Team Anna Victorious

With the road map to lifting restrictions now becoming clearer, and the significant milestone of only 250 days until we are set to leave the harbour in San Sebastian, our preparations for this challenge are also changing.

Physically we are in good shape and the programme designed by Dan Harris from GB Rowing has continued to build the base that will keep us going across the Atlantic. People often ask “how is the training going?” and we casually drop that we have rowed a marathon that morning or done two sets of 20km. The only parallel that can be drawn is that you know when you are getting close to running a marathon when your short run is only 6 miles!

We are certainly looking forward to gyms re-opening so that we can vary the workouts a bit more and get together as a team. There is no better motivation than when the lightest bloke in the crew can move more weight than the heaviest! We all have various gym kit at home but nothing that can compare with a proper gym. Flexibility and mobility are a significant part of our training both as part of injury prevention but also the act of moving around the boat necessitates a good range of movement. We have been achieving that in different ways; Rob has become a veteran of the YouTube Yoga class and Ed and Jack have more structured stretching regimes. Jack has expressed an ambition to achieve the splits before we embark on this challenge and I think we can all agree we are looking forward to seeing that!

We are really excited to be moving into a different phase of our fundraising. Although we can’t make any announcement just yet we have secured a really exciting new oars sponsor.  The oars have been delivered to the printers to have the logos put on and we are looking forward to the formal announcement this month. We have intentionally not pushed our fundraising for our charity Victoria’s Promise as we realise how tough this last year has been for individuals and businesses, having said that we have been overwhelmed with donations which are currently sitting at over £11,000. With fingers and toes crossed for the continued certainty around Coronavirus, we will announce some events where people can join us to raise as much money as we can for this amazing charity.

We meet virtually regularly to go through outstanding actions. There has been a significant shift in what these tasks look and feel like too. We have gone from sourcing and buying equipment and contacting potential sponsors to paying for the shipping of the boat and booking accommodation and flights prior to the start. I know we say this every blog but it just brings home that we are actually going to do this!

The race rules stipulate that we must achieve a certain number of hours on the boat prior to the start, and for good reason; learning how your boat works is probably pretty stressful and potentially dangerous if it's on your first night as you embark on a row across an ocean. Lockdown has obviously prohibited us from getting out on the boat but we have planned our time between now and when the boat is shipped to make sure that we are as proficient in all aspects of ocean rowing and to exceed the time required before the boat is shipped in October/November. Our next trip is planned for mid-April and to keep costs down we have all arranged to stay in Rob’s campervan. This will also help in preparation for the compact nature of the cabins. Rob has promised no Dahl curry for at least 48 hours before, in the interests of crew harmony!

We continue to be overwhelmed with the support we have received from sponsors, experts in their field, and other supporters. We are trying to raise money and awareness for a great cause and we want to empower and inspire people to follow their dreams and not put off what you have always wanted to do. We are acutely aware that this is our dream and you are all making it possible and for that, we will always be infinitely grateful.