Great News - PC Plotter have agreed to supply us with a PC Plotter 5000 system with weather downloading.

I am well into writing the general risk assessment that covers all aspects of the trip that is not specific to a particular leg…

I have added a video section on the Home page. This video will always be boat related or something specifically related to my trip so please look back regularly.

I have started adding links to local information about each stop off point. Harbour and marina details, information about the town etc.

They will all be added over the next week or so.

I will have considerable restrictions under the current law when considering carraige of extra fuel.

I knew I would have problems with petrol! I wondered why there haven’t been many attempts at Round Britain in a small petrol powered boat and perhaps this is one of the reasons why.

Firstly, without needing special permission or licence, all petrol over 10 litres MUST be stored and carried in metal containers, suitably marked, and in containers no bigger than 10 litres in size. Bang goes my plan to use 20 litre cans!

Also, I am restricted to only 2 x 10 ltr cans without having to comply with various safety regulations if I am within 6m of any building or flamable materials. Clearly when in a marina I am going to be less that 6m from other boats and so that rule will apply. If I were not within 6m then I could store up to 275 litres including the fuel in the tank.

Then there are the transit regulations… it seems that when in transit, that is when being transported from the garage to the boat or when in the boat and enroute, there are no restrictions providing I use cans no bigger than 10 litres.

This may make the event more difficult but I am sure that with some careful planning we will be able to do the trip without it impacting things too much… watch this space

I can guarantee that money donated to the RNLI will go 100% to the RNLI.

Just a quick note on funding. I want to make a couple of things very clear about how the trip will be funded.

Any money donated to the RNLI through collections or justgiving.com will be guaranteed to go 100% to the RNLI. I will not be using any of the donated money towards my costs. The RNLI insist upon that and to be honest so do I. The funding of the event will be through company sponsorship. So far we do not have any sponsors on board but now we have MBM coverage I am sure that some will be secured before long.

Also, any legacy upgrades or improvements to the boat, that is anything that I will be keeping and using after the event, will be paid for out of my own pocket. If we are to have the confidence of the donators and the sponsors this must be completely 100% above board. There may be some items that are funded via sponsor funding that remain with us after but it will be with sponsor approval but to be honest I don’t expect much to fall into that category. Aux engine will certainly be an item I pay for myself and I am thinking about whether I should keep the liferaft afterwards in which case I would personally buy a liferaft. I may also go on Sea Survival course but I am hoping I will get a sponsor to cover that.

Accounts will be available after completion of the event to all sponsors, the RNLI and anyone who asks in writing.

I had a meeting today with an RNLI representative and after looking over my initial plans it was agreed that there is still a lot of work to be done.

That’s right… "…a good start but a long way to go…" seems to be the feeling after the meeting.

My outline passage plans really are just that "outline". They are the basis on which I now have to build a detailed plan and producing alongside a detailed Risk Assessment document laying out the risks for each leg, describing what I have done/will do to mitigate those risks.

My first thoughts were that it was a bit of overkill but on reflection shouldn’t we be doing this each time we plan any log trip? Of course we should and perhaps mostly we already are but our own way, perhaps not so formally and perhaps not documenting it quite so thoroughly. In this case documentation will be essential to provide evidence, to the RNLI, to my insurers and to me, that I have thought about and catered for everything that is sensible to plan ahead for.

We will all be able to learn a lot from my experiences here I am sure.

Also out of that meeting came the idea that I should consider having some drying-out legs made for her. This would open up the options to use drying harbours, particularly in an emergency. Anyone know who might be interested in making some for me?

I am pleased to announce that MBM have expressed their interest in the trip. They have agreed to do regular Blog reports on the MBM web site during the trip and also to run a feature article on my return.

Watch out for reports on our planning progress too in MBM in the build up to the event.

I have been informed that Larne is not accepting leisure craft this year so I have changed the Northern Ireland leg to Bangor. It make the 2 legs from Douglas to Port Ellen more even anyway.

All plans have now been reworked, renumbered and are looking much better.

Many of the east coast legs have remained the same with an option to stop or refuel. I have done that so that if the weather is good I can continue on to my preferred stop off point.

The entire passage is now:

Total Passage Plan Distance: 1549NM

Total Planned stops: 25

Total Planned days on passage: 57 excluding extra time in port for weather

I will renumber the legs when I am more certain of the route.