Patrick, Mick and Olly

The weather is still shocking up north but one or two people still getting things done. Spent the weekend guiding and filming dean Dunbar across the Gulf of Corryvrecken. Well worth a google if you haven’t heard of it. Dean started loosing his sight at 9 and is now virtually blind and we think is now the first registered blind person to have swum this stretch of water. Not only that he took on the 1200m crossing of 11 degree water without a wetsuit and was still happy to swim the last 100 m again to ensure we got the footage. Some man. He’s aiming for the Channel this time next years.

Meanwhile Mick and I are planning to meet next week to discuss our next ‘`shetland Bus’ move

I’ve been trying to log all the times I’ve been sick on a crossing. One fact sticks out. It very rarely happens when paddling alone. Is it correct to assume that it is other boats in your peripheral vision that make things worse??
I’d be intersted to know if many people have had much joy with products such as BioBands which supposedly work by stimulating the P6 acupressure points (just above the carpel band on the inside of the wrist).
The theory seems to suggest that sea sickness occurs during passive motion. We’re obviously not working hard enough.

What a contrast between the success of the Faroes trip and the North Sea failure. It’s hard to come away with anything positive after putting in so much time and effort but there is plenty we can learn from our time in Shetland. Training, sleeping arrangements, and a few bits of kit can all be improved but it is the psychological side that is both interesting and crucial if working in a team of three. Prior to calling off the second attempt we had lost the positive vibe that we had for the first. We all had reasons for concern but we shouldn’t have let the negative thoughts destroy our confidence.
A couple of the lessons:
If training apart you need a training camp prior to the expedition to build confidence in the team.
Although not physiologically essential it is beneficial to do 1 or 2 really hard sessions as psychological preparation. It seems the experience of previous years is not sufficient.
The wave patterns in the North Sea make for slow progress and make you far more prone to sea sickness. As you can’t expect to have a flat crossing this is something that has to be coped with.

We made the decision not to go late on Monday night. It’s a tough one to make and an even harder one to live with. The deciding factor was the lack of consistency in the weather forecasts. I guess ‘once bitten, twice shy’. No one can expect to make a crossing of this nature without encountering some rough weather but we wanted to avoid being hit by a force 6/7 on our last day and there was a big chance that was going to happen.

Come back and find out where we go from here and if we decide another North Sea crossing is possible.