Rowing in February

01 Mar 2010 posted by Dave Holby

Current Location – Braganca, Brazil

27896 km rowed… 12179 km remaining

Never in my life have I been more desperate for the arrival of spring! After ripping a gaping hole in my long johns last week I’ve just about had enough of violent head winds up my trouser legs… cursing the weather and clenching my fist at the sky just seems to make it worse, Basingstoke weather has just got it in for all of us! Although February is a shorter month, we’re still making very steady progress towards the South Atlantic and we’re just a few days away from getting our virtual toes virtually wet in a big virtual ocean… in a sort of virtual kind of way. The pennies are still coming and we’re now just over £12,000 raised for Breakthrough, that’s 32% of our target which is wonderful – I’ve always been of the thought that even we only raise another penny for the rest of the challenge then it’s a penny more towards the fight but I so hope we can raise an absolute bomb. The lovely people of Basingstoke have given again and again, not only with donations but also support in the form of cuddles, fig rolls, woolly scarves and a green fluffy penguin from a man called Bernard. It’s time to get some corporate cash to back up all that good will and I’m keeping everything crossed we can get it – we’ve got a great team in place to move us in the right direction.

Over the last few months it’s been an absolute joy (despite the buttock burning agony!) to row with James and my brother Jonathan on a few occassions and set a couple of world records along the way – the next one up is an attempt with my good friend Ollie Trinder to have a crack at the longest continual tandem world record on 8th May at the Reading Hilton. The record currently stands at 72 hours and 17 minutes and we’re going to try and raise the bar to 100 hours if we possibly can – heavens knows why, I just think Ollie’s mean – he’s a fitness instructor and the right side of 25 with biceps the size of Bournemouth so I hardly think it’s fair I have to row with him… well, he’s not really mean, he’s actually a really lovely guy but I still think he’s cruel… in a lovely way. The plan is to begin at 10am on the Saturday, rowing in 2 hour shifts (swapping to four hours at night) and finishing at 2pm on Wednesday 12th – Ollie is as strong as an ox so I hope I won’t let him down. I’ll pop up more details in the next blog.

Also coming up is the next gig at Basingstoke’s Red Lion Hotel, organised by Stu for Friday 5th March and starting at 7.30pm – if you fancy a fantastic night watching some very talented young chaps belt out their hits then it’s well worth popping down early as the last bash was a sell out and they’d hate for you to be disappointed. If moshing is your thing, you’ll have a riot… if you’re a coward like me and prefer clapping at the back, then please join me for a cuddle, buttock discussions and hilarious fig roll anecdotes. I’ll pop up all the photos from the night in the next entry x

Thank you again guys for all your support – I know I keep saying it but it really does mean the world to me. A huge thank you also to Jae, Kirstin and Auntie Heather for all donating through our justgiving page - we’re now just shy of £2,000 raised online which is brilliant.

 Happy almost Spring and may your days be ever long john free! (at least until October) x