflective tape

Rachel also attended the Woodvale Challenge seminar in October and delivered twor presentations on their campaign and race. Around 35 prospective rowers attended and the speeches went down very well. It's a great chance to help develop the sport and pass on the benefits of valuable experience. She will be working with Woodvale Challenge over the next few months to produce a guide to writing press releases for new race entrants to use. The day after the seminar, she spent a few hours out on the water helping to provide support for the rowers as they got to try out Ocean rowing boats for the first time.

Avon donated our life raft

It's a bizarre story, which started when Lin bought Rachel a copy of the book, the Cloudspotters Guide for Christmas at sea. With so much time out there, both rowers had plenty of opportunity to make shapes from the clouds and it turned into a regular game, both day and night. The more unusual formations spotted included Santa with an empty sleigh, a cube (actually suspected to be a poorly disguised UFO!), an eerie night time skull and many, many versions of Dumbo! There was even on day with absolutely no cloud at all! Sadly the book went mouldy and is now unreadable, so Rachel emailed hte author to ask for a replacement.

Overboard - Dan & Joel

And finally... some really exciting news, hot off the press...

Following the success of our relationship with Breast Cancer Care, we've been delighted to introduce them to two of the rowers from our Atlantic race who will be competing in the Indian Ocean Race 2009 and fundraising as part of a team of four girls.

Fiona Waller and Sarah Duff, who were half of the Atlantic Angels, are rebranding as the Ocean Angels and joining up wiht Amy Green and Jo Jackson to compete in the very first Indian Ocean Race. They will be setting off in Arpil 2009 from Geraldton, Western Australia and finishing over 3,000 nautical miles later in Mauritius.

This new relationship is a fantastic legacy for Rachel and Lin to pass on to Breast Cancer Care and came about after a chance meeting with the team at Women's Henley. Working with Breast Cancer Care, the Atlantic Rowing Challenge really set the standardfor fundraising in the last Atlantic race and we have great hopes that the result will be even better with the Ocean Angels next year.

The team will be running a really exciting fundraising campaign called 'Faceboat' - where you can donate just £10 to have your picture on thier boat, Silver Cloud, as she makes her way across the Indian Ocean. It's a fantastic chancet o be a real part of a record breaking attempt, as the 4 women aim to become the first women to ever row across this ocean. Their website is up and running now at www.oceanangels.co.uk so take a look to find out more.

Please join us in wishing the team well and they prepare for the row and help to spread the word about this amazing challenge. We'll let you know more details about Faceboat as soon as we can. But that's all for now, but we'll be in touch soon.

Rachel and Lin