No Rally This Autumn

OK so its official we will not be racing this autumn.  Sadly the lack of a navigator means that we have cancelled plans to visit the big sandpit until 2011.

With this down time we will be working on the car - the electrics are getting some serious attention and some new lights will be appearing on the front.

There may be an opportunity for a testing trip in late December if anyone is interested.

Get lost?!

When Fruit first suggested that I be his navigator for a desert rally I was, I confess, rather worried. Virtually the ONLY thing we ever argue about is navigation! Was this some perverse (and expensive) way of seeking a divorce?! If it was it was not a success as we are now approaching our 18th wedding anniversary (although there is another rally before then).

There are some pretty crucial differences between rally navigation and your day to day, "get me to Lower Thrupwell", map reading. For a start there are no maps (what a great idea). I am not very good with maps - contour lines are just brown squiggly lines to me (apparently some people can tell what the topography will look like from them.... could explain why I was crap at orienteering..!). Rally navigation, however, uses something called Tulip diagrams and 'accurate' distances between points.

Some of the diagrams are a bit of a mystery until you actually get there - but when you arrive all is clear - basically just follow the arrows. It seems to be de rigour among navigators to mark up your road book the night before using lots of highlighter pens. Being new (and, on the quiet, being rather partial to colouring) I did the same - I'm not sure why though. More important for me was to mark 'L' on the left hand turns and 'R' on the right hand ones - as under pressure I don't actually know my left from my right!

You also get a number of gizmos to keep you busy and make you feel important - like a trip meter and a GPS. The trip meter measures the total distance travelled and, by resetting at each instruction, individual intervals, which is great when your meter is calibrated EXACTLY the same as the person who made the road book!

Thus armed you can give your driver clear and easy to follow instructions. In 300m turn left at the T junction......... in 100m turn left .......... NO LEFT! Ahh the route to martial bliss.