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Wanted: One boat to go to Rockall

Fearless oceanic expedition seeks support

Charity appeal Some pretty weird and wonderful stuff has appeared on El Reg over the years, but we reckon that this may be among the most unexpected.

We at The Rockall Times are obliged this morning to Vulture Central for allowing us to post this appeal for support for our 2003 charity assault on Rockall — the snappily-titled Rockall Ho!.

Yes, we kid you not. Sometime between 18 July and 4 August a team of five of us will land on Rockall in support of Mental Health Media, a small mental health charity doing top work in raising awareness of issues surrounding mental health and learning difficulties. Its work is close to the heart of TV's Donal MacIntyre, who took a few minutes out from his punishing schedule to pose in Rockall Times t-shirt with team photographer Mark Alden:

Rockall Times charity assault member Mark Alden poses with Donal MacIntyre

For those of you not acquainted with Rockall - and let's face it, who is? - it's a lump of granite roughly 73ft high sticking out of the North Atlantic some 230 nautical miles west-ish of Scotland. Our plan is to proceed to Rockall by sea, and then launch the final assault by inflatable. Madness? No so. A few years back Greenpeace occupied Rockall for more than a month, and we're obliged to those intrepid eco-warriors for their help and advice in putting together our plan. To see what we're up against, have a look at our Rockall picture gallery. There's also some illuminating history of the rock available here.

So, how can Reg readers help? Well, we have a fundamental problem: getting to Rockall in the first place. You'd think it would be pretty simple to hire a boat and get moving. Sadly not. For reasons too tedious to recount here, practically all of the commercial hire companies on the West coast of Scotland are restricted to within 60 nautical miles of the coast. Not much use to us.

Now, we need a vessel to take us to Rockall. We're prepared to pay, but would obviously rather find some kind soul who will do it for expenses only. We'll make any accommodation, fulfil any criteria required by such a ship owner. If you think you can help, contact us at rockall.ho@therockalltimes.co.uk

Naturally, any company or individual who doesn't happen to have an ocean-going vessel knocking about can help in other ways. We're looking for sponsors to offset the costs of the trip, estimated at around £5,000. This doesn't include our personal expenses, which we're meeting in full. We're committed to ensuring that 100 per cent of the cash raised for the charity goes to them, so this is your chance to help out and join our (presently modest) list of sponsors, who will doubtless gain great fame by association with this media-friendly venture, not to mention a future nod from the Reg. You can donate right now via PayPal by hitting this button:


In addition to cash, we're looking for climbing equipment, use of an inflatable, and some sort of laptop/satellite phone digital camera set-up to send instant images from the top of the sacred rock. Again, if you can help, have any other support you might be able to offer, or want any further information, contact us at

rockall.ho@therockalltimes.co.uk

.



Thanks, and muchas gracias again to El Reg for letting us make this appeal. ®

Related links

There's more on the Donal MacIntyre angle here, and a very basic outline of what we need here. Click here for a look at how we intend to assault Rockall.

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