Lindsey Russell, who is a Blue Peter presenter on the BBC is making an attempt to cross the Irish Sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland in a zorb. A zorb is an inflatable contraption that looks a lot like a hamster wheel. The person goes inside the orb and can control it by running along the surface. Russell’s zorb will be specially constructed for her challenge- and named “Bobby”.
She is taking on this challenge, being called the Wave Runner challenge, in order to raise money to aid Sport Relief. The entire journey is expected to take her an estimated 14 hours. The distance between the points in Northern Ireland and Scotland where she will be departing and arriving is 34.8 km. Russell has spent hours training for this event.
Russell left the shores of Donaghadee, Northern Ireland at 6:30am on February 25th. She was zorbing strong through the Irish Sea for quite some time until conditions began to change. The sea became quite choppy and rough, making it too dangerous to continue.
The Wave Runner challenge was called off due to the weather. However, before it was called off, Russell managed to cross 17 nautical miles of the Irish Sea before she was brought onto a waiting vessel.