Summer Adventure - Update

The Golden Cloud - 07/03/2013

I have made a decision to move the start date for the round the uk sail for Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Isle of Wight Society for the Blind, Multiple Sclerosis Society (IoW Branch), and Surfers Against Sewage, with beach cleans to next year to give more time to organise charity, sponsor, council, harbour, and boat logistics. 

The original May 1st start date is fast approaching, and with the potential size and fundraising potential of the project I feel it would not do it justice to rush it now and not do all we planned.

This said, during summer (probably May-June and Sept-Oct) I still plan to have some practise runs of the event, likely to involve a few beach cleans, and a passage perhaps Aberystwyth to Isle of Wight, or to West Coast of Scotland or something along those lines to check everything is in order on the boat. 

Those who have offered to be crew this year, if you're still available it would be ace if you could join for practise sails this summer, and please keep in contact with regards to next year.

If you have been helping with sponsorships and permissions please forward this message (or something along the same lines) to anyone you have contacted to inform them of the change. We may find that people who have turned us down for this year, we could be top of the pile for sponsorship next year!

Summer 2013 Plan

The Golden Cloud 26/2/13

What a busy few week's its been since I returned from the land of Ice, and ice, and ice, and oh a bit more ice.

On return from Greenland I decided that this summer me and The Cloud would be going on an adventure. Over a nice cup of tea with a good friend Billy Whitehouse, and then numerous phone calls to charity's and sponsors a plan slowly formulated, and its one I'm now very excited to announce.

Summary: 2300 Mile Anti-Clockwise Lap of the UK leaving 1st of May, doing beach cleans every overnight stop (aim 1000 bags of rubbish) raising funds for Surfers against Sewage, RNLI, Isle of Wight Society for the Blind and The Multiple Sclerosis Society. 

On the 1st of May 2013, The Golden Cloud will depart Ynyslas, and after stopping off in Aberdovey, will head South to do a 2300 nautical mile of the United Kingdom, in an anti-clockwise direction. The route according to passage planning software would take 35 days of direct sailing with a vessel profile similar to golden cloud. However, the plan is not to rush this and enjoy the journey as much as the destination. We plan to do 20-50 miles (~4-7 hours) sailing a day, taking advantage of the best weather and tidal conditions, and staying at anchor when it's not ideal.

The Giants Causeway
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Giant's_Causeway_-_geograph.org.uk_-_133.jpg

The Route plan includes natural beauties like The Scilly Isles, various gorgeous estuaries, Ramsey and Skomer Islands, The White Cliffs of Dover, the North West of Scotland, and the The Giants Causeway to name but a few. 

Seeing the Puffin's of Skomer Island
http://www.coolplaces.co.uk/places/uk/wales/pembrokeshire/st-davids/1596-skomer-island

It also takes in Every Capital of the UK (Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, Belfast) as well as the City's of Bristol, Falmouth, Plymouth, Poole, Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton, Dover, Newcastle, Liverpool, Bangor etc.

A personal highlight will be sailing under Tower Bridge
Source http://www.travlang.com/blog/category/london-travel-guide/

The journey will give us a chance to see this beautiful nation of ours from angles we've never seen it before.

As per normal on the Cloud the journey will be planned as Sustainable, Low Cost and Eco-friendly as possible.

The plan is to live off the sea, fish and forage where possible, we'll even try to grow some veg and mushrooms in the limited space onboard. The plan is to sail everywhere as much as possible without using the motor unless absolutely nessasary (emergency's and tight harbour manoeuvring). All our electric will come from a small solar panel on deck. I'm even looking into changing the motor to a electric one that runs off the panel!

Its planned that we will moor in little bays and harbours instead of marinas and ports, as there is increasing evidence that large marinas are unsustainable, and huge point sources of pollution from oil in bilge pumps, antifoul paints, sewage from sea toilets and litter. We will reduce our impact in this way because the boat has no sea-toilet, all garbage will be recycled where possible and binned, and we will be careful in the use of antifoul paints and bilge pumps. Added to this the anchoring in open bays and smaller harbours means any pollution from us will be a more dilute source and thus more easily dealt with by nature. 

We wanted to give something back as part of the trip ans so we decided that we would collect sea-rubbish, an ever increasing plight on the coastal beauty of the world (we even saw it in Greenland!)

After talking to Surfers against Sewage we have decided to do a beach clean at every overnight stop and aim to collect 1000+ bags of rubbish. We want to do this to add to the cause, but also to make our trip a positive one for the environment, making it better after we leave than when we arrive, and to highlight the issue of sea rubbish to a wider audience. 

Beach Litter Picture
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/apr/08/waste-marine-life 

Added to this we aim to raise money for the RNLI for their work for seafarers, The Isle of Wight Society for the Blind and The Multiple Sclerosis Society for the help they gave my dad when he lost his sight with MS a few years ago, and Surfers against Sewage for there work cleaning up the coast.

http://rnli.org 

http://www.iwsightconcern.org.uk/

http://www.wight-ms.org.uk/

http://www.sas.org.uk

http://www.muckbootcompany.com 

And in the past few hours I can gladly announce the 1st Commercial Sponsor for the Project "The Muckboot Company". The Company are supplying the crew with their specialist, hard wearing  neopreyne boots. In Greenland we wore Muckboots for sailing was very impressed, hence going to Muckboot for sponsorship. 


And so the next step! Well were currently looking for crew and sponsorship (personal and commercial) for the journey. A just giving site will be set up shortly after we have discussed things through with the charitys. If you would like to become part of the crew, want to help with your local beach clean, want to help out in the organisation, or have any ideas or offers for sponsorship, Please send me an email on joeberpearce@yahoo.co.uk

Looking forward to a Great Summer!