We made it!

Latitude Brokers teamed up with Taylor Maritime and the Mission to Seafarers in Hong Kong to enter two teams in to the Adventure Race Japan to raise funds for the Mission’s work globally.  Team Ido (Japanese for Latitude) was Vanessa Toucas, Janie D’Arch and Catherine Graham; and Team Keido (Longitude) was Andrew Brooker, Kevin Leach-Smith and Rev Canon Stephen Miller.

64 teams of 3 people competed over two days to hike/run/crawl/scramble over the terrain in the hills around Mt. Fuji just outside of Shuzenji.  With 155 men and 37 women from all around the world, including owners, operators, P&I Clubs, insurance and chartering brokers etc and two courses (we did the longer course obviously), it was a packed event.  The Mission team had spent 2 years planning and it showed.

Day 1 was a 19km hike through forests and over peaks with 1300m of total elevation and, inexplicably, a ‘squat challenge’ where teams competed to do the most squats in 5 minutes, carrying a (thankfully empty) beer barrel – Team Keido managed 300 and Team Ido completed 260.  The next 30 minutes of steep uphill in the rain was punishing on the legs to say the least.

Day 1 was completed in 4.30hrs for Keido and 5hrs for Ido and we finished with a well-earned cold beer.

Day 2 was shorter at ‘only’ 10kms (the longer course again) but wow we had underestimated the difficulty of the terrain.  After significant overnight rain, the clay mud was slippery and treacherous on the steep inclines and declines – we needed to haul ourselves up using the ropes and chains along the route, and come back down backwards, abseil style.  Thankfully, there were no injuries, but Andrew took a solid tumble, sliding 10m downhill.

Day 2 was completed in 3 hrs for Keido and 3.15hrs for Ido – finally we were done and ready for a big gala dinner on the Saturday evening.

With the help of our corporate sponsors, Teams Ido and Keido raised over USD105,000 earning us the prize for top fundraisers.  The event itself has raised, so far, USD1,300,000 and counting – an outstanding achievement by the teams in aid of the Mission’s vital work: “A significant portion will be used to fund our ‘Emerging Port Strategy 2022-2026’, which aims to provide a strategic approach to new and existing operations in Asia, as well as globally. Funds will also support our frontline services so we can continue to provide for seafarers’ welfare, as we have done for 167 years.” 

Find out more here at https://www.missiontoseafarers.org/news/the-mission-to-seafarers-reaches-us1-1m-of-its-us1-2m-fundraising-target-for-its-adventure-race-japan

Huge thanks to our corporate sponsors – Cetus Maritime; Gulf Oil Marine; Chellaram Foundation; TCC Group; Filhet-Allard Maritime; Nepa; Shipowners P&I Club; Taylor Maritime; Valles Steamship; Modern Terminals; Fairmont Magsaysay; Aderco; JP Morgan Asset Management; American P&I Club; Marine Claims Office; RPC; Charterers P&I Club; Avalon Shipbrokers; Tysers; Wah Kwong; NorthStandard P&I Club; C Solutions; YPSN

And thanks to all our personal sponsors, friends, colleagues and business partners for the support – we are very excited to have contributed so much to the success of this event.

Tagged with: , , , , ,