By What a weekend!! Doris went for her first proper outing on the sea, we tried out all our Raymarine electronics and Crewsaver safety equipment for the first time, some of the girls who have applied to join our team came along for a row and we spent some happy hours running an ergo competition in the Raymarine tent.
Doris hits the sea!
The weekend started bright and early on Friday morning when Laura, Lizanne and I set off from Christchurch for our first venture out of the run. It was awesome, the sun was shining, the water was flat and our fusion radio was blasting out the tunes. With Matt advising us via the VHF radio we made it safely to Cowes (just about after slightly overshooting the entrance) after a 9 hour row and Doris settled into her home for the weekend at Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club who kindly hosted us.
At sea for the first time!!
Learning to use the autopilot
Our super comfy Crewsaver lifejackets
On Saturday we were joined by Ali, Naomi and Natalia and we spent the day with Raymarine getting people on the ergs to try their hand at a 500m rowing competition. We were also joined by fellow Raymarine ambassadors and ocean rowers James Ketchall and Ash Wilson who will be rowing the Indian Ocean next year. We shared stories of sponsorship hunting and got some advice from James who has rowed the Atlantic. The poor sailing boats made almost painfully slow progress around the island in conditions far better suited to rowing but very well suited to a day in the sunshine at the yacht haven. When the sailors finally started arriving back we were even treated to a visit from Ben Ainsley and team!
The competition hots up in the Raymarine tent
Everyone got involved
We meet Ben Ainslie and team
Sunday morning we were up early again, breakfasted on Expedition Foods oats and muesli meals and were off rowing at 6.30am. Shortly after leaving Cowes we were joined by Hamish on our support boat for the day. Hamish kindly followed us back to Christchurch providing steering advice, a video camera, a ride in the RIB to get some good shots of Doris and even some oar power when he came aboard for a row. We were also joined by Simon Shaw who came out on his RIB to meet us and have a row. Lots of singing, dancing and laughing in the beautiful weather occurred and we made it to Christchurch in such good time that we had to hitch a lift from Hamish to get back through the run against the tide.
Breakfast
Happy days on Doris
Simon joins us for a row
All in all a pretty fantastic weekend and we loved every minute of it. After all the hard work it takes doing the admin and planning for an ocean row it was great to get the chance to enjoy being out on Doris for a proper adventure. And as for what’s next, we have our final team selection weekend in the Brecons and then Henley Royal Regatta to look forward to in the next week. Stay posted for more updates!
Thanks to Raymarine for inviting us for a great weekend
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