Hi, I’m Sara, the instigator of this whole project. I’m a veterinary nurse with a predilection for crazy moments. This is definitely the craziest so far!! Having never seriously paddled before I thought “Hey, why not kayak the South Cornish coast and Isles of Scilly for charity?” I then called up my good friend, and experienced skipper, Dan who was roped in as project manager and, after some meetings in various local pubs, here we are!

The 2 organisations we aim to help are extremely dear to me. I am a medic with the BDMLR and have been on a couple of rescues with them. I was also part of the team that helped Kate Humble train to be a medic on BBC Autumn Watch last year, now there’s claim to fame!! They do fantastic work, often in hard and cold conditions, and it is an entirely volunteer staffed organisation. The equipment needed to rescue seals, dolphins and whales is not cheap but saves many lives each year.
I have also worked with the Isles of Scilly Veterinary Support Group in my role as a veterinary nurse (if you watch the BBC’s An Island Parish you might be familiar with the building project already – as well as myself, cringe!). They are a passionate bunch and work hard to provide the vet on the islands with vital support. The animals of the islands have recently benefited from a second-hand x-ray machine and being built in 2010 is a brand new clinic to house it in! The new clinic will expand the services available and improve animal welfare across the islands.

Some people call this project foolish and crazy. Some have said it’s brave and intrepid. I have often agreed with both opinons. Whatever it is, it will be an adventure! Jane Goodall once said “The greatest danger in our future is apathy”. Well, this is our attempt to avoid that danger!

Contact me at sara.paddlefree@yahoo.com

So here's the situation: Your lovably eccentric uni housemate rings you up with some sort of crazy plan to sea-kayak 200+ miles to raise money for charity, oh and by the way she's never paddled before. Do you:

A) Hang up the phone and run away?
B) Ring her nurse and ask how the medication is going?
C) Smile, roll your eyes and say "Sure, how much time do I need to book off work?!"

As you can probably guess I chose the latter, and here I am, official PaddleFree Project Manager! A little about me then, my name is Dan, aka Skipper Dan, and I went to university in Swansea with Sara. During the years of drinking, partying, studying in New Zealand for a year and somehow managing to get a degree at the end of it, I grew somewhat used to her crazy, mad, interestingly different ideas! I've been a sailor since I can remember, and love being on, in or near the sea, as well as simply messing around in boats. This apparently qualifies me for the role of driving the support boat! Only kidding, the RYA Sailing Instructor qualification helps with that as well ;-) I'll also be helping organise all the on the water stuff, such as the route planning, navigation, harbour authorities and general safety, as well as being the photographer and cameraman! At the rate this is going I'll need another 2 week holiday straight after...!
Anyway, that's enough from me, only a few months to go so best get started on the to-do list! Ciao

Contact me at dan.paddlefree@yahoo.com