SHIPPING FORECAST ADVENTURE
The sister of an adventurer who wished to visit every sea area of the Shipping Forecast has taken on the challenge in his memory
Like many sailing families, the Shipping Forecast was listened to so regularly in Katie Carr’s family home that it became a soundtrack to her childhood.
“Especially because in the late 1980s, early ‘90s, you couldn’t just look up the weather forecast online, it was something that was broadcast,” says Katie.
“My dad always used to turn up the radio and we'd have to be really quiet and listen to it, even when we weren't going out to sea.”
The Carrs grew up in Rutland, “almost as far from the sea in the UK as you can get”, but spent family holidays on board their 23ft (7m) Hirondelle catamaran, cruising around the east coast of England, and further afield to the Netherlands, France, and Belgium.
Katie’s younger brothers, Marcus and Toby, were born with the FAEROES rare genetic condition Fanconi anaemia, which affects one in two million people and leaves them highly susceptible to cancer. As children, they were told that it was unlikely they’d live to 30.
When Marcus died of throat cancer in 2017, aged 38, it inspired architect Toby to take a sabbatical and find adventure.
Toby’s challenge
Intrigued by the names of the 31 sea areas of the Shipping Forecast, he set himself the challenge of visiting each area by sea kayak, and documenting his journey.
Over the summer of 2018, with the help of a Churchill Fellowship Grant, Toby travelled to South-East Iceland, across to Norway (North and South Utsire), down to Denmark (Fisher), German Bight, through the Frisian islands, to the edge of the Humber.
After returning to work he used his free time that winter to visit the areas of Thames, Dover, Wight and Portland. In summer 2019, he kayaked in the waters of Biscay, Fitzroy and Trafalgar. Starting in Brittany in France, Toby paddled out to Ushant from the mainland and braved the famous tide race at Raz du Sein. Katie said: “After a few weeks exploring Biscay,
Toby and his kayak took the ferry to Santander in Spain. The challenge he set himself was to paddle in each of the shipping forecast areas. While some were shorter journeys, others involved entire coastlines. From Santander, Toby kayaked more than 720km to Porto, to the Trafalgar sea area.”
She added: “Covid was in 2020 and he’d been hoping to do the Irish and Scottish parts then, but with travel restrictions it was impossible. So he set himself the challenge of paddling around Cornwall. From his home in Flushing, near Falmouth, he first kayaked to Plymouth.”
