A Northern Adventure

Welcome to the first instalment of the tale of my sailing trip from the Norwegian fjords to Iceland via the Shetland islands, Faroe islands and some adventures along the way. 

I joined the good ship Hummingbird in the bustling town of Stavanger in Norway. Our first day out involved an early breakfast and a quick trip up Priekestolen, or Pulpit Rock, an anvil shaped rock with a vertiginous drop of over 600m to Lysefjord below. The view from the top was pretty stunning which meant there was only one thing to be done… unashamed selfie time!

The beautiful fjord land of Norway provides some great exploring territory and some beautiful anchorages. We had this lovely secluded space to ourselves until a pair of locals turned up with and axe. Fortunately it was just for chopping wood and and doing some BBQing Norwegian style. 

The next stop on our tour of the land-of-the-midnight-sun is scheduled to be the island of Utsira. Knowing it only by it's appearance in the shipping forecast, I am intrigued to see the island for myself.

Stocking fillers

Some of you may recognise my predicament. Today I pressed send on an email and ever since I have been obsessively checking my inbox to see if he has replied. Checking the time in Australia, maybe it's the middle of the night, maybe it would be unreasonable to expect him to reply just yet... Perhaps I'll just go on Skype and see if he is online... Get a get a grip girl, stop being ridiculous, you can't expect him to break the mandatory 48hr response time rule. Fortunately Amac being the gentleman that he is got straight back to me and the news was good. I am now enrolled on the all new Mach 2 shopping website. There is everything a girl could want; fashion, beautifully crafted pieces of metal work, even the much coveted Small Anhedral Hydro Rudder Horizontal and who is ever going to say no to a low friction ball joint?

With less than a month to go it sounds like an excuse for some Christmas shopping. One word of advice guys, choose wisely, get your beloved anything with ‘wing nut’ or ‘stump plug’ in the description and you should probably start decorating the dog house. Should you foolhardily ignore my advice and she enthuses about the wonders of a wing nut, face it, she is almost definitely faking.

Check out the offerings of the Mach 2 elves at www.kasail.com/mach2/product.

Raise your hand if you have asked Santa for a new boat for Christmas. Hope you have all been good enough.

Ok it's only Mach1 but there is never much of an 

excuse required to post this picture

New paint job

Trying out my new sparkly paint job :) 

Only 4 days left

Only four days left now until the presses start to roll for my book, Sailing Fitness Toolbox. It will be a very exciting moment. Thanks so much to everyone for their support. It's not too late to order your copy, just click here.

At last

It is finally done, it feels as if it has been an eternity in the making but I have finally finished my first book! The combination of relief and accomplishment that it is finished, mixed with the anxiety of how it will be received is  mildly reminiscent of handing in my dissertation. Anyway, here she is, the cover shot of my masterpiece of literary achievement, Darren Brown eat your heart out:

The book is titled “Sailing Fitness Toolbox’, it takes what I have learnt about the cutting edge training techniques working with the guys and girls in Olympic sailing and brings them to the reader in an easy to follow format. There are exercise programs designed around the needs of sailors of all types - there is even one specifically for foilers - well how could I not?! The observant reader may notice that a few of the pictures were taken at some Moth and South coast even by either my fair hand or the magic lens of Adam May. If you spot yourself in print, let me know and I will wing a free copy of the book your way.

Want to see what treats it has in store? Here's a sneaky peek inside:

                                       

Want to be one of the first to get the your hands on this fine work? Well you can do just that by pre-oredering here on the Indiegogo crowd funding site that I am using to raise the funds necessary for publishing. 

I will be posting more on the Facebook fan page. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Help me to spread the word by liking the page and sharing this link with your friends, thanks!

Visit the campaign site

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Meeting the moment

Carbon Footprint 'Meeting the Moment' with the Clif Bar environmental protection promotion / photo competition of the same name. Like her picture or add your own, and Clif Bar will donate to your choice of one of five environmental not for profit organisations. I am sure there is a veritable plethora of awesome actions shots loitering on your hard drives, fair readers. Not quite sure what the general sporting population will make of foiling, the best thing is that it comes under the category of 'Awesomeness', nice! Vist: http://www.meetthemoment.com.

Mount Shasta photos

I am sorry not to have posted these sooner. Better late than never, here are the pictures from my trip up the west face of Mount Shasta. 

The campsite at Hidden valley with the west face, and the next mornings work laid out ahead of us.

My room with a view.

 

An early start meant witnessing a wonderful moon rise over the Casaval Ridge followed by the sunrise silhouetting the mountain.

The view from the top of the west face.