On the night of January 31, there was a drone attack on the Russian cities of Pskov and St. Petersburg. This was reported by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. According to reports, drones were shot down by air defense systems in both cities. In St. Petersburg, the remains of the drone fell on the territory of the Dnetsky-Mazut plant. Images of the explosion of the drone over the factory and the remains of the drone were spread on telegram channels. The moment of the explosion was captured by security cameras of residential buildings to IT should be noted that this is the second drone attack on St. Petersburg, located 850 km from the border with Ukraine, in recent days.


lads I have been following so I've not been in touch my heads on fire doing admin as I'm gash at it, but Keep going. I know it's a slog It hurts, but it will be worth it in the end. Obviously.  Give it some men. You got no fans We've got the sex Gentlemen, can I start by saying one absolute honor it is to have four of my brothers on my show All of whom have achieved something which is not just Absolutely fantastic incredible Bordering I'm sure to most people on superhuman But it's also something as Brucey will will tell you we chatted about in the pub the other night for about three hours Because I'd really love to do it. So this makes it an Extra special podcast for me I just want to say it's I Don't know how we're going to do it with for people Maybe I I just picked somebody so we're not all talking over each other So Oscar How did this? How did this well, what's your service history or a bit about yourself? So I joined I joined the core in the beginning of 2014 And and had a great career really enjoyed it, but I'm from New Zealand originally Grow up there and I want to move back So I was intending to leave the Marines what left the Marines in July last year But I'm also good friends of Brucey and nutty who you mentioned earlier Who rode last year and they when I as I was leaving they said I would put it together another team for The Atlantic this year. Do you want to jump on and I had no reason not to really so that's kind of what led me On to on to do the Atlantic Wow, which part of New Zealand are you from mate? The top of the South Island near Nelson Okay, is that near Raglan? I'm not sure. I don't think so. No, yeah They got new is a new Plymouth that way I knew yeah new permits in the in the North Island on the on the west coast of North Island Yeah, I've spent some time around those places. It's an absolutely incredible incredible country New Zealand Is that is that a big thing then coming over? Is it a big thing to come over and join the Marines? Is that an easy an easy move? It's it's possible to do yeah people from them from the Commonwealth are out to join There's lots of South Africans. I've only met a couple of other Kiwis that have done it But I've gone to your passport So I was looking at joining the military over there and was sort of looking at the options available to me and Realized I've you know, I could come out and join the join the Marines So I thought I'd give it a go and one thing led to another And what what unit have you served in? So I did couple years as a sprig up at 4 3 and then I was down and 40 commando in Taunton For about two and a half years and then spent the rest of my career at 4 2 Brilliant Yeah, 4 2 that was my unit. Do you want to introduce the other guys? Just yeah, is that going to save us a bit of time? and Your your video by the way is candy. Yeah, your video is frozen. I'm not sure That's probably a Wi-Fi signal issue, but don't mine is yeah, don't worry about it Yeah Okay, it's probably you go The further you go from the Wi-Fi the more the weaker the signal gets I guess yeah, but but go for it Yeah Okay. Yeah, so I'm Oscar stone and then we've got Connor Paterson Who's I don't know what order the screens are on your screen, but Connor's the next one down for me and then Mitch is The other lamp of the dark beer and then Jason Jason Gardner is in there is in his car there. Yes, got it and Did you all serve in the same unit together or are you all from across different places in the core? So we we actually only met through that through through this rowing team Jason Jason and I were part of the original Atlantic dagger team that we put together Since July last year But we had dramas with the other two lads in our team who were who were both serving and they couldn't get the time off from the Marines and so they had to drop out Connor and Mitch were part of a team called Atlantic Warrior who had similar drought similar team dramas where they lost to their team members So we amalgamated the two teams literally at the last minute the first time Jason I met Connor and Mitch was in Gran Canaria a week a week before we rode So none of us and Jason I haven't served together. So none of us really knew each other before this Sorry, my phone's falling over. Yeah, none of us really knew each other before we before we came on the row Have you guys have you been in the Middle East? I can't I'm not I Can't keep up with the age range in the the the time range No, so I missed out on Afghanistan. I joined too late and But but chase was in a bit before us. So he's he's served in Afghanistan But Mitch and I Mitch and I missed out on that What was that like Jace you'll have to you'll have to take yourself off mute mate Yeah, I don't um, I took part in a harrick 9 with a 42 commando K company It was a yeah, it was a good experience, you know done a wide wide variety of soldier in obviously We were doing strike ups at the time.  You know one of my highlights my core My core history, you know, yeah, you sound like you're in the West country or you're from the West country Unfortunately, yeah, I can't shake that Is that some a set or Devon Bristol Bristol, okay Yes, and So Yeah, if you came from two different boats and amalgamated then How does how does like this idea come up is this something that comes up over a couple of beers I don't know. Shall we go to Connor? Do you want to ask answer that one? Yeah, sure. So it was actually Harry who came up with the idea of combining the two teams Due to you know, what Oscar said about his unfortunate circumstances he came up with the idea of Combining the two teams because Mitch not had a bit of experience on the boats and we already had our team put together So we were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to join Oscar and Jason in the team at Antigua Are you all are you all serving or any of you veterans? So I am actually I'm actually in the Merchant Navy. It's been kind of swept away that I'm also a Marine or X Marine But I'm unfortunate to join the teams But I'm actually a serving Navigation officer in the Merchant Navy. I've been swept up with the guys It's just been a fantastic opportunity to do due to having a lot of connections in the core And the ship I work on work on close with the core And a fantastic opportunity to see a lot of the world of those guys so But yeah, the guys are all All veterans now so Hey Merchant Navy. I was uninvincible for A year and I loved my time at sea. I was always thinking about what it must be like to be in the Merchant Navy Yeah, sure. Yeah, have you been on many many ships? No, so I've just been on the one ship throughout my career, but you know, we've been as far as Columbia and as far as the Mediterranean and Norway and the media and fantastic way to see the world And now what what kind of ship is that? So it's a worldwide support vessel, but I've been fortunate to be contracted to the mod So wherever the guys do their training. We get a chance to take their kit over and And facilitate their training. Yeah, got you got you and um Did the merchant navy is it Do they just supply the navy or is there other roles that we we don't think of So the merchant navy is uh, it's a kind of collective term an umbrella term for all commercial shipping You might be thinking of the Royal Fleet auxiliary Ah, yeah, okay. That's that's um What's in my head? Yeah, got you Yeah, sorry. No, so the rfa is you know predominantly, you know, they they support the navy and they float around and you know Give them all the supplies they need but the yeah, sorry the merchant navy is to collect sample commercial shipping But fortunately like I said My company is contracted to the mod so we get to See a bit more of the world. Got you.  Uh, not particularly actually, um, yeah, the guys are very kind and um They welcome me You've got to say that Brilliant and um Yes, so Sorry, I can't remember if we answered the question. Was it well, where does an idea like this? You know first come from so you've obviously got a nautical background Connor um So was that something? I mean, do you like reading books and stuff on the on the On the open ocean? Yeah, of course just just living it for the past eight years. Um, You know sailed across a few oceans and I just basically living in growing up in southwest Growing up on the water just have a huge passion for everything water-based. So, you know, ocean rowing was just the next thing to do You know But through my connections through having lots of friends in the core I was really lucky to be given an opportunity to join the the two rowing teams And um, here we are Yes, brilliant brilliant And um, mitch, how are you doing mate? Hi chris. Yeah, yeah, i'm grandmate. Just happy to be on dry land. Yes. I saw your little videos you came into Was it barbados wasn't it? Yeah, bought us some jars and barbados. It wasn't quite as smooth a video as we'd hoped we were hoping for flares and and dramatics but It didn't take away from the moment. It was still one of the best moments of all of our lives. I think everyone would Yeah, these things never really go to plan. Do they? No, but yeah, nothing to my first contact, but it's still it's worth every moment. Definitely Yeah, and how did you come up with the idea to do this? I always it's always similar. I only left the core in um, in end of march last year and I'd just been working private security for a couple of weeks and another veteran friend of mine I was working with just he just turned around to me and said, uh, would you how would you feel about growing rowing an ocean or any Atlantic and I just went hell. Yeah, why not? So I'd never The ocean I love the ocean, but I've never really done done much on it So it was the concept of rowing across an ocean having never Been touched a rowing boat in my life. It's quite a good Challenge and it's just kind of encapsulated everything that appeals to me about adventure and that kind of thing So, um, yeah, I said, yeah, why not? He added me to a whatsapp group Which um, the lads from last year grusy nutty Chris Martin who organized everything mission Atlantic, you know, he's um, the big boss They're all part of that team. Um, so I joined that randomly joined the whatsapp group in um in may and um, And yeah a few months a couple of months later got added to Added to a random group of the guys and leave the connor and another two guys and then obviously as I say after several months of Of short notice but hard graft it kind of um, wasn't looking promising But then we very really really fortunately got the opportunity last minute to um to jump to jump on with this So luckily managed to realize the dream in the end Was so did you guys go with mission at lante? Yeah, so the abyss of lantic is the company owned by chris martin who just facilitates and um owns the boat Basically, so we were really lucky really really lucky. You can see such a such a nice person and You know, so he has all the expertise and um, he's a lot of people work for him Like the person we're here with now called nick who's the great person and they just know everything about the boats what to do Everything so the support result was just brilliant. But mission Atlantic was the company. Yeah, basically overseeing everything Yeah, brucey was telling me about it sounds um almost like a sort of Cut price package to aircross the Atlantic compared to Some some It's brilliant. It's that yes great concept And they're trying to build it over the next couple of years to offer it to x servicemen It's given the opportunity to obviously do like one of the biggest kind of challenges in the world Um to open it up to everyone really because it's really, you know, it's quite expensive and it's it's normally kind of reserved for More the kind of wealthier, you know, if you have a lot of money in this this gives this gives The opportunity who wouldn't have had it otherwise to um to do it like ourselves really Yeah, it just gives us the opportunity for style grafting to uh to realize their dreams really Yes, and it gives me the opportunity. That's what i'm excited about Yeah, you're going to be Yeah, well, I want to I definitely want to row across the Atlantic. Um and I shouldn't I suppose we shouldn't minimize the danger because obviously there's all sorts of stuff, isn't there? You could hit a container you could be moaned down by a ship you could get separated from the boat You could just have an accident on board that could turn things really nasty but generally speaking It's Or should I say statistically it's fairly safe. Am I am I right in thinking that? Yeah, that's correct statistically because because um, literally, you know, you everyone on the goes from training beforehand You familiarize with the boat. You're always you're always clipped onto the boat With a harness and a kind of kind of a line So even if you were thrown off the boat in a storm you'd still be attached So as long as you're diligent as long as you're doing all the correct drills So as long as you're attached onto the boat as long as you're always keeping the hatches closed So when there's a massive wave it doesn't fill up the boat and then that means if it's filled up with water It means you can't it can't turn over if you're capsized and stuff like that. So it's yeah It's it's kind of safe.  That's it and then there you are that that gets affected and all you all you've got is some a few like you know Your dressings and antibiotics and that on board and essentially you've just got to be you've got to be between you You've got to be the team medic basically and to just help each other out and um, yeah All sorts of crazy stuff off to the weather is the worst thing with the storms and that and it's the scariest one Um, but the boats are designed the design to to be completely capsized multiple times and be absolutely fine So we're all a bit a little bit worried, but um, it's all about having Confidence in your boat, you know, personally after about a week or after a few days actually just kind of realized right Okay, you know this this is she's this boat. She's going to look after us And yeah, as long as you have confidence You'll you'll you'll be fine. You'll ride it through Yes, well the wonderful mc dorson is proof of that isn't he because he's he's had a few dunkings Hello, hello mc if you're watching um is it Is it um, do you think? I'm going to say marie. I was going to say service personnel, but there's some pretty rubbish service personnel in the world Do you think being it from an elite unit that means Doing the stuff the little things like closing the hatches Making sure everyone's got this safety line on Stick into the routine. Do you think that comes Easier or more naturally? Yeah, I mean I wouldn't say like people like coloritis advantage because kind of he was amazing And he was switched on and he was basically you would have thought he was one of the marines to be honest But yeah that kind of small the little body body system, you know Little things like just every single 10 minutes making sure everyone's okay And it's more the openness as well, you know because you're because you're so used to basically being Completely upfront the guys like, you know, within the first day we were completely naked In each other's faces like, you know, we've shown the whole world everything So the fact that if there's any little niggles, you can instantly say can you have a look at my mum?  Yeah, I think it makes it. Yeah, so probably it's an advantage I wouldn't say it was a necessity but It's main the main advantage is just being used to kind of being uncomfortable, you know and being Being used to being in confined spaces with with the lads Basically and just being able to just mentally push through it and just um whilst keeping a clear head really Was there anyone saying can you look at my bum when there's actually nothing nothing wrong with them? Oh several times.  Um whilst having dinner I was always uh, I was always um privileged with the uh, the loving sight which I will leave to you is uh, um Shame we're on youtube youtube won't allow any of that stuff, but there you go. Oscar you could have Could have mooned the world um, so Oscar tell us obviously one of the most important things is who who were you raising money for? Uh, so we we were raising money for the raw marines charity Exclusively some some teams split split that that you know a couple of teams I've seen have raised money for you know one or two charities, but we thought Um, it would just be better to pull all that money into one place And and the raw marines is Romer's charity is something very close to all of our hearts and and you know, all of us that served in the marines Know of people who benefited from it, you know in a small way or a major way And they do a lot for for our community, uh of serving and former marines keeping everyone together So so it was it was something close to all our hearts that we thought would be An important thing to raise money for Yeah, and we should remember that Because everyone's been locked down for two years there They've suffered all these charities have suffered greatly haven't they because people haven't been haven't been out and about And there's probably more demand for their services as well with people suffering from mental health due to due to the lockdowns and everything as well, so Yes, and well, yeah, of course. Yes. That's a another whole Whole thing again. Isn't it the mental health and and lots of it domestic violence and addiction goes on And I'm looking at your fundraiser now doing really well up to 24,000 Yeah Yeah, so we we've jack our social media guy who's been back here. He's uh, he's he's been fantastic He was sort of the the key keystone of the whole operation really he was he was he was keeping us informed on on It's passing messages through through, you know up to us and and back down and And checking in with us daily if not more than that, you know He was sending messages all the time to us and and and and I've heard from loads of people That I've spoken to since we've been back that he was, you know all over the social media So he was he's really been key in helping helping drive that fundraiser whilst we've been away Oscar, who was that? Sorry. I've been a real lifesaver for us actually Who who was it sorry jack brought him. He was our social media guy A lad called jack jack brought him. He's he was our social media guy. He's a he's a former former army army guy I was injured And and he's someone that I met through through Bruce. You're nutty and they got on really well with him And he's keen to road it land at some point once once he's in a once he's in a fit state for it And and so I thought we you know, we get him on our team as our social media guy So sort of land represent a land land representative And uh, and he's he's been one of the one of the key members of the team You know since we've been away he's been a driving force behind You know the fundraising and the social media and everything Yeah, I was going to say I bet the guys are godsend because when you're doing something like that you you need a safe pair of hands in charge of your media and and and um Absolutely a lot of people will fake show feint interest and after a week they lose You know, so it sounds like you you well done jack is what we're trying to say Yeah, thank you jack. Yeah, thank you So how do you How do you get the equipment together or I'm guessing with Mission Atlantic? All the boats come With everything they need um How does that work then obviously so chris so chris martin He he he's sort of sets up this package for us if you like but um the way The way it costs less than than the taluska whiskey, for example, is that we're doing it completely unsupported. So there's no support vessels The only support we get from him once we're on the water is is weather updates and any medical Advice that we need really So we're on our own And that's that's how the price is is significantly less So we're buying the boat off them with all the equipment the desalination pump You know all the all the running kit basically and it's up to us to source foods separately And any other you know all the sort of consumables essentially So so we we chris will help chris helps us with the shipping out to to grand canary the shipping back from barbados Getting the boat to the start line in a good good state And then once we set off it's that's on us until we get to barbados and then he'll help ship it back So oh what um when I asked brucey's team this question And they all started laughing And I'll explain why but what what what did you eat? So we we were on military Arctic rations so dehydrated dehydrated rations so Quite nutritious, but very boring after a while You know if we are having a couple of meals a day dehydrated meals We've just poured boiling water in and a load of snacks the old biscuit browns all quite dry food But nutritious calorific but a bit boring after a while Yeah, I bet you want to supplement that with a few tins of I don't know I was going to say fish, but I suppose there's Fish coming in the boat all the time From what I've heard Yeah, towards the end anyway, we had we had we were having you know tens tens of fish jumping on the boat a day And the last week or so we were getting flying fish all over couple of us caught flying fish in the face and all of that stuff It's a delicacy in Barbados is certainly a Yeah, I've seen that yeah In terms of supplementing the rations we we didn't supplement it much But you know, I would I would say if the space on the boat throw in some tins of tins of fruit because we had one of them for halfway market it was it was It was heaven really have really good on the halfway mark cracking a tin of pineapple And some salami from what I've been reading Yeah, yeah, we also had some salami It does get a little bit moldy, but you just cut the moldy bits off and it's drive eight It was good to go. None of us had any issues with it. So Yes, it's probably better than what they had 400 years ago at sea Exactly. Yeah, yeah So, um, let's come back to to to connor Did did you have to teach all the guys how to navigate or did you take all that responsibility? also So we we tried to Every maybe seven days rotate the cabin. So all of the navigation equipment is in the back of the boat So everyone got a chance to have a go at the nav So the person In the bow seat was the sort of the effect of the navigator because he had his foot on the pedal So he's looking at the compass Throughout the duration We had a little Clip over peter which was going to give us our sort of track and bearing But unfortunately that broke a few hours before we set off We weren't able to replace it. So, um, the guys diligently kept us from the bearing That's why it might have looked a bit squiggly as we were coming down But it was it was relatively straightforward. We were given charts But it was just going between the waypoints and just trying to follow the bearings and keeping on track as much as we could Hmm and I'm guessing what do they say the trade winds are in your favor? Exactly. Yeah, we were incredibly fortunate Throughout our row, you know, the trade winds were fairly consistent. We had Really fantastic weather. We did come against some Come up against some currents, which are very frustrating. There's nothing much we can do about that Um, which could have knocked off a couple of knots of our speed, but um, yeah, we incredibly fortunate The weather was behind us. We I think it was weak Going into week two or three. We had some pretty hairy weather Um, I think the guys we could all agree. It was maybe three to four meter swells. Um, got pretty hairy But luckily it was all behind us. We were just surfing most of the time, which was really quite fun How frightening is it when the waves are A building I think we all spoke about that the other night actually It wasn't it there were times it was quite frightening, but when when it's behind you it was actually quite fun because If you can just get a bit of a grip of the situation It's it doesn't it's not actually that scary. It can be actually quite fun Oscar was telling me one of his highlights was When he was rowing with Jay they got really locked in and they were really Surfing and keeping it on course I remember laughing because I was in the in the bow seats navigating a mitch was in the in the stern seats and Unfortunately because the way the boat was trimmed at the time we were quite stern heavy So when we were surfing the waves were basically just crashing into the boat and Mitch was getting soaked Remember to start from that head off because he just seemed to be working constantly So it was never I would say it was never that scary At night it was probably quite scary because you couldn't really see the waves coming Um, it was I think it was more fun than than scary because we were fortunate it was above all behind us Did you have to put a a drogue anchor in at all? So there was a time where it was getting quite windy and I thought it might be a good idea to put our drogue out But um, the wind wasn't as you know, we need um 30 to 40 knots to really get the benefits of the drogue So when we put it out didn't really work. It was a good little test to see what it was like And um, was anyone seasick? No, actually we're all um, I was I get I'm you know, I'm in the middle of but I get seasick. Um I think we're all expecting to get seasick because um, The boat is so low to the water. There's not so much of the pivot point. So, you know, you're as low as you can get So um, fortunately, no, I think we're all got away with it. Yeah brilliant Um, Mitch what was I going to ask you? Um, yeah, can you tell us what? I don't I was going to say I got the feeling if you were to have done this trip say 50 years ago You'd have seen an abundance of ocean life um I get the feeling it's all kind of been eaten now because of the big industrial Fishing ships that take up all the krill and the bigger fish, etc. etc. etc um That you don't see so much going across as you might might have done but can you tell us Is that is that the case and and did you see a lot of wildlife? Oh nice Chris. We were very fortunate. I think really Probably yeah, if you go back 50 years, it probably would have been, you know, every Multiple times a day you saw things but we were yeah, we were very lucky. We seem to be attracted to wildlife so by day two we um, we had a whole pod of dolphins alongside us following us and Probably that mean kind of well most of us one of our highlights was like after a few days was when it was completely flat as a pancake and Pitch black and all you could see was like bolts of lightning under the water and dolphins swimming through swimming through the glowing bioluminescence So you had like had like four dolphins around the five dolphins around us the whole time for about an hour um Swimming in like pairs or in freeze under the boat. It was just a stream of glowing green um algae basically following them and it was just like magical It was something out of a dream and yeah, periodically we had several like Dorados and jumping, you know, five ten feet out in the air We had fish big big fish swimming along side us every other day um About four or five times we had big fairly large whales just just surface very close to us about halfway through the other the only times that we cleared the boat Connor was scrapping along the um Scraping along the side of the boat and I thought I heard his snorkel and I looked to my right and 20 yards to our right Connor was on the left when I saw rice. There was a big whale just breaching just coming out of the water there and then Probably one of the craziest days we had was we were getting smashed in the face by the flying fish And then being kind of had a small tuner just leave out the water and it kind of absolutely Cats his pants I recall small tuna jump out of the water And we were like what the hell it slid along the boat and then slid back into the water And then he got up and then proceeded to fall over on top of me um in shock and he said shark shark and Some of the best moments all stood up and what we thought was a shark It must have been at least an eight nine ten foot shadow at the back of the boat It was actually a giant six seven hundred pound blue marlin um, that was that was literally Five yards from from the back of our boat and it followed us for half an hour And um, you'll see if you keep an eye on the um, I'm actually got the video I've got all the videos of the wildlife. I've got um pods of dolphins I've got a video of that blue marlin. So if you keep an eye on it or the um, or the footage of the wildlife will come Yes, we were very fortunate and about a week before But in the middle of the day, we had a pod of about 40 50 pilot whales for about an hour and a half that followed us the whole way Um, literally like we had like seven at a time within Uh within all's reach they were you know nearly touching the alls with us the entire way So, yeah, I mean probably it would have been crazy 50 years ago But I think we were we can all agree we were mega mega fortunate and um, yeah, it wasn't too fun with flying fish getting smacked in the face Yeah, but that was all part of the parcel really I had a I had a flying fish fish fly through the three inch gap of the Hatch whilst I was sleeping landed on my belly and and bits and I shot up Scared as hell with a fish on me. Um, so we had we had some good encounters I think overall wasn't great encounters with um with the wildlife and the birds as well Quite a lot of birds to be surprised even to be in a thousand miles out to see see sea starlings and stuff Birds pretty much every single day at least every single day at least one point you saw a bird which was pretty incredible Um thinking how far out they were so um, maybe they probably will probably followed you from union street Yeah, 100 that was it definitely Yeah, I didn't see any pigeons. They weren't they weren't too lost, but um, it was we were all very privileged We're all very humbled to um to get that opportunity really Yeah, no sharks unfortunately, but um, probably a good thing But yeah, overall overall it was um, yeah very good Did you have to get under the boat and clean the the algae in the barnacles off? We had to do quite a lot, but we we only had done it once kind of done it Kind of done it just a one time after after that period of bad weather we were talking about after about three weeks Um, we finally calmed down he we got we got in basically That kind of got in sorry and um, yeah Just just didn't take long We had to clean it off because if you keep it on there it builds up and it causes a little bit of drag and things like that But uh, yeah Miraculously, um, it didn't build up for too much a lot of people do it weekly, but we done it once So um, yeah, it was quite it's not a hard job, but it was yeah, you'll be doing it another once Yeah, got you Oscar, can you tell us what was your routine like and what's it like sticking to a to a routine Oh, Oscar don't know if you can hear me Yeah, I can hear you again now. I lost I lost you. I missed that question. Am I repeating that? Yeah, I was going to say what what what was your routines And and how was it sticking to them like, you know getting out of your sleeping bag to Have to go and row again Yeah, so our routine um, we'd heard from other teams, particularly Bruce and usy that uh, that it gets Extremely hot during the day in the cabins So we we were planning on a three hour on three hour off routine But just before we left we decided that between 9 a.m. In the morning and and three o'clock in the afternoon during that six hour hot window We changed it to one and a half hours So there's less time in the heat the cabins And that worked extremely well for us So we had shorter shorter sessions during the day and then during the cooler hours. It was really warm And and that that was a Really, we were all pretty chuffed that we kept to that because that worked really well In terms of getting up for the shift it's like getting up for century You know, it's never particularly nice But once you're out and you're on the on the oars you say you sort of wake up You get back used to it again, but the actual waking up's always pretty grim, I think Do you get like your favorite person that you want to roll with am I going to cause trouble now? No, we we we rode in pairs that we sticks and stuck to those pairs me and jacks were rowing together And Connor and Mitch were rowing in person It didn't it didn't really we didn't change throughout So no, uh, no divorces then Uh, no divorce. Thankfully. Yeah Um, so one thing that puts me off going in a team Is I I would be like the best rower I I'd be just like the strongest guy on the boat and That might put the other lads or ladies noses out a joint, but um Was there anyone that was particularly like by internet's playing up again? It's probably just as good because we're just talking a load of nonsense, but Is it is was there anybody that was like a super rower or really loved it or Said look, I'll do your shift for you or this kind of stuff Uh, I don't think anyone was Noticably stronger than anyone else to be honest. We were all pretty pretty equal If if any of us have had dramas I've got no doubt that any of us would have jumped in on a shift for another of them We were all pretty pretty open for that We were quite lucky and no one had any Really injuries or niggles or anything like that. So there was the requirement to to jump on for each other, but I'm pretty confident. We you know, we've all jumped on for each other if that was the case shared the load Yeah, good job. And thankfully there was a requirement for it Were you worried about shipping apparently you've got an alarm of you or some sort of alert device Yeah, so part of the gps suite on there is uh, um, a unit called the ais automatic system And that basically broadcasts your position on the gps to other vessels And and part of that is it will it will predict, um, you know With the course that you're on the course and other ships on whether or not you're likely to collide or or get Dangerously close, uh, and and you can set the parameters for that and it will set off an alarm within the cabin Um, so so we did have that go off a couple of times But it was as simple as just radioing the vessel and saying look, you know What your attention's we're quite we're quite unmaneuverable Do you want us to go firm and let you go past or or are you happy to change course and stay a mile away from us? sort of thing and And we didn't really have any drums of that thankfully we were quite vigilant and looking out for vessels if there were close Did you have any close calls thankfully? Did you speak to a lot of other? vessels or skippers Yeah, so whenever there was a boat that was Sort of within a mile or two of us. We had that a couple of times particularly towards the end There was some sailing yachts that were crossing the Atlantic and sort of sailed within a mile or two of us We'd hail them on the radio and say hi and Try and just hear someone else's voice really and and uh, and they were they were always quite interested in what we were doing Uh, we just have a bit of a gang gang and then and then they'd go on their way It was a bit of morale for us as well They didn't come over and give you a bottle of champagne and a roast meal or anything then No, we were I was hoping they would personally but but we they never got around to it We didn't we didn't manage to persuade them And connor what what did you listen to music as you went across? yes, so um We all had our own different music um playlists Get to know a bit more about each other what sort of music we're into um And unfortunately after 30 days all the Spotify accounts crashed Um, and that was when we turned to the audiobooks and actually really worked in our favor That that's what brucey said. He said that when you got offshore they found out that Spotify doesn't Doesn't work. I would have thought um he'd have passed that tip on to you Oh, yeah, we did we did expect that we were able to put there's a little you can you can set it for 30 days so we got 30 days worth of music and Luckily oscar and jay were able to save some of their music But yeah, most of the playlists we reduced to just a couple of a couple of playlists are in the same songs about 30 or 40 times over And did you say listen to audiobooks? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so um that actually really helped the last that that's a part of the row You would kind of look forward to Each individual shift because you'd pick in a different audiobook for each shift, you know, so um Which know listening to lord of the rings during the later parts of the evening and with different adventure books, you know with with al-dhocaine and lily-bar We found it really helpful just getting into their adventures as well as ours Yeah, brilliant brilliant And um, of course the thing everyone's dying to know what what's it like when you sight land It was um, it was unusual it was um We agreed that the first person to spot land would get a tot of rum that was oscar's um oscar's call was an old neighbor tradition get a tot of rum um, but it was it was bizarre it really um I don't really have any words for it. I don't know whether any of the team members have any words for it But um, it was obviously fantastic But it really, you know, you sent it home. The journey was almost over. I guess it was quite sad actually in a way um Yeah, I'm sure you'll experience it when you crack yours Yes, yes, I'm looking forward Well gentlemen, is there anybody you'd like to thank before we um Before we cast anchor or whatever nautical term we're supposed to say drop anchor start with uh We'll stick with connor Okay, um, I'd like to if I can hand that back over to um to jay and oscar or either to um He's they've they've had this is from the very beginning. So they've got a lot of people to thank. I think He would he would say it better than I would if I say with you Yeah, okay oscar you you go for it then Okay, yeah, so for us, I think the big ones that the main names that we like to thank is uh Uh, obviously jack who I've mentioned earlier jack broad and he's like he's our our sort of main guy back here in the uk Key critical man in the team You know, he couldn't be on the water unfortunately with us But he was he was just just as just as involved in the team as as as the rest of us and a key member of it So thanks to him. Thanks for everything he's done. He's been a key member of the team for that for those reasons We'd also like to thank chris martin for for helping out and digging out and getting everything sorted getting us on the water Nick as well who's who's who's been our sort of mentor He's a help of one of chris martin's chris wet martin's friend who came out and helped us Mentoring us in gran canaria. He's met us here in barbaedos, and he's he's sorted everything out for us here in barbaedos as well um And and or everyone who supported us who's donated or just followed our progress And and sent you know We were getting loads and loads of messages from people was sent through jack or sent to us individually Whilst we were on the water and that that was huge motivation for us to to get through and push through the tough days and everything so and It was a real lifesaver also Harry twells was a key member of of helping organize Our side of the team jason eyes side the elante daggers side. He unfortunately he got pulled off At the last minute as I said But he was a real driving force behind the fundraising and behind behind our team Before he got pulled off and and since then he's been he's been still pretty heavily involved with the team and a critical planning member of the team so Yeah Thanks to all of those guys and and everyone else And mitch have you got any anything to to to add mate? No, just echo in what will echo Echo echo in what oscar said there a big thanks to chris and nick and harry and for again opportunity And everyone friends and family at home Everyone they made it possible really just just the little messages which came through and obviously everyone had their own like Companies and sponsorships like my own company black onyx. They helped a lot and loads of other companies that made it possible And yeah, so basically just what oscar and the lads were saying Yeah, he's pretty much. I think he's thanks everyone for us But their friends and family and support really which got you through the hard times. That was one of the biggest ones for us Which which companies were generous then with their sponsorship? We should give them a mention Probably had that back to oscar In a year for the main ones because I say we weren't involved in the beginning Um, I hand that back to him Okay, oscar Yeah, so so we had quite a few of quite a few people helped donate us We had we had uh, we had companies such as as uh jaces jace Made very generous donation from his his his own company blur tattoo. He's a tattoo artist We had we had companies. Um, we had even personal donations from from the Scout troops up in chester. Um, we had um quite people If I can give you a list chris, we'll put them in the in the description maybe as as thanks if that works Yes, why not? Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah cool All right gentlemen, thanks to all those. Yeah, yeah, that just remains for me to thank you all very much again um, just really You've done yourselves proud You've done the nautical community proud and and and the and the marines and the merchant navy And you've done the podcast proud guys by coming on and sharing your story Um to anybody our friends at home. Thanks chris and thanks for having us as well Yeah, absolutely my pleasure. Absolutely. We'll put a link for the um Go fun me page as well under the video so friends at home if you can Reach in your pocket and maybe pull out a fiver for what these guys have done and you'll be helping to support the smuggling raw marines um, that would be much appreciated. So Just stay on the line guys, but um, yes massive. Thank you again


Good afternoon everyone and welcome. Welcome to Stocks with Show Market Review. I don't even know what I could possibly say here today, different than what I've been saying, which is that the market is strong. It is February 12th. I did say that February would be an incredibly strong month. I said that the last week of January. I said it would be a very bullish month and it is going to be. It is already and it's even going to be more so and it is and it's going to continue. I did an email at the end of December 2014 which I think I might resend out today or tomorrow for everyone that's on my email list and I told everyone what the market was going to do this year, this calendar year and it is going to do it. Okay now the previous high right here was 106.25. Whether the market gets through that today in the next hour and a half which is a long way away or not, it doesn't matter. This market even if it retest the high will break over it. Whether it doesn't on the day it touches on the number or again after it, it doesn't matter. This is nothing but utter strength in the market and every day the market was red in the last three months I said the market wasn't doing anything bearish or anything wrong and boy was I right. You have to learn how to read gas in order how to reprice right and I think what confuses people is that sometimes well it's not just this but it was two things one sometimes people will see a bearish gap and there were bearish gaps in the market this was one here actually this was one here but anyways there there there were bearish gaps that happened in the QQQs and then people think then all of a sudden that it's changed that the trend has changed but that's not correct and also people saw all these pivots going on here in the market the lower highs and lower lows and people thought the market a broken trend it was gonna fall or not make a new high what confuses people is that every once in a while something not the market other other things other stocks other gaps that that I may look at or we may look at in the room don't work out and then people get confused there isn't nothing that works a hundred percent of the time there's always a reason though that something doesn't work there's always a reason there's always a reason that somebody doesn't work and fall through and that's why it is so important to actually watch the best thing every day or at least two things every day to get a good trade it's important to qualify them and get everything down very very specifically because you will always have sometimes something doesn't work even if it's a quality gap but anyways that never was studying up here in the market I'm just using as an example because I know it sometimes confuses people people will see a gap bill and then they will think that that works it doesn't and it's really not was really transpiring in the chart which which again I'll go over another time at another chart but what people thought was going to happen in the market which is not going to happen is that they thought that the market was going to keep falling in here and you know and fill all this area which which is not going to do and it's just that's nothing to read in here for any weightiness of what's happening with the money in October October 31st this is the first day that I started a swing trade letter I was inspired to do that because I saw this gap in the market and I made a call that is still in play for the market if you did the long it was the first time that I realized well now I kind of saw it back here in September but then I knew with a hundred percent conviction what the market was going to do in 2015 so two months before the end of the calendar year last year I knew what the market was going to do this year and it's it's here I mean it's playing out and and the interesting thing is people still aren't going to believe this I could probably do 25 videos every day of my life and people will still insist the market's extended and it's going to come in this year and it's going to turn and it's going to fall and everything else because this isn't going to be the end of it meaning we're going to get over the high here whenever we do and then the market's going to do something else and then people will short it because we're going to think it's extended but we never had a monster green bar day in here and it is going to happen I don't know when I don't know if that's going to happen in February I do know we make them we'll make a new high in February I know if every world be a bullish month it is it is a bullish month it's been but the thing is that gaps are the only proper way to read trends and how do you know if a gap is good or not the only way you know is if you do the 26-point rating system in the class that's how you know if the gap is quality or not so that's number one then you learn how to day trade in the gap class if you want to learn how to read long-term trends though you have to do the trends class but if that doesn't tell you the quality of the gap so you really need both classes actually together to determine long-term trends and quality of the gap on the day the trends class will teach your long-term trends but if you don't know how to rate the gap you're going to be missing a piece of that class it's going to tell you whether or not a gap is actually going to follow through or not and so you really need both those classes in order to take long-term overnight trains that's one of the reasons I'm able to read the market well here the market was a long today actually did not go on the market out of the game I don't think there was any reason to do that but you could have and that's even another sign of the strength in the market the fact that the market held so quickly in fact the time of the day the market held the low it wasn't the first five fifteen minutes of the day but I remember the time let's just look here I went market in the afternoon I trade in the afternoon a bunch of times in the last few weeks and I don't like doing that but I did the market set the low of the day at 943 within the first 15 minutes of the day and you could have gone on the market right here so I forgot the time here it was 943 actually I just saw something here too anyways here was a long I did in the afternoon into the lunchtime period of the very tight stop 20 cents to get the market to the target and it never looked back so it was a nice trade because of where I put the stop and I'll go over this in detail in the room in the morning but yeah the market set the low of the day in the first 15 minutes in a gap that gapped up in the sky and in a market that people think is going to extend it and get a crash and it's not and I did say this in a video the other day there might be people out there saying the market's higher but their analysts not traders of great many traders are thinking the market's going to come in and I've been thinking that for a while and they were really convinced in the last few months particularly January I was not and I kept double triple checking myself to see the information I'm probably one of the only traders out there in the planet that saw what I saw on the market for what's happening right now actually today the market's going to make a new high here but also what I am seeing for the calendar year is so significant I'm really going to resend that letter out if you are not on my email list you can email me to be put on the email list for people that have been in the room that did read the letter that are ready swing trade law in the market they're getting the best benefit out here my calls being with me every day get what I'm saying about what's happening in the market I'm this is serious this is really serious and you know a lot of traders got hurt today and they're not even still going to give up on it some are really hurt that they're going to have to give up on it but some are not going to give up on it and the market is not going to come in in any significant way to crash or fall or break trend at all this year in 2015 unless we have a world calamity which I cannot foresee but nothing is setting up that way here okay utter strength in the market holding up in the sky today beautiful beautiful long I did go on the market in the afternoon I did trade in the afternoon and I'm all out it's very late and I don't particularly like to trade the afternoon but I did today and I went long and there will be days where you will have to go long this year even if you prefer to short and I prefer to short and the market is the most perfect thing that exists right now the most perfect chart that exists right now in the market as far as bullish charts it is the QQQs in the spy and the thing that I can see that the way that I can see that is because I know how to read gaps many people think the markets confusing challenging they don't understand it and I think the exact opposite it's not a purpose is because it's true because every day get up in the market and I say oh my lanta every morning I get up and I say oh my lanta when I see the market and it's because it really is perfect perfect means perfect don't even have to think about it oh my lanta perfect and the interesting thing is moved many people find the market challenging and confusing and they're confused they're utterly confused and and it's because they don't know what to look at and people read trends based on pivot formations and it doesn't work I mean there's nothing there's another thing that I could possibly say it flat out doesn't work it's not the right way to read a trend how I knew the market would do this because I read bullish gaps and bearish gaps and I do it extremely well and I do it based on my 26 point rating system I did not rate the gap in the market today you could have done that and you could have aggressively gone long the morning I didn't do that either I look to do my bearish gaps first in the morning but I will be looking at some bullish gaps this year if you want to learn more information from me sign up for the swing trade letter do the bullish gap class that I've just come out with which is in March do the bearish gap class which is the end of this month you can learn from me this will be a challenging year to trade the stock market if you don't know what to do it's going to take people out that are day traders now that won't be able to sustain themselves because they're going to keep doing the same things and they're not going to work this year because if you don't know how to do what I know how to do in reference to gaps you're going to lose and if you're following me and learning from me you're going to go through a learning curve to you learn it and a race is passed up that you knew but once you see how these things fall through and the things that I say work out you'll understand not every trade works every day some days you start the day down you have to fight back some days you start the day up and you're up huge and it's a fabulous day some days you start the day you're up immediately in one minute or two minutes and five minutes and that's my dream life it doesn't happen that way every day this is a job it is a job for me or anyone that's a full-time day trader sometimes at your job you have to work harder than you do other days and that's just a fact so if you would like more information email me at melissathestockswish.com I will look specifically at the next targets for the QQQs tomorrow after we see how we close today and gap tomorrow morning which I don't know where we gap tomorrow morning because I don't know where we're gonna close today but I'm out of the market long this afternoon it essentially did it and this is just a beautiful call that I've made and I'm gonna really resend out that email to everyone and if you want to get on my email list then email me at melissathestockswish.com thanks everybody have a great day


The presentation now will cover the new free IDE for STM32, which is AC6 System World Bench, which is provided free of charge to you on the community website which is associated. And I will present to you this. System World Bench for STM32 is an embedded system IDE developed by AC6, a small French company, for programming STM32 microcontrollers. It's based on Eclipse. It can be used on Windows, on Linux, and soon on MacOS X, and can be installed either using a standalone installer or very convenient, just have to download the installer on the internet and run it. Or, if you have your own Eclipse installation and want to use it, you can use it and just install it as a set of plugins. Under Eclipse. And once installed, you will be able to update it through the standard Eclipse mechanism. The idea of this IDE is to integrate all project activities in one environment and to allow it to collaborate, cooperate with all other Eclipse plugins, mainly all team management systems, source code management systems, program reporting, etc., etc. Does it move or not? No. What's happening? The architecture of System World Bench for MCU is a set of Eclipse plugins with the main STM32 project in the middle that allows you to define which board you use, which MCU, which firmware library you want to use, because we have with the STM32 the ability to use either the legacy STP-REF library or create projects using the HAL library project. And then these are two different projects so that you can share the same library for different programs that you can build and then debug, flash the image and deploy to the final system. And to this you can add your own autosys, USB stacks, user libraries, etc., etc. So I will just show you quickly how to create a program and then debug it. You'll see that it's very simple. Creating a program when you want to start working with System World Bench for STM32, you will first create a project, create a standard CC++ project for Eclipse, give it a name of course, create as a kind of project an AC6 MCU project where you can create either an executable project or a library project. So if you have your own libraries that you want to integrate in your systems, you can create these as a library and then reference them from your own project. And then you select the program tool chain, which is the AC6 MCU GCC-based tool chain which is delivered with plugins. Then you have to choose the proper MCU to use and the board to use because we support all the STM32 MCUs, all the families, everything that is available today is supported and we will support the new chips as soon as they are available, generally available. And we support also all the evaluation boards provided by ST Micro Electronics. So you can choose the family, the series of the STM32 to simplify selection. Here I've chosen STM32 F4 and then the board on which you want to work. Either a standard STM32 provided board like the STM Nuclear F411RE or you can create your own board because of course you will not always use evaluation boards but you may create your own board. You just have to create a new custom board and then you specify which are the MCU that you put on it, a few characteristics of the board and then create the project. Then you will have the ability to choose which firmware you want to use. For STM32 processors you can have either the STD Period Legacy Library or the new hardware abstraction layer, Cube Library. So you have to choose which one you want. Of course you may want to work bare meter without any firmware on the board in which case you just select don't load any firmware. And then the firmware will be automatically downloaded from the ST website. You don't have to take care of it. It will be done the first time you need it and then you will get your firmware downloaded. It is analyzed by the tool and the various components are available and you can select just the basic firmware or you can add all the additional firmware available either provided by ST or provided by third party.  Then you will get your completely populated workspace with the project that you have created containing your program which of course for now is empty. The main program that we provide in this case is empty. And the library program with the standard file firmware library that you have selected. You also may have selected on the previous screen to load the whole firmware as provided by ST my very electronics so that you can copy paste for example some demo code from the provided software. We do not do that for you because there are too many variations depending on the board you are starting from but you may just open the project that is still closed on this screen. The last one. And then copy paste things into your project. The code in this global project will never be compiled automatically but all the code you put in your program project or in the library project will be automatically compiled when you push the build button on which the arrow is pointing now. And then when you build it you will get some output in the lower window at the end here finishing by the size of the generated code and you will have both a debugable file which allows you to debug the program and a binary file which can be flashed directly on the board.  Debugging is as seamless as creating the project and compiling it. Of course you can modify your code and just have to recompile each time. To debug you have two ways to start the debug. There is the fast track possibility which is just one click away from building. You just select for example in the debug menu a small icon which looks like a small bug in the tool menu at the top. You select debug as AC6 STM32 CC++ program and it will start the debugger automatically. It will configure everything from the currently selected program project. But sometimes you want to be able to customize a bit the way the debugger will start for example not having a red point at main but at some other place to have the system started normally somewhere else. So in this case you can use the custom track instead of selecting debug as AC6 STM32 CC++ program you select debug configurations. And then you create your own configuration. You will choose of course an MCU program, debugger, create one and then you will be able on the system on the debug configuration to choose the program to debug if you have several programs to debug the project from which it's coming and mainly in the second screen choose which red point to put how to start with your program etc. And you will see at this level that we use OpenOCD to control the debugging through the JTAG probe and then you can also change the configuration script for OpenOCD if you have specific needs on your board it's mainly needed when you are custom board where you may have to provide your own script. And then debugging will be done on the standard debugging interface of Eclipse with all the facilities the ability to single step, step in a function, step over a function with red points with watches to look at variables plus a few specific things provided by the standard STM32 debugging plugin for example some abilities, specific abilities for visualizing memory and visualization of all the MCU specific IO registers and you have one window that allows you to see all the IO registers from your STM32 chip and for each register here that's the general registers the next slide we will have the IO registers and for each peripheral device for example the user there is several ones you have user one with control register one and every bit is decoded and you see every bit its value you can change the value when you are starting your program and you discover that you have some configuration to change you can update your registers, test the result and then correct your code to provide the proper configuration having a nice ID is one thing but having an associated community website allowed to have all the support all the evolution provided through internet there is a specific website which is OpenSTM32.org 3W OpenSTM32.org that is the entry point to access the tool to use it to exchange on usage of the tool exchanging some tips asking questions, getting answers etc etc with the facts, with the forums etc to support the tool this website is the need you to register the website to access to everything including downloading the installer and getting all installation instructions of code you will find of course also here documentation for system world bench for STM32 some forums to discuss some facts, some blogs with insight on STM32 development tips and tricks on system world bench for STM32 use etc etc and of course you are welcome to participate in this adventure because that is something that just start registration is free, the tool is free everything is free on the website and once registered you can browse all the websites really online documentation and you may if you are interested to participate ask to become an author that allow you to have your own blog where you can post your thoughts and discuss with others and provide input to the community the OpenSTM32 website is live now the Windows based version of system world bench for STM32 is free and free to download by everybody the Linux version is in beta beta status so you have to request to be a beta tester if you are willing to participate and check it and return information on how it works for you and the macro S6 version will be ready next semester next quarter the roadmap for evolution of system world bench for STM32 release 1.0 is available now it release all the tips and evaluation boards available today from STM32 it supports firmware at the STD period for HAL format Q format wherever appropriate that is all boards today are supported by QMX and by the HAL library while the newest boards are not available for STD period and it runs 1.0 on Windows 1.1 which is expected the next month will be a minor release may support some new devices as they get out and will support Linux as development host we test it and validate it on UBITU version 12.04 and 14.04 the long term support releases of UBITU and we will always support the last two LTS releases of UBITU of course that does not mean it will not work on other platforms but we don't test it we can test it on all Linux platforms then second next quarter of 2015 there will be release 1.2 a minor release 2 may as always support new devices and will support Mac OS X as a development environment development is in the last phase it will go to beta when 1.1 gets out and then will be released a few months after and release 2 is expected end of the year with more features available and of course more chips supported and independently from the scheduled updates on which we will have new versions of the installers you will have regularly updates available to the standard Eclipse update mechanism just by clicking check for updates under Linux Eclipse excuse me and that allow to correct bugs to provide updated versions of some tools for example the GCC version we use is the latest linaro version so when linaro provide a bug fix or a new version you will be able to just install it by updating your system world bench for STM32 installation you may have some new features under user interface of course newly release STM32 chips that will be supported in the days or weeks after their general availability that means that the support in the tool will usually be available when you can get the board from ST micro electronics and if you have special arrangement with ST micro electronics to have advanced versions of the tools or the boards we can provide you usually advanced versions of the support tool so thank you for your attention