The RNLI Tour of Britain: Welcome...

...to our blog. We hope this will provide a place for everyone to follow us on our adventure of cycling around every lifeboat station in Britain aiming to raise £25,000 for the RNLI Lifeboats. Before we get underway, here is a little background for those of you that don't know us...

We (Nick and Rad) met at Canford School in 1996 and among other things, a shared passion for rowing paved the way to becaming great friends. We travelled through South America together before heading off to university. Now both of us live in London and work 5 minutes from each other in the West End- Nick working for Knight Frank and Rad for a renewable energy development company.

Rad's connections with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) started young, he won a drawing competition with the RNLI's children's magazine when he was 10 years old- the brief was to 'design a lifeboat of the future'. Perhaps befitting his current career, he designed a boat which engine was powered by a wind turbine on the roof... the wind turbine was powered by the boat moving- genius! The judges clearly thought so as first place won a ride in one of the RNLI's new lifeboats. Many years later (2007) he decided to run the marathon for the RNLI and raised over £3000.

Nick has always had a stong connection to the sea having grown up on the Hampshire Coast in a village called Beaulieu. Summer holidays were spent sailing and waterskiing and like so many villages around Britain's coast, there is a shared understanding of the importance of supporting the RNLI.

We began this expedition in London, July 2010. Leaving Wandsworth we cycle to Paignton, Devon in 9 days. Below are a few photos from last year's trip.