The charity and how they'll benefit from this

Residential voyages aboard the Trust's fleet of vessels provides a uniquely powerful and extremely effective environment for personal development. Proceeds from the Arctic Challenge will help to inspire positive change in young people through the challenge of Adventure under Sail. Demand for the voyages is high but not all young people who want to sail with the Trust can afford to do so. The money I collect will go straight to the assisted berths bursaries. Please note, my own donations more than covered the full cost of going on the voyage. All the money you give will go to helping young people who otherwise couldn't afford to go.

I've had a beard since I was 19 (when my shaver battery ran out while working on that children's camp in the USA). See above for newsflashes on the beard abuse.

The boat

Alba Endeavour is a 72' steel cutter rig (this means it has two foresails) designed and built for the BT Challenge series of races round the world 'the wrong way'.

News

17/3 Some of the volunteers (there will be 12 of us hopefully) met the skipper and first mate in Glasgow on 17th March. About half of us have done quite a bit of sailing on boats like this. The rest are novices. I hope it doesn't get too much like Big Brother, cooped up in a small space like that with all those strangers!

11/4 The Mini (old style, of course) that I've been driving since 1997 went today. A friend made a big donation and I just felt I had to give him the worthless old rust bucket.

13/4 Bridget commented on my facebook page 'am I the only one who wants you to retain your beard?'

30/4 The training voyage went well. As well as meeting most of the people I'll be going to the Arctic with, it was a good chance to familiarise ourselves with sailing the boat and with conditions we'll be living in for 12 days. I took some video that you can see on YouTube and some photos you can see on Flickr (links WERE on the left). The video currently (NOT) linked on the left is a beautiful professionally edited advertisement for the OYTS. Here's the link.

The videos I made on the training trip are also on YouTube, here - 'winching method', 'down below' and 'tacking'

13/5 Handed out a lot of bookmarks with thumbnail prints summarising the voyage at an industry conference today. Hoping people don't throw them away but use them as reminders to donate!

15/5 Today I asked the Hitchin Boys' School OBA to help publicise the event. Unfortunately the Arctic Challenge coincides with their Centenary Reunion. When I was at the school I received sailing lessons in Mirror dinghies on a flooded local chalk pit, and experienced sailing in a bigger boat when a former pupil took us sailing on the Suffolk coast. I suppose I've waited a long time to put something back into this sport that was so character-building for me - better late than never.

18/5 There's more photos and background info on me and my crewmates on the Ocean Youth Trust's website.

22/5 Going to a ceilidh with my daughter tonight to celebrate her 21st - taking the fundraising kit - fingers crossed!

26/5 Today Helen of OYTS announced that the boat is finally full - so if you wish you had put your name down this year, you'll have to wait and see if they do it again. We also found out how hard it is to get to Wick on a Sunday by public transport.

29/5 I had my picture taken today (in the car park at work in borrowed oilskins) for the newspaper ...

3/6 ...and today the picture and short story were published (see link above).

5/6 At the Grampian Beer Festival today I spotted a group of very happy-looking pirates and handed them a couple of the bookmarks. Hope they'll log on and see this, then donate.

10/6 Any sailors out there would do well to check out www.yotlinx.com - they've advertised my fundraising, and it's a great site to find trips or crew.

12/6 Last night I cooked 'cakes on Friday' for the office and today I served them. A madeira and a fruit cake. Both with blue sailing boats on them! Seemed to go down well. I put the collecting tin out and that seemed to work, too, it's pretty heavy, now, mainly thanks to the small change from Ken and Gemma's swear box which they kindly donated. Tomorrow I'll cook the even bigger fruit cake that I'll take to share with the crew during the voyage. Also today Alex procured multi-coloured hair dye for the beard...

4/7 For the record, the 'offline donations' is £299 which was my deposit, £470 charity cheque from me, £208 in the collecting tin from Robert's pub crawl and Bennachie Pony Club, and £500 from the SPE Aberdeen Section. Thanks very much indeed to the Board of the SPE's Aberdeen Section, to the members of Bennachie Pony Club and their parents, and to the bar flies of Aberdeen on 3rd July!

12/7 Off to Wick today to join the boat. If you still want to contribute, see "if you're in a hurry" above. I hope to update this page daily, but I fear it will be difficult or impossible. If so, please bear with me and I'll put photos and news up at the end of the voyage. Thanks so much for all the donations so far.