UK

Defence Secretary visits Olympic sites

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Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has been to the Olympic Sailing venue in Dorset.

His trip to Weymouth and Portland was just one of a series of ministerial visits to Olympic sites marking 200 days before the start of competitions.

Mr Hammond was briefed on security arrangements for the venue.

Amphibious assault ship HMS Bulwark will be stationed off Weymouth during the Games with a specialist unit of Royal Marines on board.

Meanwhile, the Row2Recovery team is still waiting for vital water supplies to reach them.

The injured British servicemen are trying to row the Atlantic but ran into problems when equipment broke leaving them unable to produce fresh water.

A support vessel was expected to bring the crew bottled water by Sunday, but it now seems supplies will not reach them until Wednesday or Thursday.

The remaining water is being strictly rationed, with team members restricted to 1.5 litres a day. The rations also affect how much food can be re-hydrated.

The physical impact of the water shortage is revealed in their latest blog post- Day 33:

“We’re all looking fairly skinny now as a result of being at sea for so long. With the reduction in water rationing we’re only able to take on around 2000 calories a day through the packs of nuts, sweets, raisins and other dry foods. We’re burning close to 6000 calories every day, even though we’re mainly rowing at night, so the weight is dropping off.”

Row2Recovery is one of 17 teams from around the world, all aiming to cross the Atlantic as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. They hope to raise £1 million for Help for Heroes, SSAFA and ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.

You can follow their progress at www.row2recovery.com