Anything but plain sailing

Looks like we spoke too soon!

We took the duck to the sea again today (thanks once again to those kind folks at Southsea Canoe Lake) and it didn't quite go as smoothly as the first trial.

As the wind had picked up, the sea had become considerably rougher than our first practice. This didn't cause a major problem in itself and the duck coped well, however we started to take some water on board and handily had left the buckets in the car!

We decided to turn and head back for the beach, upon doing so we realise the tide had taken us much further down Southsea beach than we had realised and well past the pier. It soon became apparent that we wouldn't be able to go back against the tide without being smashed against the pier, we therefore took the coward's way out and headed back towards dry land. As we reached the beach, the breakers from the waves allowed us no time to push the pedalo onto the beach and it was completely full of water, sand and shingle within a few seconds.

I'm not sure if you've ever thought about trying to move a pedalo which is full of water, let me save you the trouble, you can't! We couldn't bail out the water as it was stuck on the edge of the breakers and water was constantly washing over the pedalo.

So, 2 hours later, once the tide had gone out, we were finally able to rescue the duck and return her to her slightly calmer home of Southsea lake.

So, roll on June 6th, any volunteers to help us pull the pedalo out the water?!

The duck hits the sea

As we get ever closer to the event, we thought we'd better take our duck to sea to ensure that she was in fact seaworthy and wouldn't sink within 5 metres of our departure.

So a few weeks ago Captain Bossy and First Mate Nalder dragged our trusted pedalo from it's home on the Southsea canoe lake, across the road and down the steep shingle beach at Southsea. We pushed her into the sea, climbed aboard, started to pedal, then after about 5 minutes, realised that we's forgotten our lifejackets, so returned to dry land to retrieve these!

She handled the sea admirably, albeit that it was a very hot day with no wind whatsoever and the sea was extremely calm, although it has to be said we got nowhere near the shipping lane itself which will cause the most severe and challenging conditions of our event.

The video summary of our training day is online here , make sure you turn up the sound!

We always knew the event would capture the public's imagination and this was confirmed when it seemed that everyone suddenly stopped and turned to watch as these two madmen approached the beach on a giant duck.

We must also give a huge thanks to the kind gentleman who helped drag the pedalo back up the shingled dunes as it became apparent that we were struggling. If any of you are in Southsea on Sunday morning (26th April), we may well need the same assistance for our final sea trial before the event.

A pedalo?! You must be quackers!

And so it would seem!

As the training continues on our bikes, I thought it about time that we went down to see the kind people down at Southsea canoe lake, who are kindly allowing us the use of one of their pedalos for our voyage of destiny.

As I got closer to the lake, I could see some Swan shaped pedalos and some in the form of Ducks. I looked around and saw more swans, more ducks, more swans....... Hmmm.

After the staff at the lake all stopped laughing about our ridiculous challenge ahead, adding the odd comment of "You'll never make it..." and "The Solent?!..." I managed to question them as to which of these two beasts would serve us best on our epic journey. It seems the duck was slightly more sturdy than the swan, plus to be honest, the Swan had a bit of a nasty temper and suffered from seasickness.

Therefore, it is with great honour, pride and slight nervousness that I proudly present you with our naval assault vehicle. Forget Lord Nelson with his Victory, Drake with his Golden Hind, I give you.................



Now then imagine two fat blokes battling the tides, container ships and ferries of the Solent, in this! Tell me that's not worth £2 of your money for a great cause.

Please donate to http://www.justgiving.com/greatsolentpedal

The power of Twitter

We're experimenting with various forms of social media in an effort to raise the profile of The Great Solent Pedal and hopefully as a consequence, more donations to the cause.

One of these was Twitter, the social networking and micro blogging site. You can follow us here
We posted a few messages and as we started to get a small following, some very kind people starting sending out "Tweets" to their own followers pointing them to our site. This snowballs as more and more people then "Retweet" this on to their own followers, and so it goes on.

Yesterday evening Nikki Pilkington sent out a tweet to her followers for us and then wrote this fantastic article which asked people to donate just £2 (or more if they wished!) to us, in return for some Twitter publicity. Within 24 hours, around £400 was donated to the site, including celebrity comedian Alan Davies. Not only that but we have also been contacted by a celebrity photographer, offering to take some publicity shots for us!

Now of course I'd have to agree that The Great Solent Pedal is an unusual idea which seems to be catching people's imagination, but the power of Twitter has been amazing. Long may it continue, more followers please and keep those donations coming in!

Once again, you can donate via the event website here

Human Frogger

I realised over the weekend that, in effect, what we will be doing on the 6th June, is playing Human Frogger. Remember the old Atari game "Frogger" where you had to try to cross the road/river, but had to judge your timing to perfection to avoid getting run over? Well, container ships can't stop/turn very quickly, therefore it is down to our judgement as to when to go/stop.

Oh and look what Mark found to really make me feel better.....



Come on, that's worth a couple of quid of your money isn't it?!

Donate here

The Great Solent Pedal - Two blokes crossing the solent on a pedalo

Picture the scene, two guys crossing the Solent (one of the UK's busiest shipping lanes), on a pedalo, on D-Day!

What on earth would make someone even begin to contemplate such a ridiculous idea?

Let me tell you.

In September 2003, whilst on holiday in the US, I made an equally stupid decision to climb a ladder to repair the side of a relative's house, as a hurricane was about to hit. The ladder slipped and the resulting accident meant I spent the following 5 hours in theatre having my elbow pieced back together. The surgeon knew I would never regain full use of the arm, but had no idea just how much of a recovery I would make.

I flew home, saw a specialist, who then immediately referred me to the Wessex Rehabilitation Centre within Salisbury hospital. I spent the next 4 months at the centre, where the fantastic team tortured, sorry, treated me, with intensive physiotherapy in various forms including gym, industrial workshops and indoor hockey (those physios are even more evil when holding a hockey stick!) The results were fantastic.

I left the centre with a very good level of movement back in the arm and although my promising golf career was in tatters (anyone who knows me, will know just how badly I used to play), there was very little I couldn't now do, apart from play the piano, but my surgeon informs me that I would have needed to play prior to the accident for me to be able to play afterwards.

The whole team at the Wessex Rehabilitation are such a fantastic, dedicated team of people and it was for that reason that I came up with this slightly unusual fundraising event, to help them buy more equipment and to help others.

So, on June 6th 2009, myself and a friend will try to steer a humble pedalo across to the Isle of Wight, whilst overcoming the huge waves, strong currents and trying to avoid the massive container ships and passenger ferries.

This blog will follow our progress in training, logisitics in organising the event, the event itself and our subsequent memorial services!

Additional information on the event itself can be found at http://www.thegreatsolentpedal.com

Thanks for your support!

Mike