Tuesday 16 July 2013


The Thames Raiders are supporting Laseraid, a sail across the Channel in Laser dinghies starting in Sandgate and finishing at Sangatte, starting early in the morning on Thursday 18th July.  

As ever with sailing the weather comes first, and messes up all carefully laid plans.  But if it plays ball we will stay at the Breakers on Riviera Road in Sandgate on Wednesday night and set off from Folkestone Harbour at 8-9 am on Thursday.  The Lasers are quite slow and we will have to stop to regroup to get through the shipping lanes.  So the crossing might take around 6 hours but that's a guess.  We will have two support ribs organised by Dan Hawkes, and safety has been thought through thoroughly.  The start time has already been brought forward by 24 hours to avoid the brisk North Easterlies forecast for the weekend, and if the wind is too strong we won't go.

The inspiration for this expedition comes from a group of people from Brightlingsea Sailing Club, all of whom have some contact with Brain Tumours or neuroscience.  It was Mike Hare's idea - he is a GP whose wife has a problem with a brain tumour.  So we are raising money for the Brain Tumour charity.  We would love to raise as much as we possibly can and it would be great if any members of your society would support them.  Mike has set up a JustGiving account www.justgiving.com/michael-hare.