Saturday, October 25, 2008

Oh, the hypocrisy! Haha...well, though you'd never know it from my updates here, I'm still very much alive and am now only 37 days from departure (give or take). There have been a massive amount of exciting developments going on with my expedition and Row for Hope, so here's a quick update:

- Last weekend the Row for Hope team was at the Head of the Charles regatta in Boston (picture above). We talked to tons of people, sold lots of tickets for a raffle where we'll give away a weekend of sculling instruction at Craftsbury Sculling Center in Vermont (generously donated, thanks Sheldon!) as well as a recently-developed oar case from Concept2 (also donated, thanks to Jon Williams).

- Shooting has begun for a documentary that will cover my expedition. Matt Heineman is in the process or rigging the boat with all sorts of camera equipment that will record everything that happens in days leading up to and during my Atlantic crossing. He's also training me to talk int a camera (a lot harder than it sounds), and get comfortable checking in daily with updates on my thoughts, feelings, etc...Check out his last documentary called The Young Americans Project here: http://www.tyap.com/.

- I'm up to my eyebrows in final boat preparations to get the boat ready to ship on October 31st. I have a few projects left to complete, then its just a matter of packing Liv with all of the equipment that I won't be able to carry on the plane to the Canaries, which is basically everything.

- FOOD - Wow, 8,000 calories a day for 95 days is a lot of food! I have almost 500 freeze dried meals on the way to me from Mountain House, who was kind enough to give me wholesale pricing (~40% discount). I also have almost 400 energy bars sitting in my living room (I won't promote the brand, because the bastards turned down my request for free bars.) The rest of my food is mostly snacks, etc...and will come from Costco where I'm headed tomorrow.
All I have time for, for now...but expect more from me in the next few weeks. Also don't forget that I'll be posting every day from the Atlantic starting in a little over a month.


Paul