It's 2017!!!

So here we are, less than a year to go until we final set off for the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. How awesome is that!!! Is somewhat terrifying at the same time, but we are both super pumped. Must say a massive congratulations to the Latitude 35 team, who have just set the world record, a time of 35 days 14 hours and 3 minutes. Which is an unbelievable effort.

So where are we up to?! Well we have managed to find a boat for our crossing which is super exciting. We went to have a proper look at it last weekend. Was weird looking around at what will essentially be our home for best part of nearly two months. What was also quite disconcerting was the size of it! There is not much to it at all, which is great as we will need to row it across the ocean, but also scary to think how small we will be in such a large ocean.

We have hit the ground running though in terms of everything. We have already managed to fit in some filming with the guys from the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, so hopefully you will see that later in the year. Is great to see people are getting more interested in our story and hopefully will help us secure some exciting sponsors over the course of the year. We have spoken to loads of people who have done it in the past, and the recurring theme is how difficult it is to get people on board. We are working hard on this and a number of friends have been super helpful in trying to reach out to people who think might be interested. If you think you know anyone who might be interested in supporting us, please let us know and be happy to send you some additional information.

Training has also started to increase. The thought of having to row for two hours at a time is a fairly decent incentive to head to the gym. The key to it all at the moment is building up our strength to be able to put ourselves through such an extreme event. Physically it is going to be exceptionally tough, but it is very hard to prepare yourself for something like this and you in fact are able to row yourself fit, so to speak, whilst we are out in the ocean. Mentally, this is an event like nothing else and will really push us to our limits and probably beyond. Is starting to hit home the enormity of it. To put it into perspective, think of all the stuff you have done since 14th December 2016. Office Christmas party, Christmas celebrations, those weird days between Christmas and New Year no one ever really knows what to do, New Year’s Eve party, New Year’s day hangover..... you get the point. Now imagine instead of doing all of that, you were sat on a small ocean rowing boat, rowing 2 hours on 2 hours off, for 24 hours a day AND you still have a couple weeks to go. Is something we will both have to get our heads around, but we couldn’t be more excited about everything.

We are hoping to keep you all up to date with what we are getting up to either through our blogs, social media and other channels. We have a big admin session booked in for this weekend to plan out the rest of this year and have our first RYA course we need to do next weekend. Sea Survival, which think will be worth listening to!

As always thanks for following us is great to have your support and we are looking to sending out more exciting updates throughout the year!

Best wishes,

Team Saddle Sand Sea