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Being grilled by Bev Smith (click picture to enlarge)

After months of planning, our fundraising dinner in aid of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Simon Says charities was a great success.  Thanks to the 150 people who came and supported these worthwhile causes by raising many thousands of pounds.  Entitled “An evening with Geoff” it was the first interview-style talk I have done and it was pretty nerve-wracking, I think most guests were entertained at my expense, not least with revelations about a foray to Diamond Lil’s in Union Street, Plymouth thirty years ago (you do not want to know the details), and being cornered into playing a harmonica in front of a crowd – thankfully most people’s wine consumption by that stage numbed out my bum notes. Particular thanks to my MC, Andy Snowdon, my interviewer, Bev Smith and everyone who donated so much money.  Next stop Dawlish in Devon on Wednesday 23^rd November in aid of the Disabled Sailors Association and the SW regional Multiple Sclerosis Society – CLICK HERE for details.

It’s been an eventful few weeks but here are a few of the highlights since my last Blog.

South West Shingles Yacht Club fundraising dinner at the Royal Motor Club in Poole raising money for the “Match Racing Girls”, aka Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor who have been selected to represent Team GB in the Olympics next year in the Match Racing Event.  As current world champions, we wish them well.  CLICK HERE to learn more about the girls. Great night, lots of money raised.

I had the honour of being a judge on the National Historic Ship photographic competition this year.  With so many great entries, I hadn’t realised the difficulties such a role involved – assessing each entry for composition, light, subject, innovation and so on.  With all shortlisted candidates present, awards were made on the impressive HMS Belfast on the River Thames which, I’m pleased to say, was wheelchair accessible and well worth a visit.  The overall winner was Mike Garlick with his beautiful photograph entitled “Maybird”.  CLICK HERE for the press release.

Mike Garlick and his winning entry, Maybird 

Wetwheels is now at her permanent home, Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and she is already attracting lots of interest and we have started taking out groups of disabled people.  My personal thanks to Gunwharf Quays for finding us space in their marina, it is the perfect location.  So now, when you come to Gunwharf Quays to do your shopping or to visit the many restaurants, you can come out for a trip on Wetwheels too.  She is operating partly not-for-profit for disabled groups and partly as a commercial charter for sightseeing, as a filming platform and for fishing.  For more information or to make a booking, visit her website www.wetwheels.co.uk  On a recent trip, I caught this whopper, a 27lb cod which took us 4 days to eat and there is still a load in the freezer. No, the image is not Photoshop’ed and sorry, the location remains a secret (no, not my local fishmonger) – my friends are such cynics.

COD-ZILLA

I was on-duty again recently presenting the prizes at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club to their double-hander series.  A great meal set me up for an hour’s worth of prize-giving, blimey, I’ve never handed out so much silverware, about 70 trophies, with some crews needing a trolley to get their treasure hall home –  “trophy hunters” in the nicest sense.  Well done to all the winners but spare a thought for the RSYC team who had to polish all of them that morning. Yikes..!

I had the genuine pleasure of being present for the presentation of the Glenn Shaw Everest Awards at Barclays in London a few weeks ago. Barclays Wealth introduced the awards in memory of one of their colleagues, Glenn Shaw who sadly died from a rare form of brittle bone disease. I met his parents and he was clearly an inspirational character and an adventurer too with climbing to Everest Base Camp amongst his many achievements. The Awards recognise other inspirational figures within Barclays globally and nominees and winners had flown in from as far afield as the USA, Mauritius and Kenya. I had the honour of meeting some amazing people. Putting aside all the negativity about banks for one moment, here is a bank doing something very positive – well done Barclays.

I got to meet an Olympic legend recently when David Hemery (gold medal, 400m hurdles, Mexico, 1970) came to my local secondary school, Wyvern Technology College, to promote the “Be The Best You can Be” strategy as part of the London 2012 Olympic legacy programme working with schools. Although present representing Hamble Valley Rotary Club, many of my talks are to schools and colleges and we are looking at ways of linking my talks into David’s new initiative.

Pupils from Wyvern with David Hemery

Congratulations to Simon Clarke of Wave 105 FM radio who completed his World Record underwater radio broadcast yesterday (5 hours) in Andark Diving’s pool.  I had the honour of being his last interview before he emerged at 4.00pm yesterday – rather wrinkled.  It was a strange sight to see so many TV cameras, radio station equipment and technical guys around a diving pool and then to do an interview from the poolside when the radio presenter’s legs were the only thing visible below the air bell 10ft deep in the pool. Congrats to Andy Goddard from Andark Diving and Bryan Stanislas for making it happen and to Wave 105 for asking me along.

Andy Goddard from Andark Diving

Right, I have a day off this Sunday so I’m planning to go back and catching Mr Cod’s grand-dad.