To sail on a VO65 again is awesome. These opportunities do not come along everyday so I jumped at the chance. The Challenge was to be part of the Sport Relief Challenge of Hell on High Seas where we take six unsuspecting celebrities on a journey offshore from Belfast to London on the Volvo Ocean Race yacht that was Dongfeng.
The celebrities had a weekend of sea survival training delivered by Ocean Safety similar to the course we face ahead of the Volvo Ocean Race. The celebrities then did a day in a small keel boat getting the basic understanding of the points of sail, then we had two days to familiarise the crew with the VO65 then we were off with an intense forecast. With a cold northerly component in the wind direction, my three weeks previous to this spent in the Middle East did not do much to acclimatise me to the temperatures.
For me, the opportunity was about much more than sharing my passion of sailing with people new to the sport and the pride of being part of a challenge that raised over £1million. It was the unique opportunity to sail with Volvo Ocean Race winner and Olympic Silver Medallist Ian Walker and see how he runs the boat and drives his team. I also got to sail with Phil Harmer who has done the Volvo Ocean Race four times and won it twice. Watching him work and learning from him was great. Gonzalo who normally sits in the VOR headquarters looking at weather was able to display his prowess at using the navigation software displaying the latest weather models easily for the rest of us. I loved being back on a boat again with Sara Hastreiter, we re-lived many memories good and bad from our Team SCA days and to sail with Gringo, the boat captain of Dongfeng, was awesome. I started my sailing career sailing with him 16 years ago and here we were again plugging in the J1 together on the bow laughing at how some things had not changed at all. Seeing the On Board Reporters Matt Knighton and Sam Greenfield work alongside the BBC Producer, Daniel Markham was also really impressive and they produced some amazing footage and captured some great images.
It was a very special week on so many levels. One of the funniest weeks sailing I have had in a long time and it has given me a unique bond with some new people who have been part of a very impressive challenge.
Congratulations to all involved in making the Hell On High Seas Challenge take place. Impressive amounts of money raised for Sports Relief.