 Hello, we're here today with Andrew Bedwell, adventurer, sailor, a really impressive man that I'm excited here to meet and he can introduce himself now. Hello, so yes, Andrew Bedwell, there's a lot of sailing and obviously we're here today to talk about Big C Atlantic Challenge. Let's break the record for the smallest vessel to cross the Atlantic. Absolutely, it's a pleasure to meet you Andrew. We're going to be doing this interview over Zoom, so it's an exciting format that usually allows people to connect over long distances. In this case, Andrew is currently zooming in from England, where it is I believe 4.30 or 5.30 p.m. So let's start with the easy question Andrew. When did you learn how to sail and kind of what draws you to this sport and the open water? So I first learned to sail because my parents had a charnery in England down south, so what we did was we had toppers and things like that, so they were always around. So whenever I did, whenever I could, I just took one out. Drawn to water, originally I think I was six months old when I had my first proper experience in a boat and that was my dad's offshore race powerboat. So that started it all off and basically from then on, I have always been into a watersport of some side and some aspect, whether it be powerboat racing, zap-cat, thrill boats, sailing, kite surfing, but every which time I seem to find and navigate this way back to being at sea. So just love the sea and the power of it and its rawness. Yeah, that's really fascinating and really powerful words that I think a lot of people drawn to the water can appreciate. So now I want to talk to you about your plan for your journey across the Atlantic. So if you saw me in Elevator, give me your maybe Elevator page for this journey and some of the quick details for it. Right, because in Elevator, discussing someone who hasn't got a clue, I first of all say it's going to be like going across the ocean in a wheelie bin while being strapped onto the world's best roller coaster for probably 70 days. What more couldn't you like about it? OK, so one thing that we can talk about first is just how are you going to get food? Are you going to have enough food to last you the entire journey? Yeah, so what I've chosen to do, and this is part of my team, they would like me to do something different, but I want to have no support vessel that is close to me. I don't want anyone coming back at the end of it going, oh, but he had support, he had this, he had that. So I've been very definite that I want to have a vessel that is at least 24 hours away from me. Then that way, no one can say, do you know what he's been taken off and sat on a deck all day long and blah, blah, blah. So what I'm doing is I'm making sure that I'm on my own. I will have all my own food on board. So my wife's going to be baking some, they're kind of a nutritional food substance. She's not within ear short, so I can say it. They're pretty vile, but they do the job. But what we're doing is we're wrapping them in individual bags and then we're literally molding them into the hull all the way around. So square bars in odd shapes don't work. So we're molding them in before we send the boat out to St John's, Newfoundland. So they're going to be in there for a while. So they've got to obviously not be perishable and then they've got to last me for the passage. So they'll all be put into that. But then as well, what we've got is I've got a very small water bladder there on board and a water maker. So I've been making my own water as I go along. And obviously 90 days water is a phenomenal volume of water. So that wasn't happening. We weren't doing that. It's relying on water makers. So you mentioned just now that you're starting from St. John's, Newfoundland Labrador. How do you plan on getting your boat across the Atlantic? Just just getting it there logistically. Logistically, there's huge things that we've got to overcome. One way is sail it, which I ain't doing. I am not sailing it. It will be being shipped there. We're in early conversations with a company who might be doing the shipping and support for it there, but it will be containerized and sent out. And there is another very, very slight chance that I'm involved in another world record team. I'm only on the crew of this and my vessel may be going out with this as well. So there's there's lots of things in the air at moments about it. That's cool. So how are you going to go to the bathroom when you're on this boat? You know, earlier, I said, I know there's going to be one question that I can predict you're going to answer. That's it. So what we've got is obviously for harbour close to shore. I don't want to do it. I don't want to put anything in the water. So I have got a small little bladder bag in there. And so that will be usable. Then the food that we're taking is really, really low on fiber and everything. So although I've got to have barrel movements, bladder movements, I will be lowering that right down just because of the food intake. I know it works. I know I've done it before in other situations. And so I know I'll be able to do that. So don't worry. We're not going to litter the Newfoundland coastline with we and what's it. So no, we're not doing that. Well, that's good to hear. I know all my Canadians will like to hear that you're keeping it contained. I think moving past some logistical things, one of the most difficult challenges from this journey could be all the time you're going to be spending alone. So have you done any mental preparation to get you ready for you're like two plus months being by yourself? So yeah, I generally I don't have a lot of problems with a mental mind state. I do kind of just kind of chill myself down and relax myself so much so that I don't actually let a lot of things cram the mind of things. I think it's because I've always had odd times off within my work and my business. So I've always done a lot of things on my own. And I've spent 30, 30 odd days at sea on my own anyway. In not in smaller vessels, smaller vessels like this, but still we're talking of six meter vessel that I took up into the Arctic. In fact, that picture behind me shows one of the pictures. That's not Arctic, but that's Iceland. But I don't have a problem with that. All my friends know me well enough that they think I can just literally focus on a project project and that will be resorted. I'm not going to I'm not going to let my mind wander and worry that. That's really I don't have to worry about. OK, so what are some lessons that you've taken away from previous journeys like the one into the Arctic that you're going to use and apply in this journey? There's lots of them, lots of them. Sea states, obviously, I always whenever. Sorry, I don't know where I said sea states that whenever I leave Harvard, what I do is I get myself straight away into a sleeping routine straight away. So literally, even if I go out for two days, I 90 percent of the time go out solo anyway. Unless my little daughter comes with me and she's only nine anyway. So it's almost like being solo. But what I do is I literally as soon as I've got a tack that I know I'm not going to hit anything worst case scenario if I fell asleep for a longer period of time, I will get straight into a sleep routine. I've never had to have never had problems with it. And I just find that as soon as I leave the Harvard, I'm on a tack that is not going to hit anything. If I fall asleep or anything, I can then just fall straight to sleep for that half an hour and it would work 20 minutes, half an hour. And then if worst case scenario, I've been at times where the sea has been so horrendous that I've had to stay awake for two days and solidly at the helm. And if you need to do that, you need to do it. Yeah, so obviously in the open ocean, there's going to be a lot of rough conditions, like you mentioned. So what is your plan and preparations for if you sail into a storm? Right. And well, I'm what I'm doing is as per all of my trips, adventures, whether it be on land, on sea, plan for the worse. The plan for the worse and it never happens. Brilliant. So never let anything shock you. So what I do is I've made it so that the vessel I can completely seal the vessel down so I can put my hatch down, completely seal it. I've got a full harness. Well, in the actual vessel at the moment, I haven't been in the mock-up that we've got in the workshops. I've got a full harness so I can just literally lock myself in. As you've seen, my dome sits about here on me. So I've got this dome over my head and to stop my head banging around in there. I've got a padded hat that I wear. So but what the other thing with it is I've only got 45 minutes of air in there. So on the front of the vessel in front of me, I've got literally two hand-holds that I can twist and that turns my de-raids around. So what I can do is I turn one into the wind, one away from the wind, pull the strap down to open it and that opens the flaps up. If a wave should hit it, they're like a butterfly flap and it would just literally slam them shut. So I've got that on there. So we know that we can swipe it on purpose, designed it so that it will and it can roll if it needs to. Initially, we looked at it and did a load of scale modelling with it and we found if it had a really deep chord between the deck and the keel, it kind of did this really odd motion to throw you around. It was a really sick-making motion. So what we've done is we've actually bought it really close together. So it's taken down its stability a little bit, but now it allows the boats to actually float like a cork. So yes, we know and I know it's going to be rolled numerous times in storms and things like that, but I know also that it's going to come to the surface. It's going to sit there and then it's going to carry on. There's hundreds and hundreds of design options and design routes that we could have gone down. We just felt that this was going to be the best for comfort and safety, obviously. Yeah. So if it capsizes at sea, are you going to be able to just get it up yourself? I don't have to do it. I just literally sit in it and it will come back up. Wow. Yes, what it will do is it will literally, if it turns inverted, currently I've had myself put a standing on the deck, heating over as far as I can, as well as another guy who's got a steam stone on it as well. And it will get it a lot longer than that, but it's still frightful. Well, that sounds like some really clever engineering. So. Cross fingers as well on that. Yeah. And are you going to have like a satellite telephone just in case or any communication device? Yeah. Anyway, so it's obviously going to comply with all the Coast Guard and maritime safety age and safety requirements. So we've got VHS, VHF. We've got a class B transponder, AIS, so that's hanging the whole time. I will also have personal PLB as well. Then we're in conversations with that phone company and there may be, depending if we get the sponsor that we're looking for to come on board, there may be a way that we can do live streaming for the vessel as well, which would be amazing. So it's quite complicated. It's and it's expensive, but it depends on what sponsor wants. Can you talk to me more about who the potential sponsor is or if you're working with any foundations to help help you with this process? And not at the moment that we've got there are my talks with some sponsors that we're talking to and they're at the initial stages. What we wanted to do was actually get the vessel out there and get it to people to see what's going on with it. So what we've done is we've had incredible take up from it. In the UK, it's been in basically all the newspapers. It's been on most of the news channels. It's just gone mental. We have had some sponsorship companies turn us down when we originally spoke to them right at the beginning. We're just now thinking that they may have regretted turning us down because there was one big beverage company, I should say, that turned us down. And I personally think they might just be kicking themselves a little bit now because the figures on the viewing and the interest level has just gone maybe so. Oh, that's good to hear for your end, definitely. Yeah, very good. What's been the most difficult part of this process? I think kind of convincing everyone initially when we started it that it was going to happen. My wife knows that when I put my head onto something, it goes ahead and I will do everything to make it touch wood. I've never had anything that I haven't been able to do. So I don't want this to be the one that I can't do, but I don't think I can do it. I'm 100% convinced that I can do this. One thing that keeps coming up is that you seem like you have something to prove or that at least, at the very least, you like a challenge and you like to put yourself in positions that force you to grow. So why do you think that is? I don't know. I truthfully don't know. It's just something within me that always protects me and wants me to do better. And it's like everything I do. I ride a lot of motorcycle trials and so I'll go out and I will push myself as hard, absolutely as hard as I can. When I go sailing, I do the same. Whenever I'm doing anything, I push myself as hard as I can. It's just a personal achievement that I want to do. It's just something that I want to do. It's in there and it would eat at me if I didn't. So is that why you chose Atlantic specifically to sail across in such a small vessel? It combines everything. It's got obviously the rawness, the adventureness, the extreme side of things, sailing, and Atlantic. What more can you, you can ask for any more, could you? No, I don't think you could. Sounds like a lot of fun, even though you'll have to go through some tough times maybe. But if you plan for those, that all the rest of it works. It's when people don't prepare for the right amount. We've had, on social media, we've roughly checked it today. I've had about 99% of absolutely positive comments. There are the odd one that says, oh crazy, why do this? But if we don't do anything in life, what's the point in living? We're here and everyone likes a challenge. Now, whether it be just to have enough in yourself to pop out to the shops, because some people physically can't do that, that's not me. I need to put myself at the far end of the spectrum and challenge myself harder. And that's what I've always done. And that's what my wife and daughter, they just know. They know that's the way I am. Yeah, must be hard for them sometimes when you want to go on these crazy adventures. I think I've made their lives harder, but on the other hand, I've made it very, very much richer for them as well. My daughter, she's only nine. In fact, actually her words, it's been our father's day a couple of days ago here. So she wrote on a card basically that she couldn't have had any better dad, just because I introduced her to so many things that most kids only dream about. Age two, she was riding her own motorbike. Age three, I have her up in the garden on parachutes. She comes out sailing with me. She does everything. So she's a little, I tell you what, I'd watch out for her in the future. I've got a funny feeling my mini trans might do something quite special with her on Monday. Wait and see. Yeah, hopefully we get to see that happen. I do. I so do I. What are you most scared of on the trip? I'm not really scared as such of anything because my mind makes me think, what is the worst? What is the biggest things I've got to watch out for? Obviously, horrendous sea states with shipping around are the ones that you've got to really watch out for. So I've made sure that I've got as much on the vessel to keep me safe as possible. Yes, if I'm in a false 10, which you could be, with my AI with waves that are 60 foot tall, 50 foot tall, my AIS is pinging off and I'm seeing a ship come towards me, or maybe not even seeing a ship come towards me. I'll be scared then, but I will have done as much as I can to get it sorted. Now I do also know that Tom McNally, who started the design and the build, sorry, who designed this and started the build on this, he was hit by a ship in this one. He cracked it all the way along the side of the vessel, but he carried on. He carried on and did it. I've seen lots of pictures from him and even his daughters when I talked to them, they say that they can see me in the way he was. So they're all positive and behind it as well. Yeah, that's really cool. I really enjoyed hearing about why you were drawn to challenges in life and how that kind of makes you into a better person for yourself and your family. That's a really powerful stuff. Yeah, it is, it is. But it's like anyone, as I say, everyone, most people like a little challenge or like a challenge. It may be monstrous to them, but seeing small to other people. So it's just about making yourself do things to make yourself feel better and to push yourself. Okay, is there anything else you want to add for today? Anything you want to talk about? No, I'm all right with all that. You seem to have covered an awful lot of it. Yeah, it's just something that obviously if you hear of anything, anyone that wants to sponsor us, we're up there, obviously on Facebook, BigseaAtlanticChallenge, and then also on YouTube being just type BigseaAtlanticChallenge and we pop up everywhere at the moment. So, yeah, guys, we get behind a share, far and wide and make the most of it. Okay, definitely. It was great having you here today. Thank you for joining us. Great, and I tell you what, why don't you come and do the interview in the UK when I finish? Okay, or I can come up to Lufenland when you start. That's how you're doing then. If the nerds have come. No problems. No worries. Let's cover it all both ends, assorted. Brilliant. I like fun. Thanks for being here today. I'll tell you what, here are these. These are the most important person. Yeah, let's meet. Oh, hey there. Hi there. My little daughter. Her first adventure was we quite often go out and we go wild camping. So, oh well, no, she was doing a bit when she started riding her motorbike. And then we quite often go out onto the mountains and we just sleep in bivvy bags, just on the mountains. And you love it, don't you? In fact, I actually asked her last week, where would you rather sleep? Would you be in your bedroom in the mountains? Mountains. There you are. So, yeah, this is the one you've got to watch.