Sally Townsend is a friend of mine from Hampshire – she has been amazing in her support for us and with a bunch of mates recently ran the Great South Run and the Gosport Half Marathon to support our fundraising efforts. This is their story, you should all be so proud of yourselves and you have our undying gratitude and love!

They describe themselves as ‘4 girlies late 20s –late 30s (ish!)’ and they are: Alaine, Emma, Kelly and Sally. Their main passions in life (starting to sound like a dating site) are: wine, cake and takeaways – the 3 main building blocks of a healthy life…..

They were all non runners 2 years ago and were ‘bulldozed’ into it by Sally (the ringleader), going from 5k to 8k to 10k and then Sally had an idea… The Great South Run in October and a half marathon in support of our fundraising efforts.

Their running ability in May 2009, 2-4 miles (ish)

Sally set them all up with a training plan and kept everyone motivated by constant badgering (which sounds a bit scary, especially the ‘straight talking’…) and rewards such as bottles of wine in the pub, Chinese take away, indulgent keep going gift bags with wine, chocolate, foot repair stuff and fitness mags, an absolutely totally cracking CD based on running and pasta meals out.

The race itself was 10 miles in Portsmouth. Until that point 2 had not managed to get past 7 miles in training and 2 had reached 9, 1 could hardly walk on the day with a knackered back. Loads of ibuprofen and deep heat later….they made it.

Everyone felt great for very different reasons. Times ranged from just under an hour and three quarters to under 2 hours.

Sally then had to run on another mile through the road closures to get a motorbike taxi for a high-powered London meeting, clocking 115mph…

On Sally’s return from London the girls had another meal out to celebrate and Sally made them all cool certificates. Grateful that it was over, the girls gave Sally some lovely flowers (and she continued to nag them about money!!!)

Sally and her running buddy kept on training for the Gosport half-marathon in November. It was during the tornado week-end and they had to run through a flooded airfield, twice, up to their knees in water. But they did it! Amazing effort everyone, thank you VERY much!

So, £650 raised for Ellie’s Haven and now the plans are for a 10k speed race in Feb, organising a group to do the 3 peaks challenge in May and a couple of other things being kept secret for now…….mmmmm!

Lipson Vale Primary School got all the pupils to design Christmas Cards to help raise money for Ellie’s Haven as part of the Gigantic Atlantic Challenge - the designs were amazing and me, Jo, Ellie and Ellie’s mum and dad got together for the tough job of judging the winning designs.

Finally, we decided - and we look forward to presenting the prizes to the winners: Lily, Zaq, Jack, Emily and Evan at the Christmas Fayre next Friday evening, 27th November at Lipson Vale.

We have printed up the winning designs in packs of 5 (each pack with one of each design) and these will be on sale at Lipson Vale, in the Ellie’s Haven shop in Looe and in Torpoint - please get in touch if you want a pack or two! Have a look below at the amazing winning designs and some pictures of the judges trying to decide! Thanks Lipson Vale!!

It’s now November and for 18 months we’ve been planning our row across the Atlantic for December 2009. So it is with huge amounts of disappointment that we have had to take the decision to delay the attempt for 2 years because of lack of business sponsorship.

Reflecting on this last 18 months, from the moment in May 2008 when I got this mad idea in my head, I’m amazed at what we’ve achieved. We have involved 7000 school children from 12 local schools in our fundraising in addition to our local fundraising team continuing to organise event after event, raising over £20,000 and rising for local charity Ellie’s Haven.

For that effort from everyone involved and everyone who has turned up and given money, time, and support we are immensely grateful, proud, inspired and motivated by and even more determined to ensure funding doesn’t stop our delayed attempt in December 2011.

It was clearly the wrong time to be asking for money from businesses to cover our project costs. We contacted and spoke to 100’s of companies, all of whom were genuinely interested in what we were planning but 99% of whom simply didn’t have the money to support us. We’ve made lots of contacts though and I’m confident that this will stand us in good stead when we go back to them and talk about 2011.

I know that from the comfortable perspective of an outsider, our inability to raise the money for the rowing challenge will look like a failure and it could be thought of in those terms were it not for 2 important differences: 1. We couldn’t have done more – you always know whether you’ve put everything into something and we can stand tall and say that we did. 2. History shows us that any achievement is usually characterised by a series of defeats and obstacles – as the Japanese proverb goes: fall seven times, stand up eight. So we are disappointed but not deterred.

We have of course informed Ellie’s parents, Nigel and Julie from Ellie’s Haven who have been a real support throughout the last 18 months – constantly helping and encouraging us. They are more concerned about us and that we’re alright which is an indication of what selfless, great people they are and why we must complete this challenge to help build their vision of a holiday facility for families with children who have complex needs.

We have also informed our local fundraising team and have asked them whether they want to carry on for another 2 years or stop. Early indications suggest that they are keen to carry on because they believe in Ellie’s Haven as a cause. This is why we are so motivated to keep going, because the people around us are so supportive.

We have also been supported by 2 marketing professionals who have been focussing on the business sponsorship with us, despite the lack of success, they too are keen to carry on. We are also being supported directly by 2 great friends, Andy Jenness and James White who will be our official support team – helping out with equipment, training, planning and communications – they too are keen to carry on.

At the centre of this is me and Steve. We’ve grown as a partnership and have grown in experience rowing together over the last 6 months. We’re happy with each other and we’re still totally focussed on completing the row. We also believe that what we’ve learnt about planning a project like this in the last 18 months will give us an advantage in the next 24 months.

And so to our supporters – The Cons Club, The Trot, The Jubilee, Harveys Butchers, Will Accountants, Huggins Bros, Gliddons, The Sailing Club, The Rowing Club, The Carbeille Cruisers, Torpoint Co-op, Dashers and everyone else – thank you and please bear with us, we’ll get there!

There have been so many highlights this last year that it’s impossible to list them – we’ve had such a great time and can’t believe some of the things people have done to raise money – gigs and festivals, booze cruises, cycle rides and parachute jumps, parties, dinners, quizzes, football matches, coffee mornings, raffles and of course the naked calendar which continues to sell well and will be the ideal ‘Secret Santa’ present – available in Dashers and elsewhere! All in all, it’s been a great year!

So, finally a word about those that have secured the funding and are rowing the Atlantic in 6 weeks time: I will be following with interest, of course, but more than that I wish them all the best of luck and a safe voyage and while we may wish that we were out there too, we’ll be there when the time’s right, thanks to the ongoing support of everyone around us.

In an amazing fundraising day, Torpoint Community College organised a ‘row-off’ in which me, Andy and James (Steve had to work) were challenged to a series of 3 minute rowing sprints - it was a tough challenge but we didn’t embarrass ourselves and neither did the students - they were awesome! Thanks everyone for getting involved and we look forward to the next one….we’re already in sprint rowing training!!

Torpoint teacher Amy Barker completed a 15,000ft tandem skydive and raised over £500 for Ellie’s Haven - what a star! Here’s Amy’s description of events in her own words!:

“Basically I jumped out of a plane from 15000ft. In the 60 second free fall, I fell roughly 10000ft/ about 2 miles! Then under canopy we floated slowly down over about 5 or 6 minutes. I had views of the Dorset coast and it was extremely surreal. During free fall, it was really noisy, however as soon as the parachute opened, it was really silent and I could chat quite normally with my instructor.

The company I did it through were brilliant and made me feel so at ease - i booked it through skydiveukltd which is run by Jason Farrant - who was also the bloke that I jumped with.

I wasn’t at all frightened or worried, Jason laughed and joked in the plane going up, then after the sports jumpers had all exited the plane we moved into the open doorway of the aircraft. Before I had time to think “I cant do this” we were already out and in free fall.

I loved every second and can’t wait to do it again!!! Definitely very addictive! So far I’ve raised £523 but my justgiving page is still open and is www.justgiving.com/amysjumpin”

Well done Amy - awesome effort and I hope we can arrange a group parachute jump next year, so if anyone is interested….??

Saturday morning in Plaidy is usually a quiet time, with residents relaxing and gazing over the rooftops out to sea - but not so this Saturday - Christina’s bring and buy sale brought the intrepid Looe contingent out in their dozens to browse knick-knacks, buy raffle tickets, drink coffee and eat biscuits. Me and Steve went to say hello to everyone and see what was up for grabs - we missed out on raffle prizes but had a lovely time chatting to the gang (we were even asked if we wanted a stowaway on the row!).

The morning was a real success and raised £176 for Ellie’s Haven - thank you everyone!

 

8 of us took part in the Plymouth Half Marathon on Sunday, in support of Ellie’s Haven. It was the hottest day ever on record, anywhere on earth (well, it felt like it….) but we all did it, including 10 year old Charlie - what a star!

The important figures for this event are not the times we ran in - obviously we smashed lots of speed records - but we weren’t aiming for the record books on this one, we were just raising money. Early estimates suggest we raised about £1500 between the 8 of us but we won’t have a final count for a couple of weeks when we get all the sponsorship money in. (we have to wait that long to be able to walk again so we can go round and collect it!).

I’ll post the photo’s of the magnificant 8 as soon as they are sent in - but we want to pass on our thanks for everyone - Andy, Andy, Elise, Chas, Maria, Babs & Charlie for a massive effort for Ellie’s Haven - Thanks everyone!

This is Mike Pacey, people in Torpoint will know Mike - he’s not got alot, but he’s donated his savings to Ellie’s Haven - £101! I can’t begin to describe what a great gesture this is and how much it means - thanks Mike and I truly hope that you set an example to others - Thanks! (But we still reserve the right to beat you at Snooker!)

Me and Steve spent today at the Lord Mayors Show in Plymouth - we met loads of people and were really encouraged by the amount of interest being shown in our project. We even had a visit from the Lord Mayor, the Lady Mayor and The Mayor’s Deputy and his wife who were really keen to find out what we were up to and said that they would do whatever they could to help - they’re dangerous words to say to me and Steve right now!!

We made a bit of money for Ellie’s Haven selling t-shirts and getting donations but this was largely about awareness and we certainly got the feeling that our profile has gone up a notch.

It was a hot day again and we spent most of it sat outside, explaining the project, showing people the boat and our rations and explaining Ellie’s Haven - we made a few contacts that we’ll follow up and learnt something about model boating (that’s remote controlled boats - the stall next door!)

People were really encouraging with their support and interest

 

This woman even started dancing after getting her Atlantic Freedom T-Shirt (but the police then moved her on!)

Thanks Maria for the photo!

OK, confession time, the photo below was not from last nights gig at the Rowing Club - it was taken when we played at Andy and Elise’s Fundraising Anniversary Party in November last year - this is because a) I thought this photo was funny and deserved airing and b) because all my photo’s of last night came out blurred (again!!!)

We had a great night last night - as soon as some people send me some photo’s I’ll post them up so you can see what it was like - there were loads of people dancing and I think everyone enjoyed themselves - Nigel and Julie were there to let their hair down which was great and the rusty band proved yet again that it is possible to let me make loads of mistakes and still come back for more….

John Ham (Hammy) entertained the crowds during the interval with his solo set and the girls went round with buckets to collect donations - the grand total (including the £200 we got paid) was £362.35 which will go straight to Ellie’s Haven. Thanks everyone! (Especially Chris Cox who, knowing he couldn’t make it donated £25 in advance).

So, a few sore heads this morning but all in a good cause - Rock n Roll (in an acoustic way) and of course Ellie’s Haven!

 

Mashfords Boatyard at Cremyll have saved the day by agreeing to repair the hole in our boat - for free! We couldn’t think of anyone better to make sure the boat can once again stand the beating it will recieve in the Atlantic - Thanks to Martin and the boys - can’t wait to see the finished job (and the repair to the outrigger from when I bumped it getting the boat into the yard!)

This is me with some of the Mashford’s gang, picking up the hole-less boat!

Mashfords Boatyard came good and have done a great job on fixing the hole in the boat and fixing the dent I put on the outrigger when taking it into the yard to get it fixed! It was probably a good job that they also got the boat out of the yard for me, rather than let me prang it again and have to take it straight back in!

Everyone at Mashford’s was really helpful, (although Paul was a bit shy and avoided being in ANY photo’s) they were all interested and keen to find out when we were going, how long it would take and so on - I hope we can keep you up to date when we go in December! Thanks again.

Yesterday we organised a golf day to raise money for Ellie’s Haven - it was Rich, Andy and Graham (Rich’s Dad) who were the brains behind this and organised it brilliantly, raising £457! Thanks everyone!

I know you’re itching to find out who won - and I’ll get to that, but before I do I want to to say thanks to Ed & Barry and all the team at Looe Golf Club who not only looked after us really well - bacon sandwiches, drinks, meals and so on but also donated back a chunk of their fee to our Ellie’s Haven fund.

It was a chance for me to say a few words about what we were doing - how the fundraising was going and to give a mention to the fundraising team - also, Nigel was there (Ellie’s Dad) and gave a great talk on what Ellie’s Haven was all about and why it was needed.

So….to the results……firstly, we did make the point beforehand that just because this was a charity day didn’t mean we couldn’t be competitive - so I guess it’s only fair to be a bit suspicious of the winning team, or the ‘bandits’ as we like to call them - Nigel, Jack and Mick, all swearing that their 28 handicaps were genuine…..but it was a sort of sweet justice when their prize turned out to be the box of balls Nigel had himself donated!

The individual winner on the day was Tony Hart (not that Tony Hart, this one…..)

Tony had a great round, with great support from his team (oh, that was me and Nathan), so together we helped him win!

This is Nigel and his team, considering whether they should have marked their cards to win the individual trophy too! We don’t mean it Nigel - I’m sure you know that!

So, a great day all round - even Ben Elliot got a special prize for the lowest score anyone had ever heard of (lowest means not very good when you’re playing points in Golf) - well done Ben and see everyone next year to try and get that trophy off Tony!

On Monday night me and Steve had our toughest challenge yet - to kiss all the award winners at the Torpoint Ladies Darts League Awards Night - but we puckered up and got stuck in! Thanks Ladies, it was great fun!

The League presented us with a cheque for £100 for Ellie’s Haven and then raised a further £123 htrough collections on the evening - a great total!

This week has seen us touring 12 schools in Plymouth and Cornwall, giving presentations and setting the school’s a challenge - a GIGANTIC Atlantic Challenge…. Here’s the deal; we GIVE the school’s £250 and they get a student comittee together who come up with ideas for ways to turn that money into more money…simple!

This is me giving the cheque to some of the students at Torpoint Community College - all the school’s and the students are really up for this challenge and we hope the BBC and local press will follow their progress over the next year.

The 12 school’s involved are:

Lipson Vale Primary School Saltash.net Community School Looe Primary School Callington Community College St. Cleer Primary School Pelynt Primary School

Liskeard Community College Fowey Primary School Looe Community School Duloe Primary School Trenode CofE Primary School Torpoint Community College

These schools represent a total of 7000 students - what amazing coverage that is. We hope that over the next couple of weeks we can get a special section of this website dedicated to their efforts so I can do all their activities some justice!

Good luck everyone - and remember the rules: enjoy yourselves and involve as many people as you can!

Me and my mate Tim (Tim’s a girl) played at the Saltash Regatta as a guitar/vocal duo ‘Under the Bridge’ - we do this every year but this year did it as a fundraiser - Thanks Tim! As you can see, the ‘Waterside Arena’ was jam packed - we felt like superstars!

Sometimes it’s hard playing in front of so many - you find your nerves get the better of you, there’s so much at stake….but Tim did great at singing and if anyone hasn’t heard her - try to because she’s a real talent. I hope she’ll be at ‘Haven Stock’ - a day of bands and barbeques planned for 1st August at Torpoint Rowing Club - 2pm -12pm - more people?…..is that possible?

A: The Torpoint Cons Club Quiz Nights - the latest of which was held on Sunday 5th July and raised £165 - a bit down on the heady heights of previous events but now we’re getting to the hard core quizzers.

The quiz was won by ‘the Bunch of Fives’ who can be seen here showing off their trophy which the Cons Club kindly donated - I hope they’ll be back next time to defend it. Actually, it’s lucky the trophy made it because I dropped it and broke it during the quiz and had to superglue it back together, it dried just in time for the presentation…..

For those that haven’t been to the quiz, you’re in for a treat - we’re the Rolls Royce of quizzes - everything is displayed on our electronic display board - the questions, the answers, the picture round, the leader-board etc - it’s a technological masterpiece!

Thanks to Rich as ever for sorting out the questions and compering the evening, thanks to the Cons Club for the trophy and the bottle of gin, thanks to Sandra for sorting the raffle and Mike for helping out and thanks of course to Daz for his ‘co-ordination’ of the event - have you ever seen anyone work so hard???!!!

A couple of weeks ago me and Steve were kindly invited into the studios of Plymouth Hospital Radio for an interview with Plymouth’s Number One Radio Personality Josh Andrews (it’s true, see the papers for the awards)

Click on the logo to listen - we challenge Josh to eat rations for a day as a symbol of solidarity for the row - thanks Josh! Look forward to hearing how the pork casserole went down…..

Before you read on - we’re still waiting for the really good photo’s from Thursday’s launch - as soon as these are sent I’ll update the following blog with them - but I hope it gives you some idea…..

On Thursday Atlantic Freedom went national. We invited friends and special guests to a reception at the MPA Gallery on the Thames. It was tough work and couldn’t have been done without the massive efforts of all involved; especially Mark Pinney and his family and colleagues at Mark Pinney Associates.

 The event started for us on Wednesday, picking up the boat and towing it up the M5 and M4 to London. We launched it at 6.00am on Thursday morning and rowed up river into position - the Thames is a fairly busy river at anytime so the support of Ellie Pinney in the safety boat was welcome! It went fine though and before long we were all having a bacon roll and getting the gallery ready for the launch.

 

 

It was great to see the number of people there, and really motivating getting a sense of their interest in the adventure and the causes we’re supporting. Nigel, founder of Ellie’s Haven and Ellie’s dad gave a great talk about why Ellie’s Haven is such an important cause. 

 

 

My sister came over from Barcelona and gave a talk about her thoughts on what we were doing. Then I said a few words which I hope explained what we wanted from the people there. 

 

 

 

 

Steve showed people round the boat, even a couple of fellow Atlantic Rowing Race entrants who came down to give us support - thanks Guys! 

 

Me and Steve then got a bit of a beer-sweat on by rowing out and around a bit for some photo’s.

 

 

The whole event carried on until 8.30ish when a big group of us went out for dinner - it was great catching up with people and meeting new people, it’s just that there were so many people to talk to, I’m sure we didn’t give everyone the full attention we wanted to. 

 

Me, Magda, Jo, Nigel and Steve then headed off to find a late bar and some dancing - this proved good training for me and Steve as we rolled in at sometime around 3am and needed to get up at 7am and get the boat back up the river, onto the trailer and back to Cornwall.   

 

We were really pleased with the whole event - and of course we need to thank everyone involved - especially Mark Pinney and his crew but also our own team - Magda is just the best, Sibylle and Tania were awesome and key to its success and Jo and Nigel really suffered for 2 days of travelling and sleep deprivation in their efforts to support us - thank you everyone!!

So, Saturday saw the start and end of Haven-Stock - a full on rock festival condensed into one day at the Torpoint Rowing Club. It raised £1269 for Ellie’s Haven - thanks to the kind and generous support of all at the Rowing Club and the massive efforts of Toxic Tony, Rich Rice and Daron Story - helped by loads of people - the bands; Graham and Di, Maria, Andy and Elise, Hollie and Charlie, Mike Pacey and Graham ‘Banner-man’ on sound duty. Thank you everyone who helped in every way and I hope you enjoy the photo album below……

If we’d dared dream about how the day could’ve turned out, it would have been just how it actually was - the bands, the weather, the atmosphere, the crowds, the barbeque….in fact, it was perfect - we even managed to literally drink the Club dry - leaving just a few bottles of Smirnoff Ice for the last to leave!

The day started in fine form with Growledge, giving it acoustic large, followed by Me and Tim on the acoustic stage. Tim was in fine voice and got alot of fans that day - Undercover Criminals were brilliant, playing with humour and talent. Full Mettle Rackett rocked the place apart with awesome heavy metal classics before Piledriver, sounding the best I’ve ever heard them, unleashed the force on foot stamping hoardes.

For the evening shift, Fingersmith did a great set, with Tony rocking how only Tony can….then came Haven - our band; bringing a mellow foot tapping acoustic set into the mix. Finally, The Craving turned up the rock-heat and belted out the numbers finishing on ‘You’ve gotta fight for your right….to paaaarrrttty!!’ by the Beastie Boys, a fitting end to a brilliant day.

 

 

 The Jubilee Inn in Torpoint organised a booze cruise last week and raised a massive £418 for Ellie’s Haven - This was in partnership with the Mez Bar - both places closed for the evening (although after the cruise, the Mez Bar was opened up again for the party to continue…!!) Thanks everyone for this - it was a massive total and i hope the sore heads on Tuesday morning were well worth it!!

Romana Hill - (You’ll know her from Dashers or the Rowing Club!) said about a year ago now that she wanted to do a parachute jump and was keen to do it for Ellie’s Haven - so, I set her a target of £500 of sponsorship to raise having looked into the costs - well, she must’ve been keen because she raised much more than that - in fact, the final total is yet to be counted!

So, on Sunday, we went down to Perranporth Airfield and signed her up for a tandem skydive - I could tell Ro was a bit nervous when we signed in and she couldn’t remember her age….. so, despite having to wait about 7 hours to actually do the jump, it was great that Ro didn’t lose her nerve and went for it - we all held our breath as the tiny dots emerged from the plane way up above us - then a chute opened and eventually Ro landed - her first words?…. “That was fantastic, that’s what I want for birthday, Christmas and anniversary presents from now on - parachute jumps!”

Well, Ro gets married next month to Mark so maybe there’s a wedding present idea for someone?! Thanks Ro - you did brilliantly! x

Me and Steve spent an initially gruelling week learning Astro-navigation (using a sextant) - this was full on trigonometry which we’re really weren’t used to - but we did it! At first it was really tough and both me and Steve left the 5 day course after day 1 thinking; “how are we going to pass this??!!” but persistance pays off and by Wednesday we were both getting to grips with it - by Friday we were experts…..well, theoretical experts!

Simon Turner, the instructor at Plymouth Sailing School kept on drumming it home and eventually it stuck - now, with the exception of the first aid at sea, we are fully qualified to row a boat across the Atlantic!!

Wow! We’ve been trying to sort this for a year now and finally it’s come about!! Last week 10 girls from Torpoint got everything out for a photo shoot for our Naked Calendar!!

The 10 brave women: (Elise Jenness (37), Romana Hill (41), Jayne Story (36), Sharon Hardy (48), Maria Fry (40), Debbie Nodder (45), Leanne Hancock (39), Janice Gray (43), Janine Lau (32), Tracey Wood (41)) faced bitter winds and rain to pose for the photo’s in a variety of positions for the marine themed calendar.

 

The photos were taken by Emma Densham who has been taking professional photographs in the South West for 20 years. Emma (emma.phot@hotmail.co.uk) gave up her time for free in support of the charity calendar and made the girls feel comfortable and relaxed  throughout.

 

The calendar was organized by Elise Jenness, who is part of our fundraising team, NICE ONE ELISE!!!

Want a sneaky peak?????? Ok then…………..(oh, me and Steve are in it!! - Sorry)

Our thanks go to Pains Wessex, part of the Chemring Group for supplying us with our distress flares - a mandatory piece of kit and one that we hope we’ll carry across the Atlantic without having to use! I went down to their warehouse in Salisbury yesterday to pick them up - this is Phil handing them over - Rob took the photo - thanks guys, very appreciated!

Sadly, we’ve had to postpone the Charity Auction due to lack of ticket sales - we knew this was an ambitious event for us and unfortunately we didn’t make our target of 120 tickets so we are calling the evening off. We will be meeting shortly to work out how best to auction of the brilliant items we’ve still got - a condition of being given some of them was that they are not to be sold via E-Bay - we’ll work something out and let you all know.

Can I also add a big thank you to Andy who has worked really hard for a year now, collecting items and planning the evening - Andy couldn’t have done more to make this work, it just wasn’t to be.

Watch this space for more news!