An adventurer is due to set out on his attempt to break the record for living alone on a remote rock in the Atlantic.
Nick Hancock, a chartered surveyor from Ratho, near Edinburgh, is to spend 60 days on the isolated outpost Rockall.
Rockall, an eroded volcano, lies 260 miles and an 11-hour boat ride west of the Outer Hebrides.
Mr Hancock is taking all food and water with him, and will live in a 150kg shelter bolted to the rock in his bid to break the current 42-day record.
Weather permitting, he is due to set off from the port of Leverburgh on South Harris in the Outer Hebrides.
The father-of-one will be taking nearly half a tonne of equipment for his two-month expedition.
That includes the custom-made pod, nicknamed Rockpod, which he built himself.
He will haul the pod on to Rockall using a diesel-powered winch.
"It's a converted water bowser which has been fitted with hatches and fixing points so I can fix it to the rock," he told BBC Scotland.
"I have a daily routine of exercises and safety checks, and I'm also going to be carrying out some sample collections for St Andrew's University and the Hunterian Museum.
"I'm looking forward to it. It's just a waiting game now. I'm out on the Isle of Harris, waiting for the weather."
Marathon runner and climber Mr Hancock said that bad weather could see him stuck in the pod for three or four days at a time.Nick's kit list
Nick Hancock will be taking nearly half a tonne of equipment with him, including the following items:
60 days' food
Fishing kit and bait
Pants and socks x 10
Comfy shoes
Insect collection kit
Normal LW radio for news
Weather station
Brass Plaque
Whisky and cask
Lip balm
Binoculars
Loo rolls (average of one per week)
Ear plugs
Harmonicas and lesson book
Flags
The earliest recorded landing on Rockall, which is approximately 30m (100ft) wide and 21m (70ft) high, was believed to be in 1810, by an officer called Basil Hall from the HMS Endymion.
In the past Ireland, Iceland and Denmark have lain claim to the rock and to the possible oil and gas reserves surrounding it.
The UK annexed Rockall in 1955, but its ownership is disputed.
The record for longest occupation was set in 1997 by three environment campaigners from Greenpeace.
They lived on Rockall for 42 days and renamed it Waveland in protest at exploration of new oil and gas reserves in the surrounding seabed.
As well as attempting to break the occupation record, Mr Hancock aims to raise money for the charity Help for Heroes, which supports injured military personnel.
Rockall
Rockall
Peace and quiet at last...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Rockall
correctedNick's kit list
Nick Hancock will be taking nearly half a tonne of equipment with him, including the following items:
60 days' food
Fishing kit and bait
Pants and socks x 10
Comfy shoes
Insect collection kit
Normal LW radio for news
Weather station
Brass Plaque
Whisky and cask x 60
Lip balm
Binoculars
Loo rolls (average of one per week)
Ear plugs
Harmonicas and lesson book
Flags
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
yrs,
rubato
Re: Rockall
Oh Yeah who wouldn't...
Sometimes it seems as though one has to cross the line just to figger out where it is
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MajGenl.Meade
- Posts: 21516
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Re: Rockall
They should just leave him there. Then we could debate for a long time whether he is both alive and dead as long as we don't go find out.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
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oldr_n_wsr
- Posts: 10838
- Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:59 am
Re: Rockall
That's one way to spend your time off.