A chance encounter on the beach at Portland Castle has led to me choosing who I’m going to fundraise for when I set off on my second “Great Loop” of USA and Canada in July… it’s the ANDREW SIMPSON FOUNDATION.

This charitable foundation was set up to the memory of Olympic gold medal winning British sailor Andrew “Bart” Simpson who tragically died in May 2013 during a training session for that year’s Admiral’s Cup Sailing Championship. The foundation’s 4 centres across the country, at Portland , Portsmouth, Reading and Birmingham, aim to introduce children to ALL forms of watersports -it works closely with both the Royal Yacht Association

and Paddle UK…

I went out on a training paddle last Thursday in Portland Harbour and met a wonderful bunch of kids being introduced to kayaking by their instructor, Jacob, from the Andrew Simpson Centre Portland. They were really curious about my Rockpool Tarantella, and then totally amazed by the idea of some mad man paddling from Ontario to Florida and back to Ontario - so now I just have to do it for those kids!

The route:

I’m leaving Hastings, Ontario, Canada in mid-July to spend 6 months paddling to Jacksonville, Florida, via Lakes Huron and Michigan, the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers, then the Gulf Intra-coastal Waterway Mobile to Carrabelle and the Florida Circumnavigational Salt Water Paddling Trail. I’ll then come on Jan 12th, return to Jax on March 26th to paddle up the East Coast to NYC, up the Hudson and across Lake Champlain to Montreal and back to Hastings by the St. Lawrence River and Trent-Severn Waterway… living out of the kayak, paddling mainly solo but Canadian and American friends will be joining me at times.

He attempted to paddle the loop 6 years ago and didn't quite make it, so this year he's determined to complete this huge challenge for the young people of the Andrew Simpson Foundation.

We’ll post all the details about how you can donate to this great cause in May, meanwhile please check out :- https://www.facebook.com/steve.chard.144