Do you believe in God?

Cross your fingers, pick some four leaved clovers and pray to the highest heavens that it stops raining. And quickly.

For weeks we have fretted about what might go wrong (not that i am a pessimist you understand - just concerend of St Margaret's...) and felt confident that we had every eventuality covered bar one.

- What if one of us stumbles over, turns an ankle and can't run? No worries, we have got 2 mountain bikes strapped to the back of the support car so we can at least ensure we are self powered even if we can't run.

- What if something goes wrong with one of the boats? No worries, a crash course in boat maintaneance and a tool box that would make your average Homebase store manager feel jealous will see us through.

- What if Qin's chat stinks so badly that none of us can hack it anymore? No worries, we've all got iPod's.

But always lurking in the background was that one thing we couldn't cater for - it that must not be named - the Voldemort of Merander obstacles. The English summer.

And i can't help but think it is my fault.

Now a good bit of rain is a positive - makes the river run faster, makes our skiffing easier & nippier. And there i was, middle of last week looking at some bank holiday rain, feeling rather smug. After all, always nice to get a helping hand from mother nature.

But there is a fine line between "a bit of rain" and "too much rain" and we have crossed it - or at least are perilously close to crossing it.

When the river is in full flood, there are 2 types of boards that are put up - Yellow - "you can skiff, but be careful as it is dangerous" - and Red - "I pity the fool..."

As i write at 9:45pm on Tues evening, there is only a short stretch of river between Marlow & Maidenhead (day 3 - Sat) that has red boards - the rest of the river we can skiff on.

But the problem is that this was an automated message at 4:30pm this afternoon. And it is due to shit it down tonight. So as of tomorrow morning? Who knows.

All we can do is pray.

So i ask you this - whatever your faith, whatever your attitude to fate, chance or luck, please do us a favour. Please urge the fates/gods/pixies/tooth fairy not to let it rain. And if i am being really picky, can you ask for some sun too?

Cause if we don't, we've got to find a plan B. And right now, there isn't much of one...