London to Auckland

‘Nothing is constant but change itself’.

I can’t remember who said that but they were right. As we march closer and closer to departure date we are constantly dealing with change and updating our plans as we go. But on a scale of 1-10 the latest is a 23. For the past year JP and Marie Dufour have been tireless in their attempts to get Domino ready for the ride. It has been a close run thing for some time now and with logistical problems mounting up the team and the Dufours have mutually decided that Domino is unlikely to make Istanbul in time and we have agreed to go without a support boat.

We are sad that JP and Marie will not join us on our adventure but they assure us that they will be there in spirit and also flying the flag for us in the USA where they are now headed. Safe sailing guys and we will see you sometime in the future.

Now before you all start digging into me like Barrie did when he heard it, let me explain our new plans.

Going without a support boat was actually our plan ‘A’ a couple of years ago so it’s not a major shock and we are not all running around in circles claiming that the sky is falling. In actual fact, most people in the know, see riding without a support boat as a much more pure ride and are quite excited about it. Sure it adds logistical problems but hey, it was never going to be easy or somebody would have done it already. Fortunately we heard about it in time to up the fuel capacity of the Seadoos to an impressive 270L giving an endurance of 15hours and range of 800km on a good day. Although we will cover more distance we will not be restricted by Domino’s cruising speed so the schedule should remain pretty much the same. It adds in a few extra countries though as we have to go coastal for most of the route so feel free to check out the new route at http://london-sydney.com/maps.htm

Those of you who look at the new maps will notice a portion on the map that goes directly from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. Although only about 10cm on the map this leg is around 1400km in the real World. We will need a support boat across there as it will take us about three days. We also anticipate needing one across the Tasman. Other than that we should be able to hop from place to place quite well with 800km of range.

In other news, we displayed the first modified Seadoo at the Auckland Boat Show last weekend and a huge amount of publicity has come of it giving us a much needed boost and offers of help from around the globe. In the next blog I will announce the riders. Talk amongst yourselves until then and for the one or two of you who haven’t donated yet please do it at http://london-sydney.com/donate-local.htm for your local cancer organization or http://london-sydney.com/donate-ultimateride.htm to help us out with the costs of the ride.

Cheers

Jeremy

Now that I have your attention (and especially Barrie’s) and my blog readership stats have skyrocketed, I am going to come clean and say that the truth has been stretched somewhat in the blog title. In fact, your leg has been pulled so hard that it will probably hurt quite a bit in the morning.

But persevere please as I have an important message for you. We need your help.

We need assistance in two areas.

1. 1. We need donations to our cancer charity partners to help them in the fight against cancer. This is easy to do through our website at: http://london-sydney.com/donate-local.htm You can donate through this link directly to our partners and in most cases get a tax deductible receipt. Any donor donating $1,000 Aussie dollars or more, or the equivalent in another currency can name one of the hundred or so legs of the ride after a cancer victim or in support of someone battling cancer. Each day on the ride we will make mention of the ‘person of the day’. Just email me if you do this so we can get the details up on our site.
2. 2. We need your donations to help fund the expenses of the ride so we can get our message out there and assist our partners in raising funds. You can do this using PayPal or a credit card at: http://london-sydney.com/donate-ultimateride.htm Anyone who donates $20 Aussie dollars or more will be emailed a sequentially numbered certificate for a specific nautical mile of the ride from 1-17,000. Your donation will only be used for absolutely necessary operational expenses such as fuel etc. In the unlikely event that the ride becomes overfunded by donations and sponsors the excess will be donated to cancer research.

If you think back you will remember having met wonderful people in your lives who have nothing, but will still give you the shirt off their back or have done well and now want to give something back. The guy who stops to give you a ride when your car breaks down, a family that is so poor they have to buy used toothbrushes on EBay, but still do charity work for others, and the guy next door who is on five committees and three trust boards to name but a few. These people are all out there and they are what keep communities going. They all have one thing in common. They have all discovered that giving is more satisfying than receiving.

Most, if not all of you, already know this and are the lucky ones. Giving is the real answer to happiness and fulfillment, not accumulating assets as some are want to do. So please give generously and help save some lives. We all know people affected by cancer. It’s just not good enough to say “it won’t happen to me”, let’s work together to stamp out this vicious disease. Donate now.

Yours in the battle,

Jeremy

Sometimes you meet the most remarkable people by chance. I met my riding buddy Barrie as a result of my oldest son trying out for school rowing so he could get a day off school. And it was chance too with JP and Marie Dufour seen above in front of their shed in Paraguay.

When we were looking for a support boat for ‘The Ultimate Ride’ I was discussing our requirements of long range and high speed with Malcolm Tennant from Tennant Design. Malcolm informed me that there was really only one boat in the World that would fit and that was the Tennant Design Domino Cat. I asked him where I could find one and he said, “In Paraguay”

Paraguay. A land locked country in the middle of South America. What was this boat doing there and how was it going to get out of there when the time came to leave? So I asked Malcolm to explain and here is the answer. Three and a half years ago JP and Marie Dufour had been lured into having their boat built in Paraguay on the promise of skilled and extremely cheap labor. This would allow them to build their dream boat, something they couldn’t have afforded to do in America. A contract was signed and some cash was handed over and all seemed to be going well but when the excited couple visited Paraguay to oversee the final six months of building they found that there hadn’t been much progress at all and much of the money was gone. Faced with the decision of writing it all off as a bad adventure or staying in Paraguay and taking over the building of the boat they bravely chose the latter. So they went to work as a team, JP as the technical details and numbers man and Marie as his supplies officer, secretary and general hand.

After talking to Malcolm Tennant I contacted JP and Marie and mentioned what we were doing. They liked it but with a planned departure date of June 2009 the boat wouldn’t be ready so that was that. But then along came the financial crisis and we decided to delay the ride by a year. Then it looked like Domino could be ready and the Dufours were excited about the prospect of joining us on the ride. In February 2009 I visited Paraguay and the Dufours to get to know them and discuss plans. I was impressed with what great people they were and how easy they were to get on with. By the time I left Paraguay we were even more enthused about our plans so JP and Marie ramped up the finishing process of the Domino and against all odds including a third world system where nothing happens quickly and where graft and corruption is rife, the Domino has been completed and now awaits customs clearance to get out of Paraguay. On the part of the locals who worked on Domino this is an extremely good effort but over the last three years what JP and Marie have achieved is nothing short of amazing. Marie makes special mention of how helpful all their suppliers in the USA were too. Nothing was ever a problem.

Domino was launched a day before Christmas after a nine day exercise to get her from the building shed into the river. See http://dominocatamaran.blogspot.com/ for the story of those nine days, it makes good reading. Domino looks great and has been performing at least to expectations in trials.

So now it’s down the Paraguay River to the border with Argentina and then down the Parana River to Buenos Aires and the Atlantic Ocean, all the way continuing the good work of the Domino Foundation http://www.dominohealth.org/ until joining us in Turkey in August. Bon Voyage guys. We look forward to working with you.

Domino on the Paraguay River

On a global scale, few events are as eagerly anticipated as the annual Browns Bay Santa Parade so a few weeks ago we decided to put the first Seadoo and the sign written vehicle in the parade for some much needed hometown publicity. I’ve been to a few of these parades and Santa always ends up riding on a float or the Coastguard boat so I suggested we try and get Santa to ride on the Seadoo during the parade. So our people spoke to Santa’s people and Santa’s people spoke with the occupational health and safety people and it was decided by the human resources department that there was just too much risk involved and that Santa would not be able to ride on the ski.

If you think we were disappointed check out Santa’s subsequent press release and I quote: “Ho Ho Ho. Quite frankly I’m f…ing flabbergasted. I ride around in subzero temperatures at the speed of light in my pajamas in an open sleigh with no seat belts and no radios, but I’m not allowed to sit on a jet ski in a parade.” Then he went on to say: “I like those Ultimate Ride boys and what they stand for. Jeremy has mostly been a good boy, only missing out on presents a couple of years, so I’m proud to say that I’ve offered my services as a celebrity rider for one of the legs in Europe and perhaps one on the East Coast of Australia as well.”

That’s fantastic news isn’t it? Santa joining the Ultimate Ride. I tried to Skype Santa to confirm how pleased we are but only got an answer message but I know he’ll read this blog so here’s a direct message from me to Santa…….Santa. We are absolutely over the moon to have you on board but one thing that worries me is our healthy living message. To be perfectly frank, health wise you’re a disgrace Bro. lose some weight, get a colonoscopy and slap some sunscreen on that big red overexposed nose. Stop talking the talk and start walking the walk my man. And no socks or undies this year please. Bring us a cure for cancer.

In other news, our support boat, Domino is finished in Asuncion Paraguay and now JP and Marie and team are working to get her in the water. See a utube video of this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiqVL77XRc&feature=autoshare_twitter

And in more sobering news we were all saddened by the death from cancer of Josephine, the Mother of my riding buddy Barrie. R.I.P Josephine and our thoughts are with Barrie and his family.

So that’s it for now my friends. The countdown clock says 222 days to go so the New Year will be busy. Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year to you all and your families and don’t leave cookies out for Santa. Leave a piece of fruit and Santa has asked that if you must leave a tipple, a 1995 Grange Hermitage would be healthy and appreciated.

Cheers

Jeremy

A couple of weeks ago we launched the first Seadoo test machine at Takapuna ramp. As well as a launch for us, we used the machine as part of a Marine Industry Association’s ‘Discover Boating’ campaign where I taught Emma ‘The Boating Babe’ to ride a PWC. Photos for this successful outing can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielMickleson/UltimateRide?authkey=Gv1sRgCPqLiZyO4uXW1QE&feat=email#

Emma has been trying out a different marine experience each week and writing articles for the Sunday Star times. The PWC article appeared last week titled ‘Splash and dash’ and in this article Emma described me as the Yoda of PWC riding and her as Luke Skywalker. Let me just say this now for the record while you role around on the floor laughing, Yoda I am not and claiming to be him, I have never. He is over 800 years old and talks backwards, and he is shorter than me.

Anyway, a lot of fun was had by all and Emma didn’t kill herself or anyone else so it was a successful outing.

This week we signed up with our New Zealand cancer partner, the Melanoma Foundation. www.melanoma.org.nz The Melanoma Foundation is a relatively young organization that has been formed to raise awareness of and support for people with melanoma. Given my history with melanoma, our partnership is fitting and both the Foundation and I are excited about the possibilities. I highly recommend a visit to their site to see what they are up to. Summer is upon us and our skin is getting damaged every day.

We added another member to our fantastic London-Sydney team this week. Robyn Lorenzen is a welfare officer for the NZ Police and has joined the team as Manager Welfare. Welcome Robyn. Robyn’s job will be to work with the crew and families on all matters related to welfare.

Goode PR are currently putting the finishing touches on a sponsorship proposal document that we will use to gain further sponsorship. One thing that will be available is naming rights on the Seadoos. Since the Seadoos will be registered as New Zealand ships they need a name and I don’t mean names like Brian or Wayne. However if there is anyone out there named Brian or Wayne with a spare $50,000 then I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement.

Next week we hope to have our donation page up and running on our site so shake those moths out of your wallets and get ready….

That’s about it for now but no blog of mine would be complete without mention of my riding buddy, Barrie. Readers are now starting to ask if Barrie is real or just a fantasy of mine. Well what I can tell you is that he is ‘The Stig’ of PWC riding, able to leap giant waves with ease and catch flying fish in his teeth. And really, this whole article has involved him from start to finish. He knows Emma ‘The Boating Babe’. He is the ‘Yoda’ of rowing, only taller and, some would say, better looking (others would say not). He should visit the Melanoma Foundation website because being as tall as he is, he is closer to the sun, he definitely needs welfare, no matter how much he pays me I’m not going to name a PWC Barrie and there are definitely moths in his wallet.

Cheers for now. Jeremy

Sup?Sup?Gangster Dude

This text message reportedly found ‘accidentally’ by my brother in the text messages on my 13 year old niece’s phone. In English this roughly means, “What are you doing my friend? Are your evil uneducated parents still oppressing you, beating you and making your life miserable?

My guess is that the reply to this message would have been a lone ‘Sup?’ or ‘Sup bakatya’.

For those of you who can’t recognize it, it’s ‘communication Jim but not as we know it Jim’.

And that’s my topic for the day. Communication. It’s important for us, not only during the ride, but right now as we work towards getting everything organized and trying to get as much exposure as possible to enhance our chances of catching the eye of people worldwide who can help us make it all successful.

To that end we have the website that gets thousands of hits a month and we expect over 100,000 hits a day during the event. There is a Global London-Sydney Face book group at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103535926659 . I write this blog about once a month to keep you all informed and I have a ‘twitter’ http://twitter.com/jeremyburfoot that allows interested parties to see what we are up to on a daily basis with the ride. My riding buddy Barrie reckons that only three people read the blog. Barrie, my wife Manola and you, and I’d like to thank you for being so faithful. Interestingly, not one person has asked to be removed from the email update list although I do wonder how many people have classified it as spam!

During the ride we will have the website which will be the main focus point for our followers. The website will have a tracking page that will show via satellite where we are, where we have been, our average speed, what the conditions are like and many other items of interest. On the physiology page there will be daily updates of the rider’s physical condition and items such as weight and heart rate will be graphed to show trends. The site will also have a couple of webcam feeds. Photos and U-tube film clips will be frequently uploaded. The blog and twitter will be updated when news happens, but mostly by the crew as I will have other things to think about.

Domino will be equipped with satellite broadband and the team will have satellite phones. We will also use normal mobile phones at times when they are useful such as going through Europe. We will use VHF and UHF for communications while riding. We riders will be able to talk to each other and Domino through radios installed in our helmets. Each operational team member will carry an emergency beacon that, if set off, will inform authorities in New Zealand of our exact position. More simply but just as important, we will need to communicate our intentions by flag as well. As the Seadoos will be registered as New Zealand Ships we will need to fly the New Zealand flag and, as a courtesy when it counts, we will fly the flag of the country we are passing through. Some countries still require that a yellow quarantine flag is flown on entry as well. As an absolute last resort I reserve the right to use sign language if I get really upset with someone.

Now if Tim Turner was reading this (and I know he’s not because he’s not one of the three) he would say, “Burfoot. Ask me if I care about any of this. Instead of telling us how you are going to keep us informed, tell us some actual news.” Good point Turner.

Now here is the news….I have just got back from London where I met with Adrian Erangey and our new London based team. This team was previously involved with Earthrace so have lots of experience already. The London Team will take care of most aspects of the ride that need to be organized from that end and also chase up sponsorship for us in the UK.

A few weeks ago we had a selection process for the support rider for the event. We now have a shortlist and the contenders have joined the team and are already making a contribution. Final selection of crew will take place in Feb 2010.

We would also like to welcome three new sponsor/suppliers to the team. Capitol Signs has agreed to do our sign writing for us, Johnston Associates has agreed to be team accountant and ‘Skins’ are providing us with skins for the ride. Thanks guys. We appreciate your contribution!!

We have taken delivery of the first Seadoo and it is now sign written with sponsor’s logos. It looks great. VJ Clark is in charge of modifying the machine for testing. This machine is a 2009 model and we will pick up three new 2010 models in December. On a lighter note, I was having a look through the Seadoo manual a few days ago and reading the safety warnings section. Obviously a law firm has been employed to mitigate any risk that Seadoo might face due to the extraordinary performance of these machines. If you took that section seriously you would limit your machine use to: ‘Never to be ridden, to remain in the garage and only to be shown to mates for bragging rights and when they view it they must be wearing a helmet’. There is also an interesting loading sticker on the back of the machine. It has a picture with three people on it and an alternative of one person and a suitcase. That means I can pick up hitch hikers on the ride provided I ditch my suitcase. Tough choice and certain criteria will apply.

In other news we have added our detailed ‘Healthy Living’ message to the site at: http://www.london-sydney.com/healthy-living.htm . Have a read. You might learn something. Speaking of healthy living, I am currently in the USA and have just got back from an eating experience. I have just had a salad at a place called ‘The Cheesecake Factory’. The Factory has an extensive menu which makes it one of my favorite places to eat. The chicken salad I ordered comes stacked 6 inches high on a plate the size of a wagon wheel. The amazing thing is that instead of tasting bland like a normal salad that only a horse or a vegetarian would enjoy, this salad actually tastes good. How they achieve this at the Factory is that they add calories in the form of cheese, tortilla strips, dressings and, I think, green M&Ms. Add to this a margarita that comes in a two gallon bucket and you have an epic culinary event of some 2 to 3 million calories. Sure you do get your greens for the next two weeks but you also get fat.

With all the bad news coming out of the USA over the last year I can hear you all wondering how things really are over here. Well as your correspondent here ‘on the ground’ I can report that all is not as bad as it seems. This maybe because my company recently forgot themselves and accommodated us in a good area but I get around a bit and see a bit so am reasonably well informed. The country is still in shock from the damage inflicted by the greed on Wall Street and that greed is, by all reports, still alive and well. But Americans are resilient, positive and generally intelligent and I believe we haven’t seen the last of them. After all, they gave us most of the great inventions of the 20^th century and they stopped us from having to speak Japanese or German so be thankful and don’t write them off. One thing that has deteriorated somewhat though is service. I tried to get a shirt washed recently and was told it would take two days. I get a quicker laundry turnaround than that at home and sometimes get to sleep with the laundry person. (But not any more after she reads this). And at the Factory last night the service was so so. At one point our waiter winged past and enquired as to how things were going. As a joke one of our group said, “Everything tastes like crap”. The waiter’s reply was, “You’re welcome”. At the end of the night we had to pay the bill and here is where the stupidity really starts. When I first started coming here before the war a 10% tip was considered normal. Now the waiter sulks if you don’t give 18% and no matter how good the service actually was. So we stuck to our guns, tipped 15%in cash and a further 3% in really good tips like don’t bet on a slow race horse and under no circumstances, ever, ever eat yellow snow. So to sum up here…business as usual in the USA and thank God for that. Until next time.

When it comes to food the experts love to say that in general terms, “You are what you eat.” I like to think that this is just plain wrong , otherwise at various times in my life I would have been a pie or a cake, and after one tour of the South Island by trail bike in 1979, a burger with the lot and stolen cherries. I enjoy good food. It’s one of the great pleasures of life. In fact, I love my meat so much that when I was young I decided that if I couldn’t become an astronaut, I’d become a meatorologist and work in a butchers shop.

I have never been that keen on vegetables. I knew a guy once who claimed to be able to see poisonous fumes coming off cucumbers. I can’t personally see them but I know they are there, and for the first 15 years of my kid’s lives I told them that I could only afford enough broccolis for them. I’m not bragging here you know. This is a sacrifice that any parent would be happy to make.

I am also not a great fan of offal, toe nails, scrotum, seaweed or animal sexual organs so working for Japan Airlines for 4 years in the nineties was a bit of a nightmare. An adventurous eater I am not!

I have tried most diet types during my life. The see-food diet where you eat any food you see and get heavier contrasts with the high protein low carb diet where you lose weight in the short term but suffer in the long term from constipation and lack of energy. Neither is ideal. There is no substitute for a well balanced diet and regular exercise.

Even though I understand all this, food is definitely a weakness of mine. As an example of where I am at food wise, if I had to choose a last meal it would be a 3kg fillet mignon with pepper sauce and fries. Dessert would be 3 helpings of blackberry pie with lashings of whipped crème. The whole meal would be finished off with a large pile of dark chocolate marshmallow easter eggs. Vegetables would not be invited to attend.

This would all indicate that some sacrifices will need to be made in order to ensure a successful London to Sydney ride.

Nutrition is a hot topic for the ride. We will be asking our bodies to work for up to 12 hours a day for six days a week. This is necessitating a review of what I eat leading up to and during the ride. There needs to be a general (possibly Field Marshall) change towards more healthy carbs, fruit, veggies and quality proteins and fats.

During the ride we will need to top up with carbs consistently during the day to avoid running our glycogen levels down to a level where we ‘hit the wall’ or ‘bonk’ and we will need to keep fluid intakes up. As soon as we get off the skis we will need to get into recovery mode in the first 30 minutes taking on some more good carbs to give our muscles the best chance of recovery before the next day’s workout.

Fortunately Marie Dufour who will be on the support boat with us and in charge of nutrition is something of a nutrition guru. (See Marie’s blog at: http://dufourcrunch.blogspot.com/) As Marie is both French and American we can expect a slightly refined performance from that which you can expect in an American restaurant. I can already see Marie putting an unidentifiable dish in front of me and saying” eat it, it’s good for you!”It is bound to make me miss my Mother who is guilty of doing just that for the first 20 years of my life.

And now let’s have a chat about alcohol.

Yes I have been known to take the odd glass of truth serum from time to time and if you really must know I am quite partial to a blended margarita (no salt) on a sunny day and it must have an umbrella in it! But from a peak physical performance aspect alcohol is not a great thing at all. The problem is that in each bottle of hard spirits there is a gorilla waiting. When you go to bed after drinking, he rips the buttons off your shirt, empties your wallet, does unspeakable things in your wardrobe and thumps you in the head ensuring that it throbs for the whole of the next day and, as you get older, the following day as well. I know gorillas exist because I have been attacked by them and I have witnessed other attacks. Once when I was on a rowing camp with Barrie my PWC riding buddy, a gorilla pushed him over in the bushes, fell on and broke a tent pole in his tent and thumped him hard enough to make him very sore and very quiet the next day.

Alcohol is not good, so as a result of these experiences dealing with large primates it has been decided to ban alcohol on board the support boat at all times, and in ports, to limit consumption to those beverages that only have small monkeys in them.

So that’s about it for now. I’m off over the road to an American Restaurant called the Cheesecake Factory to have a 2000 calorie salad. Bonn appetite!

It’s winter in New Zealand at the moment so the footwear of choice is gumboots and that’s because it rains a lot. I don’t much care for rain, or the cold for that matter and that’s why I’ve planned the ride to be in summer all the way. In fact our biggest worry will be that it will get too hot. Through the Middle East we can expect temperatures in the mid 40s and higher 24 hours a day.

I’ve spent a lot of time checking out the historical weather patterns for the route and the departure date of August the 1^st 2010 is based on a desire to have the most favorable average weather conditions for the longest time.

Weather is one of our most important considerations and that’s why we asked NZ Met service weather Guru, Bob McDavitt to help us out. Bob is a veteran of campaigns like ours having previously helped out on two Americas Cup campaigns and Earth Race. Bob has kindly agreed and will provide opinions along the way as to the most favorable route to take on the day. To come up with this info he will use a plethora of data that is available to him and, his vast experience. Bob reckons that ‘weather is a mix of pattern and chaos’ and I can’t argue with that. Most people who have lived near a weatherman will have witnessed a time when the weatherman has hurriedly put away a barbecue as rain starts to pour down. This is a strong indication that no one really knows exactly how to predict the weather, but I’m confident that if anyone can do it, Bob can. Welcome aboard Bob.

No weather report would be complete without some personal ‘observations’ from the chief meteorologist, and since Bob’s not available right now that’s me, so here goes……………………Weather is an interesting subject. Perceptions of weather are relative. If you live in Antarctica 10 degrees is T-Shirt weather. When I lived in Alaska we used to ride mountain bikes in the snow and In temperatures around minus 10. Alaskans winge and complain when it gets above 20 degrees. If you live in Wellington a 60 knot gale is a refreshing breeze and in Los Angeles, if they get a couple of showers, the first ten minutes of the evening news talks about the storms that hit. The media love to talk about the weather and this can only be good news because it means there is nothing much else to talk about. As people get older they worry more about the weather and this is because there is nothing much better to worry about. A couple of years ago some fool invented the term ‘weather bomb’ and now anytime a squall passes through we are getting bombed.. And the strangest thing of all is that in America, most tornados ‘touchdown’ in a place called Tornado Alley. Why would you live in a street that is so dangerous? It’s beyond me.

Some things are capable of influencing the weather around them. Local weather effects can, and often do, override the macro weather patterns. Mountains have been known to do it…and people. For example, I know one guy who I work with who has a permanent rain cloud over his head even on the most brilliant days, I recently met a couple of Americans on a cruise who had their own personal weather systems, and I suspect that one of my taller friends is tall enough to affect the weather at least within 50 meters or so. Yes, we are surrounded by the weather and thankfully, that’s all I have to say on the matter. One of the things that I am grateful for is that when I fly I usually get high enough to be above the weather, but right now I’m not flying so I’m going to wander downstairs in my gumboots and have a few quiet reds. I guess that means, that tomorrow, I’ll be under the weather.

And by The way. In case you were wondering, tomorrow I’m predicting a few showers with fine patches, light to moderate SW winds and a chance of thunderstorms, hail and snow so slap on some sunscreen and don’t leave your umbrella at home.

In my last post I suggested that you might get to hear from JD Letham about risk. JD says to pass on his regards to you all and tell you that with his writing skills, that would be too risky a proposition. So on that note I will now tell you what I know about it……………………………..there that was painless wasn’t it.

Well actually, I do know a little about it so here goes.

The Oxford dictionary defines risk as a noun; ‘The possibility that something unpleasant will happen’ and a verb; ’Expose to danger or loss’.

In the last post we learned that it’s risky to not follow a tall person if he suddenly runs off at high speed, and with tonight’s $27 million Lotto prize I couldn’t resist an investment in a ticket. Yes, that’s right, an investment, albeit a high risk investment. Yes sir. Risk is everywhere.

With both my job as a pilot and the London-Sydney event there is a great exposure to risk. It’s just the nature of what we are doing. We pilots get very good at sensing danger, analyzing the risks and mitigating them to the point where they become insignificant. We get better at this with time and training until it gets to the point that just about every eventuality has a preplanned action. For example, if an engine were to fail I would deal with it like I have a hundred times in training and a couple in real life. And if someone farts on the flight deck, I will smell it at least a minute before it’s released, put on an oxygen and smoke mask and then plan who to blame, decide on the consequences and silently plot revenge. I may also call the flight attendants up to take a drinks order if I’m feeling really mean.(This is very unlikely though. I rarely feel this mean)

With London-Sydney we are attempting to do the same. The procedure we are following is to identify every possible thing that we could have happen to us. We then look at:

· How likely is this to happen

· How do we stop it from happening

· What are the consequences if it still happens

· What can we do in advance to reduce these consequences

· What are our actions if it happens

The current London-Sydney document for this already covers two A3 sheets in small print and will only get bigger.

But it needs to be done as we are not keen on getting too many surprises on the event. And as you can imagine, any sponsors will want to make sure that we have the best chance of succeeding before they part with their hard earned money.

I reckon our two biggest risks are the weather and injury to the riders. We can mitigate both. With the weather we will have great systems in place for forecasting and a good weather team. With injury we can be as fit and strong as possible and we will have two backup riders. Piracy may be an issue for a few days but we will have procedures in place and if anything it’s getting more and more risky for the pirates with all those navy boats in the area. A few weeks ago a few extra stupid pirates actually attacked a French naval vessel by mistake. That should earn then a Darwin award. But enough about them.

That’s it for this post. The website now has a countdown timer on it and will shortly have a Twitter on it at www.twitter.com/jeremyburfoot

Cheers

Jeremy

I hope I haven’t surprised you too much by posting to the blog so soon after the last post. If I have I apologize and please pick yourself up of the floor and sit back in your chair so we can get started.

The experts say that for a blog to work you need to post to it frequently. I on the other hand have always thought that if you don’t have something to say you are better off to keep quiet. Thankfully I do have something to say on this occasion. …but you be the judge!

It’s exciting to be able to report that more progress has been made on Domino, our support boat. The drums from Paraguay are reporting that part of the structure for the crane that will be used to lift the Seadoos is now in place. A photo of the partly finished structure installed on the back of Domino is shown below.

If you wish to view more photos of Domino and the structure click on: http://picasaweb.google.com/mtdufour/LondonSydney# and to see a few more that I took on my vist to Paraguay see: http://london-sydney.com/more_photos.htm

On a different note I am now in quite serious training for a 160km bike race in November. This will be a good buildup to lead into the final fitness push for 2010. At the moment I am training about twelve hours a week with two hours of weight training, one of rowing and nine of endurance cycling. With an additional core strength program and lots of stretching this program relates well to the physical requirements of the actual London-Sydney ride. We pick up the first Seadoo in a couple of weeks and will start major modifications on that soon after. Once the mods are complete I will be testing that machine as part of my training.

For testing I will be looking for training partners who are willing to go out through the Manukau Heads and practice in the rough waters in the rip at the Manukau Bar. One such training partner who has already shown a complete disregard for his own personal safety and been out there with me is my good friend Barrie Mabbott. You may remember Barrie from a previous post as the man who saw the credit crunch coming before most because he is tall and when the sky started to fall he bumped his head on it first. Barrie was bemused by my managing to include him in a blog post and recently inferred that he would be very impressed should I be able to include him again in a ‘relevant’ way. Too easy!

Did you know that tall people like Barrie can also see into the future. Do I hear you saying,”Oh really, tell me more?”

Well, being taller he can see over the horizon relative to shorter people and if he sees a flock of killer sheep coming from below the horizon the first thing that the shorter people will know about it is that Barrie will say something like, “ Love to stay and chat but I’ve gotta run.” And he will hike up his trousers under his armpits, pin back his ears and bound off in the other direction at high speed disappearing over the opposite horizon in short order. And the moral of the story according to Ian Hall-kenney is, if the tall people leave in short order, seriously consider following suit.

Because there is no one tall on the London-Sydney team we can’t see into the future so we need a logistics team to do all our planning for us. This is a critical task as we need to cover everything we expect to happen and all the variations that might or might not happen. We need to have this all covered off well before the start date.

This involves: route planning, accomodation, permissions, customs, working with local authorities, visas, vaccinations, the supply of good quality fuel at the best price, other supplies, security requirements, spare parts, safety equipment, communications, foreign languages, working with cancer groups along the way, working with sponsors, filming, moving equipment, crew support and much much more. It’s a huge job and I’m confident that we have the best people on our logistics team, capably lead by John Letham. Keep up the good work guys.

Part of the logistics team’s job is to do a full risk analysis of all of the above so that surprises are reduced to a minimum on the ride. On the next blog post I’ll see if I can get John to explain the risk analysis process for you and by then maybe we will have taken some of the guesswork out of it by employing a tall person too. Until then…Cheers! Jeremy