Well Christmas flew by, the New Year is well underway and we are both another year older. Only this was no regular passing of birthday because this one was my 40th.

At first I was getting just a tad down about reaching 40 so I decided it would be a good idea to do something completely different to celebrate this one. So off we went (Rachel, my friend Jo and me) to Iceland and I don’t mean the frozen food shop! The reaction from others wasn’t too dissimilar to the reaction we get when we tell then about rowing across the Atlantic – ‘Are you mad?’ Maybe so but Iceland in January was fantastic, all that we expected and more. Within a matter of minutes of checking into the hotel, we were outside making snow angels on the pavement – 40 ha, you’re as old as you want to be!

On my actual birthday, I was blessed with perfect weather conditions, horse riding in the snow, swimming in the Blue Lagoon, which is as hot as I have my bath, while having snow fall on us! Not to mention an evening at the Wiking Willage (I know it’s spelt incorrectly but that’s how it’s pronounced – honest!!) where we experienced the wonderful delicacy of rotten shark – sorry Iceland but that was truly horrid and not a dish I would recommend, it really is as bad as it sounds.

Add to this dog sledding, geysers, our snowman, penguins (we have proof they do live in Iceland and are now believed to be regulars of the Dubliner Pub!) and monster jeeps, all making the perfect trip. Then get this for the perfect birthday present - my very cool friends bought me a diamond – wow! I can’t wait to get it set into the ring I have already designed – thank you so much.

Anyway, with all of that to enjoy over the last few months, you could be thinking that we haven’t spent a great deal of time on the Atlantic Rowing Challenge but it has never been far from our minds. With a huge jolt into reality, the New Year came and means that it is now 'next year' that we will be setting off on our epic adventure.

So have we forgotten all about the race that’s been going on since late November? Hell no – there isn’t a day goes by where Rachel and I don’t send an email entitled ‘Have you read the update today?’

This year’s race seems to have been filled with various incidents that make us wonder what on earth have we got ourselves into but so far none of them have made us so scared that we want to back out.

Quite the contrary really, they’ve just made us more determined to learn from all this years rowers and are in the process of tracking them all down as they return to the UK to get as much advice as we can eek out of them.

On top of that we’ve started our own list of on board rules:

• No.1 If you’re not going in or out of a hatch, keep it closed.
• No.2 When on deck, you must always be attached to the boat.
• No.3 If you’re not using it, put it away (cameras etc.).
• No.4 Make sure ballast is full and loaded correctly at all times.

We know we will be adding to this list as we go along and certainly after we’ve spoken to various people in this year’s race. Above all, we owe it to our friends and families to make our voyage as safe as we possibly can – we know how scared everyone is about what we are doing.

A number of things have started to progress well too. We paid a visit to the London Boat Show and have managed to secure our Iridium phone from G-Comm, handheld GPS from Garmin, kit from Joules Clothing and lots of other contacts.

We’ve had another progress meeting with Breast Cancer Care who are now working on a number of things for us to start our roadshow and we’ve got a great fundraising opportunity coming through, which we’ll have more details on in a couple of weeks.

We’ve booked in for our first weekend coaching session with Ned Skelton of Clean Coaching Company Ltd to help us with our mental strength and approach. And we’ve also just booked onto our first set of courses with Woodvale Events Ltd – RYA Ocean Yachtmaster Shorebased Theory and RYA First Aid at Sea.

We’re keeping really positive and telling everyone who will listen all about it. We still need to get more money rolling in though and I don’t think we’re alone in finding that one of the most daunting tasks on our long list of things to do.

Thank you to everyone who is out there helping us. You’re all doing a great job and we really do appreciate everything you’re doing.

Until the next blog, over an out! Can’t wait to get on the Short Range Radio Course…!

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