I was asked last week by the team’s captain David Bird if I wanted to go out on Saturday morning into Cardigan Bay with the crew, the runners and Huw Jenkins from BBC Wales, on a training trip aboard the 42 ft Beneteau yacht - Kilva.

I arrived at an empty and grey Barmouth Quayside at 7:45AM wondering whether it had been cancelled but by 8AM the team had arrived. Steve, the owner of Kilva, David the Skipper of Team Last Inn, Huw from the BBC, Keith one of the two runners, Martin, a local web designer, Denis, the secretary of the Three Peaks Yacht race and Jaffa, a local lad who is studying for a yachting degree in Southampton but who had decided to spend most of the previous evening at a party.

The plan was to sail up Cardigan Bay to the Lleyn Peninsula, drop anchor off Porth Ceiriad, have some lunch and then return to Barmouth. The day’s objective was to familiarise the race crew and runners with the boat, for Huw to get material for a Radio Wales programme that will follow the local team’s progress on the BBC and for me to record the route on SMap for Team Last Inn. My job was definitely the easiest, and by the time that we had left Barmouth harbour SMap was recording the route live on the Sanoodi site.

This meant that i was then free to relax, sit back and enjoy the trip, a tasty bacon sandwich, and a nice strong mug of tea, courtesy of Martin who apparently was the ship’s “galley slave”!

The trip up along the Meirionydd coast was relatively smooth, it was only when we arrived off the coast of the Lleyn Peninsula that it became clear that weather conditions were deteriorating and that the wind was picking up.

We sat in the cockpit and ate a hearty lunch of Chicken Soup, and slightly damp Cheddar and Ham Sandwiches, feeling sorry for the poor campers on the campsite above the bay as the rain came down and the wind continued to rise. After an hour or so at anchor the anchor was raised and we set sail back to Barmouth, accompanied by another nice mug of tea.

I was by this point becoming unseasonably cold and very wet, so i decided to go down below and try and dry out and warm up a bit. This seemed like a good idea until about an hour after i had lain down when i was woken albeit slightly drier and warmer by the noise of large things falling off shelves in the cabin and the sound of the wind. I tried to get out of the bunk and stand up, I fell over and almost immediately felt ill! It took another fuzzy, uncomfortable and disorienting fifteen minutes for me to escape the toilet (or head as it is referred to on board ship) get back into all the gear; Salopettes, Coat, Life jacket and harness and emerge into the cockpit.

By this time Kilva was about 16 miles from the coast of Meirionydd and sailing through storm force 7 to 8 conditions, the cockpit was significantly wetter and windier than when i had gone down below, the sea was flowing over the toe rails and when offshore gusts really blew, water was coming into the cockpit. It was clearly going to be a long, cold and exhilirating return across Cardigan Bay to Barmouth.
The crew of Kilva and the boat performed superbly in the conditions, the overriding memory for me is the numbing cold and wetness, the noise of the sea against the hull and basically feeling useless when things needed to be done. I did attempt to take photos of the return journey but the camera lens was covered in spray, i would try to clear it and then look through the viewfinder again to see nothing but spray. I was not alone though, Huw’s plans to ask David the captain of Team Last Inn a few more questions for Radio Wales had clearly been abandoned and poor Keith and Jaffa had to go below, they were not looking very well.
We finally came into Barmouth harbour after 8PM, Huw’s wife told him on the phone that a 1000 metre peaks race had been abandoned in Snowdonia that afternoon, and that many of the runners had been rescued due to the same atrocious and unexpected weather conditions. We also discovered that although we were in the harbour, it was too rough to get off the boat. The plan was to wait until the tide turned and hopefully the wind died down before disembarking. An hour later the tide had turned, but the wind blowing down the Mawddach estuary from Cadair Idris had not. It was beginning to look like we might be forced to spend the night onboard. Then in the fading light John the ferryman appeared in his 2 man dinghy. He took all 8 of us back one by one, and deserves special mention and gratitude.

It really puts the events of the day into perspective when I can honestly say that I would not normally contemplate under any circumstances prior to this adventure, getting off the side of a large yacht in the dark, in strong winds into a tiny two man inflatable dinghy that then shot/flew across the stormy harbour to the quayside. The conditions of the return journey back from Porth Ceiriad and my desperation to get back on shore and warmth meant that i did not think twice!
After a beautiful pint of Pedigree in the Last Inn pub by the harbour, the crew minus Jaffa and Huw, but with the addition of Simon the team’s second runner finally ended up in the Spice Cuisine Indian restaurant at around midnight, where warmth and spicy food finished the evening and an exciting day perfectly. I finally left Team Last Inn to drive through the mountains back home, where i arrived at 1:45AM 19hrs after leaving, still cold, still wet and very glad to be back.

Team Last Inn will be recording their progress in the three peaks yacht race which starts on the 20th of June here.

David’s team are raising money for the Royal Yacht Association’s Sailability Charity whose aim is to bring boating to people with disabilities. You can support Team Last Inn and donate online to their chosen cause here. They have a big target to go for, so please, please donate to Sailability on their Justgiving page.
I will, after this extremely adventurous day on board Kilva, be giving Team Last Inn special attention during the course of the race. Although I hope that they do not encounter weather conditions as bad as this on their journey up to Fort William in Scotland, they have demonstrated their competence in extremely poor conditions.
Thank you David, Steve, Denis, Martin, Jaffa, Huw, Keith, Simon and John the ferryman for a day (and night) to remember. Good luck in the race.

Justine’s blog can be found here. Justine is using SMap on a BlackBerry Bold smartphone to record her route and upload it live to our website. So far all routes have been uploaded as she has recorded them. Justine has also joined the growing population of twitter. SMap automatically tweets for her when she starts and ends her route. If you follow justine on twitter then you will see the latest link to the route that she has started. If you see slightly more poetic tweets then we can confirm that this is Justine herself!
They are now already on day five here’s a snippet from their route as it progressed live on the site today:

They are both hoping that kayaking in the Mediterranean will be a bit more relaxing than circumnavigating the South island of New Zealand last year, however they have been warned not to underestimate the strong winds that bombard the coast of Sardinia.

Keep it up Justine and Barry!

• No more compatability mode issues for Storm users - phew!
• Current Speed as well as average speed.
• Twitter authentication and improved tweets for live routes.
• Lat Lon position data visible and ability to copy this data to the clipboard for easy texting or e-mailing of your position.

Now it is back to taming SMap for the iPhone and taking full advantage of what the latest version of OS 3 brings. We will have a new interim release for iPhone users out around Easter that’ll let you tweet and share your routes live. An announcement shall be made from the rooftops of Sanoodi towers as soon as it is available.
You can download the  latest version of SMap - 1.6 here:

From your BlackBerry go here - http://wap.sanoodi.com

From your web browser this is the place - http://www.sanoodi.com/gomobile/blackberry

In addition to some rather nice new screens for both the Storm and older BB’s, we have twitterfied SMap too! If you use SMap to record routes live on the web and you enter your Twitter account details in the settings screen. Your route details, activity and a link to your live route will automatically be added to your Twitterfeed.

User feedback from the previous BlackBerry releases means that we have improved how SMap records the accuracy of your route. If you are running around in a town with lots of right angles and tight turns, you can now in Settings set the accuracy of your route down to recording a waypoint every 20m.  If you are cycling like a dervish 40 miles down a long, straight highway then you can set the accuracy to record a waypoint every 80m.

Non-Storm users, and BlackBerry traditionalists do not despair! we have updated all the screens for you non-touch phone users too! Give it a go and Share your adventures on Sanoodi.
SMap can be downloaded and used for free here.

CREATING A ROUTE

Once that you have logged in to Sanoodi, Click on Share from the top menu bar and select Create a route from the menu.

If you have just logged in you can also select Create a route from the Welcome Your Username Banner.

FINDING THE START OF YOUR ROUTE

The next step: Where does your route start? If for example you want to draw a run that you have just completed in Cairo. Type “Cairo” in the Where does your route start box and select Go.

This will take your map to Cairo in Egypt! Why? Because this is what our system and the services that it uses regard as the most popular Cairo. If however your run was in the US, then typing in Cairo, US will bring up a window displaying all the Cairo’s in the United States. Selecting the correct Cairo i.e. Cairo, NY will display a map centered on Cairo, NY.

If you want to avoid these steps! Simply type in the placename  (separated by a comma) and the country, or State/County/Region i.e. Cairo, NY or Boston, UK or London, Canada would all take you straight to the correct map. If the place that you have typed in is not recognised, try to think of a place that is nearby that is a bit bigger.

STREETNAMES, ZIP CODES and POSTCODES

Entering a street name will like Cairo in our previous example take you to what our system thinks is the most popular. For instance typing Bond Street, will take you directly to Bond Street in New York. If your route is in Australia, entering Bond Street, Australia will bring up all of the known Bond Streets in Australia.

If you know the ZIP Code or Post code for where your route is i.e. if your postal code for Melbourne is 3079, entering VIC, 3079 or 3079, Australia will take your map to that code automatically. Other examples; the UK - CM23 2HP, for the US NY 10012, for Germany 51519, Germany.

The next release of Sanoodi will center your map where your existing routes are by default. The above steps would still be needed though if your route was in a different country.

SELECTING APPROPRIATE ZOOM AND MAPPING BACKGROUNDS FOR YOUR ROUTE

Now that you are looking at the right place on the map, you can use the zoom control on the left hand side of the map to display the correct level of detail for drawing the route.  You can also move or drag the map using the drag tool (the hand) on the toolbar on the top right of your map. The Drag tool is the active (default) tool when you start to create a route.

SELECTING A DIFFERENT MAP OR BASE LAYER

If the map that you are looking at does not have the correct level of detail for your route, you can change the map type and provider (Base Layer) i.e. if Google’s topographical/relief map does not have the level of detail that you need to draw your route accurately, you can now change this map to other Google maps or Yahoo maps (in future releases, we hope to increase the range of mapping providers).

To change your map or Base Layer, select the + sign on the right hand side of the map. This will bring up the maps that are available for this area. In the example we have changed the map for the route that we will draw from Google to Yahoo by selecting the Yahoo option from the list. To close the map pop up click on the - sign at the top right of the pop up.

DRAWING A ROUTE

To Draw a route, select the draw route tool from the toolbar on the top right of the map, place your mouse where your route’s startpoint is and click ONCE for each point! If you make a mistake, click on the undo tool on the toolbar (second from left) each click on the undo button will remove a waypoint from your route. Moving your mouse back to the map and your route will default back to route drawing mode.

Once that you have completed your route click TWICE to confirm. If your route returns back along the same path (there and back) once that you have drawn your route to its furthest point select the out and back button (the leftmost button) from the toolbar.

ENTERING YOUR ROUTE DETAILS

You can now give your route a name, a description, and confirm the activity and date that you did it, by selecting the fields at the bottom of the map and entering any relevant information. To give your route a rating i.e. was it easy, difficult ? Move your mouse over the rating meter and hold it over the level above the rating that you want to give it i.e if it is a moderate route hold your mouse over the difficult in parts section. Click once to save this. If you have selected the wrong rating double click and then when you are in the correct place click once to save.

If you want to give your route some tags i.e. cycling, NY, US, Kona, slog etc then enter them against the route.
You should now be ready to save your route! Click on the save button at the bottom right of this panel. Some browsers or internet connections might be slow, so please give this at least 10 seconds.

EDITING A ROUTE

Did your GPX upload have a few spikes in it? Does a route that you created on the site have one or two inaccuracies? With the new Sanoodi site you can now edit routes easily and accurately.

To edit one of your routes on the site. Login, select ‘my routes’ from the welcome bar or from the share option on the top menu. Find the route that you want to edit from the my routes pages and open it up.

To switch to edit mode select the edit tool from the toolbar. It is the button with the red line (second from the left). Once that your have selected this button your route will become red and all the waypoints will be visible. You can drag (move) waypoints, add new waypoints and delete them too. To delete a waypoint, hold your mouse over the waypoint and hit your delete key. What’s a waypoint? Waypoints are what we call the dots that mark each new segment of your route. Every time that you click when drawing a route creates a waypoint. If you are using a GPS device a waypoint is recorded automatically every x seconds

Another handy feature when editing a route is that you can now select a different map background for your route. Click on the + button at the left hand side of the map and you will be presented with all of the different map types that are available. When you have found the map and the zoom level that suits the route best this will be saved along with any other changes.

Routes on the new Sanoodi site also have difficulty ratings to select a rating simply click on the bar and if you want to change it, double click on the level that is displayed to deselect and then click once on the appropriate level of difficulty.

GO FULL SCREEN

You can also view your route on a full page. On every route page there is now an option to the right of the page above the map called View Full Screen. Remember to select Exit Full Screen once that you have finished drawing or editing a route in order to Save your changes.

Now, with the development of a new website and a unique range of integrated mobile devices, the Sanoodi community is set to grow and strike out in lots of different directions.

Launched on the 2nd April 2008, the new Sanoodi site is focused on building and developing the community by giving users the ability to create, join and manage their own groups, events and challenges. Users can now comment on routes and content, and yet have greater control over their own privacy.

Sanoodi users have been consulted as the new site has been developed so the new features meet their exacting requirements. Paul Sandham of Sanoodi said, “We’ve put a lot of thought into how we can add to the enjoyment people get from outdoor activities.”

“We are really excited about the new possibilities for Sanoodi users. You can now meet other people who enjoy the same activities as you and form groups to share adventures or challenge each other. And with the advances in smartphone technology this is just the start.”

Sanoodi’s unique mobile applications mean users can upload their adventures in real time, enabling users and their friends to track their progress as they train, compete or explore. With the rapid growth in GPS equipped smartphones and PDA’s (iSuppli Corp have forecast that by 2011 29.6% of all new mobile phones will have GPS Capability) the usage of these applications is set to skyrocket.

Will Davies uses Sanoodi to track his cycle rides towards his self set challenge of ascending 160,000 metres of vertical climb in a year. The routes he uploads are there for others to try and provide a record of his rides.

Will said “Sanoodi is a fantastic way for me to track my progress and share the rides I’m doing with friends, family and people like me.” With the new features Will can now meet other Sanoodi cyclists, share his images and thoughts with them, enter their events, and challenge others to join his.

Share your activities and adventures now.

The conference is part of the Northern StartUp 2.0 series for entrepreneurs, investors, deal makers and service providers interested in digital start-ups. Paul joined Dr. Norman Lewis (Wireless Grids), Eric Hobson (Hands On Mobile Europe) and Ed French (Enterprise Ventures) on stage to demonstrate how Sanoodi is making the convergence of mobile internet devices and websites into a viable business model.

“Mobile 2.0 was the best attended event I’ve been to so far – in excess of 30, which is good – and my bit seemed to go down very well,” said Paul. “In fact, Rhys Jones and I were caught up in a couple of positive discussions with potential investors. Our strategy of developing and maintaining separate applications for each key mobile platform is the only viable option and people responded to that.”