| RYA Training | | With the Royal Yachting Association, I have completed their Day Skipper Theory Course, VHF Course and Sea Survival Course. These provide the basics of navigation, seamanship, communications and survival skills. | 
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| Physical Training | | I started this 18 months prior to setting off. I was always 11st 11, which was great for racing eights down a river but less good for a 3,000 mile slog over the Atlantic. I used all the heavy weights exercises our fantastic rowing coach from University days set out for us and have now made it to 13 stone, which is getting on for enough.
That's kept in check with long training sessions on the rowing machine. Several times a week, I strap myself to it and row fairly consistently (with a 500m split of about 2.04 for the geeks out there) for around 2 hours watching a film. The Matrix and Swordfish are still favourites. Top Gun's good if you only have 90 mins spare. Comedy's wasted as nothing is funny after 2 hours of slogging you guts out, blisters and dehydration. For variety, I occasionally cycle the 90 miles to the lake district from Manchester, sleep over and cycle home again the next day. Normal life is on hold!
The National Trust have also kindly given me half price training facilities from Fell Foot Farm on Windermere so I take the boat up there and spend a few days at a time ploughing up and down. Stop me if you see me. Chocolate or sponsorship are always appreciated. | 
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| The ORS | Ocean Rowing Society should be the starting point for anyone wanting to row any ocean. If they don't know it, you probably don't need to. They have hundreds of pages of useful information and links to other helpful individuals and suppliers
Past Ocean Rowers are the nicest bunch of people you could ever meet and I`ve been asking them hundreds of questions. I bought my boat from Al Howard and Nick Rowe, 2 former Ghurkhas who had rowed the Atlantic in her. Al is now usually to be found up a mountain with a parachute strapped to him or leaping of cliffs but both he and (especially) Nick have been fantastic sources of advice and encouragement. |
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