Rachel Hedley's blog

If all we had to do was raise £24,000, or row the English Channel, life would be so much easier.

Tickets are now on sale for 'Best of Bond' a fundraising dinner, auction and casino night fundraising for the Mums Away Cross Channel Row team.

What on earth would persuade 14 women, all mothers, all over the age of 42 (most of us over the age of 50), with no rowing experience, to row the Channel?

I drove to Southsea marina along the M27 on Friday night in dense fog, crawling my way off the motorway slip road down into Portsmouth. What is it that Tom Cunliffe says about sailing in fog?

What was it the weather forecast said? Rain all day on Saturday, 8 knots of wind from the north west.

Want to support Children in Need and a bunch of Plymouth University students who are rowing the length of the Thames?

All sailors seem agreed that this summer has been terrible for sailing. Do we say that every year? Is it always the worst summer for sailing?

There's an excellent series of articles on the RYA website, written by Simon Jinks, RYA instructor on the phenomenon that occurs when out cruising and another boat is heading in the same direction.

With strong winds from the South West and rain forecast for Saturday, a passage from Southsea Marina to the Folly looked like madness indeed. Azanti's crew - co-owners Peter and Geoff; Kat and her friend Hope (bringing the average age down to something nearer the 30s) and I ate breakfast listening to the rain lashing the boat and wondered why on earth anyone would choose to go sailing in December in those conditions. 

It started inauspiciously when we arrived to pick up the boat from the mooring at 1745 on Friday evening and were firmly stuck in the mud.