Training run on the river

We went out for a training pedal last night on the river Stour. The pedalo is running well! We were overtaking ducks without too much difficulty! Perhaps a little different to the open sea but encouraging nonetheless. Here are some photos which show the machine in more detail.

Rupert

You can see where some of our fans have kindly paid to write messages of encouragement.

Nigel admiring his handiwork.

Close up of the paddle, gearing and steering systems

Yes that is my knee and not a stand-in knee model from Rio.

The Pedalo is ready – what about the crew?

Nigel spent most of last weekend working on the pedalo and we now have a fully functional vessel. 

 

The padles are made from Mondeo wheels, the pedals from various sized cogs -getting the right gearing was a real challenge. The cogs connecting the chain to the axle are from fixed speed bikes, this will allow freewheeling which will make it easier for us to  take turns to have a rest but means we cant go in reverse. We have kept the rudders from the original catamaran and have a line coming forward to allow us to control them. 

Nigel and I roped Paul (our neighbour) in to come and help with the first test sail on the Stour. Everything worked fantastically well, using satnav on a phone we recorded a top speed of 8km/h and were able to maintain a reasonable cruising speed of 5km/h. Likely to be a bit tougher with waves so next trial will be in the sea!

Pedalo coming together

Here are some pictures of the pedalo as it slowly is being transformed. Nigel and Alastair are inspecting the cogs positioning.

First water launch to be done this week!

The story of James Ferguson

This story was sent in by Sophie Ferguson, accounting the birth of her son James, who benefited from the amazing work done by the Special Care Baby Unit.

James Ferguson, our second son, was born on 22 March 2009 in Brook Ward of Ipswich hospital, arriving in a hurry – very nearly on the A14. We arrived at the hospital at 0915 and he was born at 0933 after an easy birth – good lad! Or so we thought. We were to go home the same day after a cup of tea but the midwife advised that because my waters had broken over 24 hours before, James and I should stay for observation to ensure James had not picked up an infection during birth. Sure enough by 9pm that night, James’ temperature had soared and his respirations were over 100 per minute (normal rate for an infant is between 30–50) – strong signs that indeed he had picked up an infection. He was rushed up to the Special Care Baby Unit. What followed was a terrifying couple of hours as our seemingly healthy baby was rushed into the care of the neonatal nurses and given intravenous antibiotics through a cannula and a lumber puncture to test for meningitis.

From the joy of an easy birth, James suddenly had a plastic tube into his arm and was having samples taken from his spine. It was a terrifying and dizzying turn of events. We never found the cause of the infection but slowly the signs of infection started to decrease as the antibiotics took hold and James went from strength to strength. He and I spent a week in the Special Care Baby Unit and we cannot fault the care we were given. The nurses were all fantastic at giving individual attention to all their patients and were brilliant dealing with distressed parents. The support we were given and first-rate clinical care made a very distressing time much more bearable and we are delighted to be able to support the Pedalo Challenge to help other parents and their babies get the essential care that is needed at such a fragile time in a baby’s life. Our experience turned out to be a relatively benign but seeing some of the other babies in incubators and having serious long-term care was sobering.

By Sophie Ferguson

The boat arrives in Suffolk

We have picked up the catamaran from Robert White in Brightlingsea, courtesy of Topper boats. It looks fantastic! Now we need to get building!

We have a boat!

We are enormously grateful to Martin Fry and Robert White from Topper for giving us a Topaz 16.

The Topaz 16 in action. Just imagine it with pedals!

We have a base to our Pedalo!! We are hugely grateful to Topper Sailboats for their very kind donation of a Topaz 16 which we will be picking up from Brightlingsea on 14th December. Particular thanks go to Martin Fry and Robert White for all their help and generosity. From Brightlingsea, we’ll bring it home to Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk, where it will be transfomed into the Pink Avenger. Photos of the move and developments to follow. We can’t thank the team at Topper enough for their kindness which has given us a huge boost.  Check out http://www.toppersailboats.com/16cx.aspx for more info.

Guardian article on neonatal care

Interesting article in the Guardian on the success and importance of neonatal care and serious problems with funding.

Survival plight – Click to read article

NHS neonatal experts anxiously await a government taskforce report on an underfunded service with a proud record of saving the lives of seriously ill babies…

Pedalo intial design

Alastair produced the below concept design.

Preliminary design

Catamaran basic platform (twin hulls with mast removed) with 3 pedal chairs installed driving a single axle and large paddle.