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| Plain Sailing and Sea Sickness! |
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| Written by Rachel Smith | ||||
| Friday, 01 June 2007 | ||||
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It's been a busy month for our rowers, now they've fully recovered from the extremes of their 24 hour indoor rowing marathon at Easter, finalised the purchase of their boat and started a hectic schedule of summer fundraising events!
After the success of the 24 hour row, they've had consultations with their nutritionist, physio and other rowers to get a bit more information and guidance, based on what they found out during the event. For instance, they both went off sweet foods during the night and needed to find some nutritious savoury snacks that will be suitable and won't upset the overall balance of protein, carbs and fats atha they need to consume. Meanwhile the sponsorship campaign has cranked up a notch. New sponsors include a fantastic donation from Dowlis Corporate Solutions who became the teams' third Gold sponsor in April. A great boost for the rowers and the accounts, so a big thank you to everyone at Dowlis. They were also thrilled to sign up Harley-Davidson Financial Services Europe Ltd, and believe they will be the first (and probably only!) rowing team to be sponsored by this iconic brand. The first fundraising event this year was the Salop Leisure show. Salop have supported the team from very early on and hosted the challenge again over the 10 day show. Once again the rowers were very much made to feel part of the team and thoroughly enjoyed their time at Salop Leisure. At the end of April the boat purchase was completed and Lin and Rachel are now the proud owners of a 24 foot ocean rowing boat. Lin collected her on the bank holiday weekend and headed straight down to Brixham in Devon for a 'Try a Boat' weekend, organised by Plain Sailing (who kindly hosted the team) and South Devon Marine. The rowers passed their sea survival training with Plain Sailing last year and over a post-course beer (or two!) agreed to attend this event, aimed at giving the public chance to have a go on a variety of sail and power boats. The event is completely free and introduced nearly 500 people to boating this year alone. Happily Plain Sailing has invited our rowers back next year and will be assisting the team in a number of ways over the coming months. Te event also gave them the chance ot meet up with one of the other teams from the 2007 race, two Royal Marines who ove the sister boat, built out of the same mould.
But for Lin and Rachel, the most exciting part of the weekend was sleeping onboard for the very first time. It was certainly cosy as they shared the bigger of the two cabins, but they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Of course with no bathroom on board, thanks have to go to MDL Marina's who allowed the team full use fo their extensive facilities.
At the end of the weekend they loaded the boat onto the trailer successfully - one of many firsts during and exciting event. She then went back to another MDL Marina at Hamble Point where she stayed for a short time brfore going to van manufacturers LDV Group in Birmingham to be painted in her new livery. More on this soon! In the meantime, the team are continuing with their physical training routines and the never ending fundraising. They've also had to arrange for their oars to go back as the supplier delivered the wrong size, which was a disappointing turn of evnets. Look out for the team at Women's Henley (20-22 June) and keep checking the website for new events and fresh additons to the gallery. Question of the month - Do you get sea sick? Rachel - I sometimes feel a bit queasy if I go below deck on boats, but the only time I've actually been ill was on a scuba diving trip when I spent 2 hours underwater in a 4 foot swell and came back up to a very wobbly boat! I do get land sickness though, especially when I've slept onboard, and tend to sway around a bit when I should be standing or sitting still. It's not pleasant, but I do find it funny. However, we won't be surprised if we get sea sick at some point during the row! Lin - Like Rachel, I sometimes feel a bit queasy when I'm below deck on the larger boats, but neither of us did when we were in Brixham. Normally if I can see the horizon I'm OK. But the land sickness got me this time too and I felt awful when I went back to work after the weekend! It's a bit like feeling quite drunk when the room spins around, and not helpful when you're working on a computer! It made us wonder what on earth we're going to be like when we get to Antigua!
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 July 2007 ) | ||||
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