London2Brighton

It's been a pretty busy few weeks really, and we've been just sitting around waiting for the right wind...

We've downloaded last Sunday's track from our GPS and have got some speed averages. During the day, we averaged about 14 knots, taking out the couple of stops to talk to the guys on the rib... Max speed 17.27 knots (20mph) officially, although the GPS said we got to 19 knots (22mph) at one point!

At last, we've got some half decent pics of the boat and us sailing it...

I've just returned from my honeymoon, sailing cats and yachts in the Ionian, which was fabulous - now we are all fired up and raring to go with just 2 months before the start of our 'weather window', we've got plenty to be getting on with...

We have finally reached the £3000 mark and are very happy with this. Thank you for all your support!!

To achieve our target of £10,000 we still need to raise £7,000 between now and September 2007. If you have any ideas to help us raise our £10,000 please forward your ideas (email me).

Disaster for the London2Brighton challenge - during transport from Poole to Hayling, the mast caught a bridge and is now in 3 pieces...

Readers of DSM will have noticed that we've made the News section on the 'Cat Scene' page...

The guys at Sailing News have produced a fabulous article about the challenge, taking up an entire page of their publication. Unfortunately though, our website was down over the weekend! Sorry to anyone who may have tried to log on...

Thanks again to all of the contributors to our pot of cash which is starting to look more promising... Our target is still daunting however we still have £8,000 to find before the beginning of September.

On Good Friday, 'Team L2B' were spied in Poole Harbour practicing their moves... In very light conditions (Force 2), the boys were managing speeds of up to 13 kts with the spinnaker up on what was a very pleasant day...

The £1500 mark has been passed already and our huge thanks to all those who have donated to our cause, we are now one of the top 10 on justgiving for diabietes.

What a holiday...I have now returned after a much needed break. And after leaving Matt to run the site and doing all the fundraising in which he has a massed a great £160 in my absence, i will have to go away more often.

Simon has headed off to Sunsail Club Colonna in Antigua for a week leaving me to man the website and carry on with the fundraising!

Simon and I popped over to Poole today to take out the boat for the first time. It's the first time that either of us have sailed a Tiger, despite plenty of experience in other boats, so we were very excited as we pulled into Rockley Park...

We've had some really touching letters of support from people who have personal experience of living with, or caring for people with diabetes. The over-riding comment is that Diabetes is so misunderstood by so many.

I've laid my hands on a picture of me when I was 14 sailing the yacht Marabu with my school. The Brighton based boat is a 53ft ketch, which I believe is a charity for young people who might not have the opportunity to try sailing.

With some money already under the belt, we really feel like we are under way. I went to see the boat that we'll be using on the challenge on Saturday, at the Hobie Cat Centre in Poole.

Now we're getting quite excited about the prospect of setting this record - we are really pleased that the sailing community is backing us on this and so many people have expressed an interest...

Well we are up and running - not just with the site, but we've got the agreement of the bosses at Sunsail, and we have some really fantastic interest from some of our friends in the industry. We've hopefully got a boat, which I'm paying for, but which Steve Beard at the hobie cat centre is supplying and providing various spares and equiptment for - thanks Steve...