06 Jul 2005, London
We won!!! Well done, Sir Seb Coe and Co!!! You've done us proud.
I confess, I doubted you. I thought it would be another example of the plucky Brits putting on a brave show but ultimately losing out to somewhere a bit more.... glamorous. But somebody changed the script - fantastic!
This is a marvellous opportunity to regain our national self-esteem, to stop running ourselves down, to lift our heads, square our shoulders, and face the world with confidence again. Let's go for it and glory in it!
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I never would have imagined I'd be rowing over the legendary Henley course on finals day to rounds of applause from the packed stands of the Stewards Enclosure. And then be so mobbed afterwards that the pontoon would start to sink... just a shame about the earlier highly embarrassing collision with the booms in front of the Remenham Club. And that my row wasn't a hard-earned victory, but a ceremonial paddle during the tea break.
Chris Martin had arranged for a row-over of three generations of ocean rowing boat. First came Graham Walters in the Puffin, the little dory in which Hoare and Johnstone perished during their attempt to row the north Atlantic in 1966.
Then came Chris in Pacific Pete, a traditional ocean rowing pair made in marine ply and named after Peter Bird, the first man to row across the Pacific.
Then there was me in Solo - state-of-the-art compared with Graham's state-of-the-ark. Unfortunately, with her mega-light carbon fibre hull and no ballast, I was floating like a cork on the water and getting pushed around by the wind - hence my brush with the booms. Well, that's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it. But maybe just as well there are no booms in mid-Atlantic.
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28 Jun 2005, Southsea
It's Trafalgar 200 (in case you hadn't noticed!) and I'm in Portsmouth to be interviewed by BBC Radio Solent who are broadcasting live from the International Fleet Review. Rousing nautical music is booming from the sound systems, an multitude of splendid craft, old and new, is processing sedately around the Solent, the sun is shining, and everyone is in a state of patriotic pride.
I met these two fine fellows at the Radio Solent outside broadcast van, and we know all the girls love a sailor, so I press-ganged them into an impromptu photo opportunity. Briefly managing to tear their eyes away from the display of maritime might arrayed before them, they kindly obliged.
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24 Jun 2005, South Coast
So she's not yet in her natural element... the ocean. But she's getting closer. Yesterday I was driven down to Devon by the aptly named Graham Foreshore, a sailing instructor with the Marines, to collect my beautiful boat from the boatbuilder. We brought her back to the South Coast where she will be based for the next few months while I get her fitted out ready to cross the Atlantic.
There's still a huge amount of work to be done before she's ready, but there are many willing hands ready to help, so it WILL all get done... somehow!
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