I arrived in Galway in the wee hours of the morning local time so about 10 AM in Galway. My crossing time was 7 days, 17 hours and 50 minutes. My finishing rank which is temporary until all the boats are in is 22,443. This means I have moved up in the overall standings since the race began to 19,238 still in the top 10 percent.

We have roughly two weeks to drink and party in Galway virtually and repair the boats before Leg 8 begins. I am having some second thoughts about leg 8 has it will be taking place in prime kayaking time in Yellowknife. Summers here are very short and very sweet and they should be spent outside on your favourite lake or river in a boat. Virtual ail racing is a great past-time but I think a winter activity. The Veed'ee is perect as it is a 3 month long blast that ends in January.

I need to spend some time in my kayaks logging overnight trips to build up a log book for the guides course should I decide to take it.

The racing has been very good and I have met some very intersting folks from around the globe during the races. We can however these days stay in touch very easily with the net etc. at our fingertips. I better get out there and enjoy some of this sunshine I waited all winter for, more to this after dark. Greg

Well it turned into a very quiet day around here which is nice and I have a few chores to do so I won't bore you with ther details. This is the time of year you want to be out there practicing with the old throw bag as you can't never be to accurate or fast when it comes to tossing the bag in a rescue situation. Practice makes perfect, stay calm, aim and throw, you may only get one chance at it but practice making double throws. When making your second toss you need only reel in enough line to reach the swimmer before you throw again any more is wasted time, this you may not have to waste. Don't restuff the bag in this case just coil the rope into your stationary hand until there is enough and then make your throw. Should you be the swimmer remember to grab the rope and not the bag. Should you grab the bag you will continue downstream until the bag runs out of line ,be sure to grab the rope. Swim towards the line if needed as anything that helps you reach the rope is a good thing. Once you have secured the rope, roll onto your back and place the rope across your outside shoulder ( furthest from the bankwhere the rope came from) as this helps to keep your head up and sets a good ferry angle for the rope to pemulem you to shore. Practice these rescues with your paddling crew, as theory is fine but getting wet teaches better and it is a lot more fun.

The stuff you need to know is very easy to set up on shore and to practice on land until you have the basics down. Once you know how things work step it up buy moving the steup onto a hillof a flat water river and start again . Gradual progress with faster water and steeper hills and before you know it your a well oiled machine. Swift water requires swift acytion as the time of recue may very well be related to how long they can hold their breath. Even in the worst case remember the rescuers safety is the number one consideration. Drownding occur in swift water but rushing and putting rescuers at unneccessary risk usually just ups the body count. Under no circumstance should anyone very be hurt or killed recovering a body, they can wait unfortuantely, they are already dead. Swift water rescue has lots on causualities among rescuers as it is in itself one one the most dangerous types of recues to preform. Anytime a responder has to enter the water, the risk increase greatly and so we attempt to keep every thing shore based if possible.