Rich's Blog - page body

Progress Updates

This page will be updated with any info received from Dan and Rich during the race. They are equipped with a PDA and Satellite phone which they hope to be able to use to send and receive emails and talk to their relatives.

They plan to send daily reports on progress which will be added to this page, so check back regularly to see how things are going.

Monday 30th January

Hiya all,

Very brief email as I can't sit down for long enough to write a long one yet. We understand people may be having trouble calling us at the Admirals Inn - just to clarify, you need the country code for the US first, so the full number from the UK is 00 1 268 460 1027, and we're in the joiner's loft.

Loving being on dry land, will update blogs soon, I totally promise

Rich

PS HAving many more problewm,s typingh oin this PVC than I did on the iP{q. ROotten keyboatrds.

Day 61
Sunday 29th January

A quick finishing update from Dan:

Today I have done something amazing - I have gone 24 hours without rowing. Difficult to believe I know, and I'm still getting over the shock of it, but last night whilst rowing we bumped into an island and thought it looked like a nice place to stop for a break. Not sure how long we'll take off but I don't see rowing featuring in my life for some time now!

About 4am on the 27th we had some great luck, whereas we had been struggling to hit 2kts all of a sudden we were at 2.5+, not sure if it was a current but it was very welcome. We realised this could get us in the same day if we caned it and so rowed 2-up for most of the time thereafter. This was exceptionally hard work, especially in the heat of the day which was searing, but we knew that we could be spending that night in a dry bed on land if we kept it up.

About 20 miles out we then had a terrific sight. There was something inbetween the sea and sky, something that was getting bigger mile after mile. After so long in our own isolated world we could finally see our destination, a place with friends and family, with all the things we've missed, a place without rowing.

We were both struggling by now, 6 hours out and we were exhausted and in a mass of pain. Rich could barely stay seated the pain he was in. Just the thought that we were getting closer with every stroke kept us going.

About 5 miles out we started rowing past land, and a few miles later we were joined by a big catamaran with our supporters. This helped us stay the distance as the final miles seemed to last forever. The Woodvale finish boat soon joined us and a little before 00:30 GMT we crossed W 61 deg 44.8 and the finishing whistle was blown.

What sweet relief. A moment which for so long had seemed out of reach was now in our grasp. There were no free miles in this race, every day we worked hard, and after 58 and a half days we had covered about 3000 miles and crossed an ocean.

From the finish line we had a 30min paddle to the dockside in English Harbour. The yachts moored in the harbour were sounding their horns and there was a great finishing party waiting for us. An absolutely wonderful way to end the race and one I will never forget.

We stepped off on to dry land at last and into the welcoming arms of our families. It was really over, those 2 months - the great bits and the awful bits are now just memories. All the hassles of life at sea faded away as we finally relaxed and enjoyed the moment.

This has been an incredile experience, way beyond anything we anticipated, and one we shall never forget. I really hope you"ve enjoyed following our progress and reading our blogs too. We kept writing over the last two weeks and will try to post those asap - we need to get the system working again first though. We'll also write a little more about the last day and finishing too - just give us a day or two to rest first. As I write this I am neither wet, cold, sore, tired, wind swept or rain drenched. I am instead happy and comfortable for the first time in many weeks. Long may it last.

The purple blob (retired)

Day 60
Saturday 28th January

Just a quick update. The boys arrived safe and sound last night. They crossed the line slightly ahead of schedule, at around 8.30pm local time (to be honest, I didn't look at my watch, but official finish time should go up on the ARR site soon). They were accompanied across the line in the dark by the Woodvale support boat and their families aboard a chartered catamaran. They were making an impressive 3+ knots rowing two up for the last few miles.

The support boat offered them a tow from the finish line into the harbour (another mile or two), but in true AP style, the boys declined and despite the obvious discomfort they were suffering from their various injuries, rowed proudly into port. On their way in they got huge cheers, applause and hoots from all the yachts moored in the harbour and the diners at the waterside restaurants. A crowd of about 60 people had gathered on the dockside to welcome them, including local dignitaries and press, other crews and their families and curious tourists and the whole scene was illuminated by marine flares (which highlighted the spectacular beards beautifully!!).

The boys were absolutely delighted to arrive. They were the fourth double across the finish line and this is the fourth successful crossing that their little boat, Talkeetna has made. They are also very proud that in spite of the terrible conditions at sea, this has been the fastest of her four voyages.

Once on land Dan & Rich made their way (rather unsteadily - they both describe the land sickness as like being very drunk and unable to walk in a straight line without having consumed any alcohol!), to have a bacon sandwich, a shower and change their clothes, before heading down to the pub for a celebratory beer!

As I type they are both still asleep (12 hours and counting!!!) but will be up in time this afternoon to be on the dockside to welcome in their friends and fellow competitors, Team Scandlines (expected into port around 5pm this evening).

The boys will no doubt update you all themselves in due course, and plan to post their remaining blogs soon (when they have recovered sufficiently to be able to sit down to type, that is!!), so check back over the next few days for more news.

Kate

Day 59
Friday 27th January

As I have had so many texts over the last few hours asking for an update, I just thought I'd let you all know that the boys currently have 15 miles to go and are expected into English Harbour at approximately 9pm local time this evening, 27th Jan (that's 1am GMT). I have spoken to them and they are in very good spirits and looking forward to being back on dry land.

For all those who have asked for a telephone number on which to call, Dan & Rich will be staying at Admiral's Inn until 2nd Feb, Tel: (268) 460-1027 (reception), in the Joiner's Loft. If you call reception they should put you through, but please bear in mind the time difference (Antigua is GMT -4) and the fact that the boys will be getting in late tonight and hope to enjoy their first uninterrupted night's sleep in two months, so don't call too early please!!

Thanks very much to all of you for your support and messages of encouragement/congratulations.

Kate

Day 55
Tuesday 24th January

I've just spoken to the boys. All is going well aboard the good ship Talkeetna. The weather is much improved and they say they don't seem to be experiencing the huge waves that other crews have been reporting (long may that last!). The boat has coped admirably with everything that has been thrown at it so far. The boys are excited about getting close to Antigua and are looking forward to a night's sleep in a proper bed! They are in good spirits and are physically well (apart from the usual sore bottoms and hands, but neither is getting any worse). Their watermaker gave them cause for concern when it stopped working (again!) the day before yesterday and they had to severely ration water for 24 hours in order to avoid breaking into their ballast water and hence incurring a time penalty under the race rules, but they are relieved to say that it worked again yesterday, so the water situation is now much improved. As long as it works again today (they haven't tried it yet), they should have plenty of water to get them to the finish. They had been rationing food over the last few weeks on account of the extended crossing time, but are now happily munching their way through four meals a day and copious snacks. With reference to Row4life's description of themselves as 'skeletons with beards', I asked them if they have lost a lot of weight and they said 'probably, its hard for us to tell' (Boys, eh?! You'd never find a woman who didn't know whether or not she's lost weight!!).

By their own calculations, their ETA in Antigua is Friday lunchtime local time. They wish all the other crews safe onward passage, particularly row4cancer who are having a tough time. Their email is still not sending or receiving messages, but I read out some of your jokes over the phone and they were very well received. Thank you for all the messages.

Kate

Day 51
Friday 20th January

Kate has spoken with Rich and Dan by phone:
The boys can't get anything to send/receive at the moment. They think it's because their kit is damp, but they are going to keep trying (it seems to be working intermittently). The iPAQ and phone are still working independently of each other though, so in the worst case they will just have to email the last week's worth of blogs from Antigua on arrival. They have better weather today than they've had for the last few days, although no sun so as their batteries are dead they cannot run their desalinator and are running low on water (in the worst case they will have to break into their ballast water). They are making good mileage though and are really looking forward to arriving in Antigua - counting down the days. Their hearts go out to the other crews who have suffered capsizes & they are trying to take all possible precautions to ensure this doesn't happen to them, or if it does, that the boat will self-right (keeping hatches shut, stowing all their equipment centrally in the boat etc). Generally they are managing to stay in good spirits even if they are 'living off painkillers' as Rich put it!

A Notice About Blogs

Dan and Rich are having a few problems with their satellite phone and PDA. I think things got a bit wet at one point! Whilst both phone and PDA are working fine on their own, the link between the two is a bit flakey so unfortunately sending and receiving email has become a bit unreliable. As a result the blogs have been a bit delayed and as well as the delays there also seems to be one too many blogs from Dan for some reason. I got a bit confused with what was what yesterday, but I think everything's back in order now. Apologies for any inconvenience! MP.

Day 48
Tuesday 17th January

Horrendous, soul-destroying day. We spent some of it going slowly, and other parts of it going very slowly. We only covered 42nm, putting an unpleasant dent in our hoped-for finish time. The rowing itself was frequently hard, with cross winds for a couple of hours, cross waves pretty much constant, and 2 hours in the night where I basically fell asleep at the oars every 45 seconds or so, waking up 10 seconds later.

But Rob Pagnamenta sent through the lyrics to 'Always look on the bright side of life' a few days ago, and I have been singing that a lot - the message seems to get through. And the bright side in this situation is that our keel is still underwater!

Sadly for American Fire & Sun Latte, that's no longer true, bringing the total to 3 crews that have been rescued. Again, my heart goes out to them - they were both well-prepared teams who deserved a happier end to their adventure.

It's interesting to note that both Digicel and Sun Latte retired due to some form of hull damage. The fact that these two boats were Kiwi-built, with the emphasis on weight-saving rather than strength, cannot be a coincidence. Maybe in good conditions, the lighter boats do go quicker - but this year it seems they have been tested by harsh weather and found wanting.

It makes us very happy that our lovely boat was solidly built for the first race - there is simply no way a drogue could rip a D-ring out of our transom like it did Digicel - there's about an inch of wood thickness there!

People have asked about the name of our boat - Talkeetna - and where it comes from. Talkeetna is the name of a glacier in Alaska, but more importantly to us, it was the name of one of our rafts when Dan and I, and 5 friends went rafting in Alaska. That was when Dan and I decided to do this race, so the name seemed fitting. [The picture of Dan and Rich under the menu was taking during this rafting trip]

More amusingly, however, is the fact that on the rafting trip, the boat also became known as tye 'boat of death'! Despite Dan's confident statement that these things were 'indestructible', he put two large holes in Talkeetna on day one. Having mended these we then succeeded in putting another large hole in by the end of the trip. The guy who we hired the rafts from said he had never had anybody make one hole the size of ours, let alone three.

So, when we came to put our ocean rowing boat on the water for the first time, and put a hole the size of a fist in it, comparisons were made. The fact that the second time we put it on the water, we put another hole in it, merely sealed its name! However, just like the raft, Talkeetna has been mended, and has seen us through our journey well (touch wood). She's a great little boat with tons of character, and we will be sad to part with her.

So anyway, back to the oars. As I swrite, day 49 is going much better. Hurrah!

Rich

After slogging through rubbish yesterday the conditions have come around a bit now. We took the first hour off to do the barnacles, tidy the deck and sort out the cabin. In a bid to resolve the damp we've removed the covers of the matresses - the foam inside is much dryer. We also removed the really wet stuff so i'm hopeful we can halfway sort this out as being permanently damp was becoming a real pain.

V difficult to not think about the finish all the time. Still plenty more rowing to do before we get there.

As a support crew you all have been exemplary - we've received loads of great emails, and given the awesome response to my request for song lyrics here is another. Can you send us your favourite jokes? We're in need of a bit of a laugh so if you have a good rib tickler do send it through.

Cheers

Dan

Another story from the past year. Probably one more of these for you then i may tell you a tale from day 5 of this race - my finger is nearly healed now from that although the nail bed is somewhat messed up, it wasn't a pleasant experience...

4) The Great River Race

The day before the GRR we rowed the boat down to Tower Bridge in the morning for some photos and then stayed around to watch the reenactment of Nelson's funeral flotilla.

We intened to row the boat down to the GRR start after work that evening and leave it there overnight. We figured we would pick the stream up around 6pm when the tide turned and then take 3-4hrs to get there. Due to some dumb errors we massively underestimated the distance we had to row and the stream didn't come to our favour until about 9pm. This meant it was very late before we got anywhere sensible - finally reaching Twickenham lock at about midnight, some 3 mles shy of our destination. However, there was a glitch - the river was shut at Twickenham and the lock wasn't open to public operation. We ummed and erred for a while before concluding that we had no choice but to spend the night on the boat there. We moored up by the lock and climbed up to it to try and get to the nearest town for some food. Irritatingly it was well enclosed with serious security fences making it near impossible to get in or out of the lock area. We tried climbing this and that but eventually gave up for fear of sustaining a careless injury. But as we faffed by the boat getting ready to turn in a chap came out of a room on the lock to say Hi. He was the duty lockkeeper and had just seen us. Phew! He also said that he was raising the sluice gates blocking the river so we could be on our way in 10min. V lucky for us. So, at about 2am the night before the race we moored up and found a cab back to mine. Not the most stress free preparation...

The GRR itself went fine, a tough but enjoyable race which i heartily recommend to you. The next set of problems arose at the finish.

We had planned to keep rowing at the finish up through the Thames Flood Barrier to our marina - we needed to be there by 6:30pm to use the lock. As it was we got there around 7pm which we could probably have swung except you couldn't get near the lock. Turns ou this was the lowest tide in many years and the edges of the river were all dry. D'oh! This wouldn't have been a great problem except our super cox/passenger helpers on board, Bron and Soph, had to get off - it was Satuday night and they had places to be.

We faffed a lot, eventually managing to row the boat close to shore where they could alight - onto really nasty muddy gunk. At least they could head off now. This left me and Rich on board - we waited for the tide to come in a bit so i could get off and nip to Tesco's for food. Once that was done we rowed to a floating buoy and moored up for the night. Not our planned evening.

Sunday morning we did finally get back in to the marina. Hooray. Got home early afternoon, some 24hrs after finishing the race.

Day 47
Monday 16th January

I hadn't realised, but we have a stowaway on our boat. Eric has been hiding in the hatches, sneaking from one to another when we're not looking. We don't know what Eric looks like, but we know he's there. For Eric is a gremlin.

It explains a lot of things. Our watertight hatches fill with water because Eric loosens them. The ziploc food bags in the hatches get water in them because Eric undoes the zip (although he's crafty, doing it up again afterwards). When we're rowing along, we suddenly find we're on totally the wrong bearing, because Eric has been moving the compass. He's inventive, and has been very busy!

Today Eric made our satphone do silly things. Any time we tried to connect the iPaq to the internet, Eric turned the phone off! So we apologise for the blog delay - if we catch Eric we'll slap his wrist on your behalf. That's assuming he has a wrist. If he's a giant slug then we'll just give him a stern talking-to - we don't want to get slimy.

Eric appears to have got bored of this game for a while, and instead has been tirelessly working on slowing us down. He's given us a southerly wind, then he made the water really thick and gloopy, and to be honest has pretty much succeeded. No 50nm today.

We also suspect that Eric has been gluing barnacles to the bottom of the boat, so we'll need to go over the side and scrape those off. But given that Eric has taken away our sunshine and given us a cold southerly wind instead, we're not all that keen! Maybe tomorrow Eric will be busy putting water in the hatches, and the sun will come out without him noticing! Here's hoping.

Should go through three quarter distance tonight, which will be a good boost. Sorry Eric, but we're going to make it!

Rich

Another tough day working hard against relatively unhelpful conditions. Main highlight was getting the watermaker working again this morning although it's so cloudy we can't use it yet. Grrrr.

We'll go through the quarter to go mark in about 12hrs, a fine milestone and very welcome too. as long as we keep working away we'll be in Antigua soon enough.

Having to really work for the miles today, v tough. Won't make good mileage.

3) The Rudder(s)

Rudder 1:

Our boat has been rowed successfully across the Atlantic three times before, each time with the same rudder. However for this race Woodvale required that boats use a new deeper rudder so we had to change ours.

Rudder 2:

We bought a rudder kit from woodvale. This comprised the unfinished bits of marine ply pre-cut to shape.

I spent over a week pf evenings gluing the bits together, planing the edges, sanding and painting it all. My living room was strewn with wood shavings! In the end it turned out very well and we were able to fit it quite easily to the boat.

We used it during a 5 day row in the Med and whilst in the UK, including the great river race. It was the day after this race when we had returned the boat to the marina and were about to leave when Rich noticed that the rudder looked short below the waterline. A closer look showed that we had somehow broken off the bottom half of it! How we managed that without noticing is a mystery.

Rudder 3: Having broken the last rudder we needed a new one pronto as the boat was due to ship very soon. We decided to let the pro's do this one so ordered one from woodvale.

Timing was tight with the rudder only being ready on the wednesday but us needing it on the weekend. it was sent overnight with parcel force but didn't show up, Rich made some frantic calls and found it "probably in the depot in Exeter". By Friday we'd established it would make it to a london warehouse that night and be delivered in the morning. Not wanting to risk that saturday morning was spent driving around an industrial estate to find the parcel force depot and collect it. This we successly did and hence were able to ship it with the boat.

Rudder 4:

We arrived in La Gomera where the boat was waiting for us. One of our immediate tasks was to finish fitting the rudder. However, when we looked at it you could see resin from the fibreglass that had bubbled up through the paint. Indeed, the whole rudder was very marginally squiggy. We asked the Woodvale boatbuilders who were on site who ummed and erred a lot but agreed that we couldn't use it as is. When they had made it the resin didn't have enough hardener added so never set.

At first they had a go at removing the old glass to re-do that but in the end just gave us a spare rudder that they had brought along.

Rudder 5:

Well, I expect you already know about this one so i won't labour the point. The 'pintels' on rudder 4 snapped at the weld earlier in the race. This left us with some creative thinking but pleasingly we found a solution and that still works. Touch wood that will take us to the end of the race now.

So, as you can see we have had a world of grief with our rudder given that our boat came with a battle tested one which we had to leave behind.

Day 46
Sunday 15th January

Well, cheerio to my friends Graham and Bron, who made a non-changeable booking to come see us in at the finish, and leave today. Had we not been delayed 3 days at the start, and had we not had atrocious conditions for the first half, I believe they would indeed have seen us, but we are certainly not the masters of our own destiny out here. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the island without having to worry about tiresome ocean rowing matters!

We had a reminder today that if the ocean doesn't want us to go quickly, then we're not going to go quickly. The start of the day was okay, but conditions deteriorated gradually and the night was not at all pleasant - numerous squalls with adverse winds and lashing rain, waves coming at you from all sides. At the end of the day we still made 50nm, so not desperate, but irritating to fall so far short of the 60nm we had got kind of used to.

I have to admit that I'm pretty much ready for it all to be over now. We've proved we can do it, we've taken everything the ocean has thrown at us on the chin (and what a beautifully bearded chin it is :) and now it just feels like a matter of getting in. Except in this race, the home straight is hundreds of miles long. So we'll carry on whittling them down, hoping that the weather holds and that our backsides don't get any worse. All encouragement welcome!

Rich

I tend to deal with problems, issues, stresses etc... by rationalising the situation, even where this becomes a little silly/desperate.

Yesterday both Rich and i hit a low patch. We were extremely frustrated with ourselves and the rowing. This was a bit odd as we're still making decent progress and things are generally ok. Regardless, we briefly both got quite depressed with it all and despondent.

I found solace in the rowing, which was going fine except that it was rough seas so lots of swirly waves. Periodically a sideways wave would crash into/over the boat both sending you flying and utterly drenching you too. This had been really getting to me but then it dawned on me, where in London can you find a 15ft wave to crash over you? It just doesn't happen. I'm serious, i think you'd struggle to find somewhere with such large, in your face, waves. As such, i realised that instead of hating those waves i should cherish them. Each is unique to this trip and once this is over i'll probably never experience them again. So from now on I say to the ocean "give me your best shot, i'm lovin' it!"

2) The trailer incident

Our boat came with a trailer so we could tow it around. The trailer made lots of weird noises from the day we got it and one of the wheels seemed to wobble!

One weekend we were doing a lot of work on the boat in preparation for a weekend in Torquay with it. As that's a long drive we decided to get the trailer looked at before heading off. So Rich takes the trailer from the marina whilst i and a couple friends, Kevin and Raf worked on the boat.

15min after Rich set off i get a call from him. He was taking a right at a busy junction when the dodgy wheel fell off, leaving him somewhat stranded and blocking everything. Fortunately he had gunned the throttle and dragged the protesting trailer to the side of the road, so he wasn't totally in the way any more but couldn't move it anywhere else.

We immediately leapt into action, Raf drove the three of us to Rich where we set about sorting things out. We found out that the Kwik-Fit was only a mile away so turned the trailer around and re-hitched it with the knackared wheel just pushed onto the axel. Raf then drove in front in his car v slowly whilst i jogged alongside the trailer and gave the wheel a good shove every now and then to try to keep it on. This actually worked ok although perhaps the queue of traffic behind us thought differently. fantastically we made it to the kwik-fit without further incident.

Unfortunately the garage didn't know what type of spares to use on the trailer so we spent the next week ordering new ones from the manufacturer, waiting for them to be delivered to the manufacturer before a crazy relay to collect them and get them to me in time to return to the garage and have them fitted. It was utterly astonishing that we managed to successfully get all that done and get the boat down to Torquay on time.

An extra blog from Dan:
Wow, things changed a lot over the last day. The sky clouded over and we got hit by rain squalls, one after another after another. The wind regulary veered sharply giving us southerlies and the like and was strong enough to make rowing nearly impossible.

The night was horrendous, driving rain and mad winds we both struggled to make much progress. In addition we have drenched the cabin so are sleeping in wet clothes and a wet sleeping bag on wet cushions! That is as about as much fun as you would imagine. Fair to say it wasn't the most enjoyable 24hrs but at least its another 50nm towards the finish. Rather hoping the storms clear up today but am not at all hopeful :-(

As we approach the end i've thought more about our entire journey, from first discussing the race in August 2004 to taking the plunge and entering through all the work since then to get to the start line. It's worth noting that of 51 crews on the initial entry list only 26 made it to the start, it is not an easy thing to get sorted whilst managing a full time job. Over the year we've had our fair share of good times and disasters, some of which i thought i'll recount over the next days...

1) Why the boat is called Talkeetna

In 2004 I organised a rafting trip down a remote river in south east Alaska. there were seven of us sharing two rafts, one was named Talkeetna and the other Lowell. On the first day some possibly over-aggressive steering by me saw us hit a few rocks and ultimately puncture our raft. We managed to limp to that nights campsite where we were able to repair it.

About a week later the raft got punctured again when it hit the canyon side at speed. A large gash was sustained which saw the raft fill with water very quickly, this eventually led to it half sinking and then grounding in the middle of the river. From there we were able to rescue them using the other raft but it was one tough few hours for all of us.

when we bought the boat we had lots of changes that we wanted to make to it so for many weeks it stayed on its trailer. We finally were ready to try it on the water and so took it to a slipway near our marina in east london. The thames had quite a bit of stream running but we finally got the boat in. We rowed it up to the lock to our marina and were soon inside, however we noticed the boat was down to strokeside and so checked all the hatches. Lo and behold one was full of water from a hole under the water line. D'oh!

This was a real pain as we were due to row it the following weekend in cambridge. So the next week we spent our evenings at the docks fixing the hole, which we fortunately managed in time.

Day 45
Saturday 14th January

'Ey up blob-watchers,

I'm going to start a new trend. Never been much of a trendsetter, but this can't fail. Rowing disco dancing. It's a winner, I tell you.

The classic rowing stroke doesn't really convert all that well to a disco move. But that's okay, because the last time I took a proper stroke was probably three weeks last Tuesday, when we had 7.8 seconds of calm weather.

No, the core move is what I've come to think of as the 'Hofmeister Bear strut'. I don't know if you remember the 80s Hofmeister lager adverts with the big cuddly-toy style bear. They got taken off because the authorities reckoned they appealed too much to kids - which was clearly true given that I thought he was the coolest thing on TV!

Anyway, the bear wore a yellow jacket and a fedora, and had a really strut-style walk. His whole body kind of swung round each step, with his arms making exaggerated forwards and backwards motion. And that's pretty much what we're doing most of the time in the boat, alternate strokes with each oar, swinging the body round for a good long stroke - not as efficient as a proper stroke with both oars, but much better in uneven water (and I think 10ft waves come under the bracket of 'uneven').

So that's your core dance move - get out on the floor and swing those arms, baby. It'll work for just about any rhythm too - before the iPod died I was 'hoffing' to all kinds of tunes!

Once you've mastered that, you can supplement it with other more advanced moves. Sometimes the boat lurches from side to side and you're not holding the oars. You do the 'psycho aerobic stretch'. Like in aerobics, you stick your hand above your head and then bend over sideways, like you're stretching your side. Do this with alternate arms, very violently, at high speed, and you have your dance-floor move (and you might even stay on the seat in the boat).

There's the limbo, which I've mentioned in previous blogs as a good way to stay on your seat when the sea chucks sideways waves your way - just lean straight back and hold on tight! On the dancefloor you might want to rock gently from side to side for authenticity.

And lastly, there's the paddy fit. When boat simply won't be controlled and you're sick of being tossed around, throw away the oars in disgust, wave your arms up and down in a petulant manner and utter a loud primal scream. Doesn't stop the tossing but feels great. Piece of cake to adapt onto the dancefloor, although you may wish to warn people first!

So when these funky moves make it to your local club, remember that you heard it here first!!

Rich

From Dan:
A good suggestion for a blog topic was to compare the race to my expectations. Having spent nigh on 18 months planning for the race we'd had plenty of time to think about what might be, and to get advice from previous ocean rowers.

The main difference that we've seen is that this race is not much about rowing. The main influence on your speed and direcction is the wind/weather - how hard you pull and how well you row are secondary concerns. In addition the waves almost always prevent you from doing anything approaching a normal rowing stroke, instead you row in any manner that allows you to put some work down.

The weather has been much more variable than expected. As in previous races we'd not anticipated using the para anchor much and had assumed there would generally be a prevailing wind. Whilst this has been true for the second half the first half was a very different experience.

>From a personal point of view i'm amazed how the little amount of sleep we're getting has not had any effect on me. I sometimes feel a little tired at night but by and large not - this had been a worry before the race so a pleasant surprise there.

We'd been led to believe that the two of us would barely talk during the crossing but we chat frequently and have maintained a friendly light hearted banter each day. I'd say it's a great shame if any crews are so focussed on the rest/row routine that they don't talk much.

back to today - nothing too exciting. Swirly winds with a fair SE brewing but otherwise we're just moseying along...

Cheers

Dan

Day 44
Friday 13th January

Something wonderful happened today (at least I think it was today, the days are really starting to blur now). The watermaker stopped working. Yes, I grant you, that doesn't generally come under the heading of wonderful, but it was the reaction to it stopping that was the good bit. We both looked at it, both though "d'oh!" (and probably said so) and then both did the silent calculation. And the result of the calculation was 'we have enough water to finish' - and when we looked at each other we both smiled.

Yes, it would mean opening all the ballast water and so being disqualified. And it would mean rationing a little. But we would still complete our row across the Atlantic unassisted - a feat that not a great deal of people manage. This had two important conclusions. 1) the watermaker, probably our most worrisome piece of kit, can no longer truly stuff us over. And 2) we're really getting close to the end of this race!

And by the way, the problem was very small, and fixed in 10 minutes.

Two other big things happened today. We went through 2/3 distance, a nice milestone to hit, and we now have less than 1000 statute miles to row. Triple figures! Already looking forward to double figures!

The second thing was not as good - both Dan and I, fairly abruptly, started having real issues with our backsides. The soreness had been confined to very specific areas, and we had come up with ways to ease that pain. But now those measures have caused pain elsewhere and, certainly in my case at least, the whole thing is a mass of fiery pain. The process of finding new ways to ease the pain is well underway, and I predict the future to contain more and large amounts of hard-core painkillers!!

Rich

Dan's Blog:

Well, the good news is that we are in the last third of the race. Yippee! We covered the fourth sixth from halfway in 7 days and 5.5hrs, not bad speed at all. It's been getting harder to maintain that speed recently but hopefully the wind will pick up giving us a helping hand soon.

When planning this crossing we read various books about other ocean rows. In particular a book written about the first guys to do it - two Norwegians called Harbo and Samuellson who rowed from New York to England in about 1895. An amazing feat back then. The book recounts one anecdote which i think about quite a bit - it really puts into perspective the troubles we face.

This is set around 1890 when there used to be many fishermen based around NY. They would be taken out to the fishing grounds each morning on a big boat before heading off in small dories. These would then meet back at the big boat in the evening to be taken back to NY port.

The area offshore there is renowned for its pea-souper fogs and one winter's day one of the dories couldn't find the return boat again - whilst it waited a while eventually it gave up and returned to port.

This left the dory with its crew of 4 or 5 men alone, in the fog, with minimal supplies and little clothing. By nightfall it was freezing and quickly the men started to suffer frostbite in their wet clothes. They knew they were unlikely to be rescued and so had to row about three days back to NY. One of the men realised that they soon wouldn't be able to row as their hands froze in the cold conditions. He therefore took the, harsh, but pragmatic, decision to let his hands freeze to the oar handles thereby ensuring could row. Three days later they arrived back at port in a bad state but alive.

We're finding it tougher going day by day as our rears hurt more and more every time we sit down to row and our hands and other muscles start to protest. The sea has been very bumpy for days now so we get thrown around lots which aggravates that problem. But in the context of the story above our troubles are minor. We just need to keep gritting our teeth and pulling on those oars.

Another super hot day here...

Dan

Day 43
Thursday 12th January

Sometimes it's really not rowing at all. In fact, it rather resembles a gladiatorial battle. In the blue corner, The Sea, armed to the teeth with waves and, um, well just waves actually, although he does get his mate The Wind to join in sometimes. And in the red corner, Rich. I tend to imagine myself as the poor slave who's been sent into the ring to fight the Gladiator, armed only with two spears - and even they're not pointy at the ends.

My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to stab The Sea as many times as possible with my spears. Obviously, The Sea isn't overly keen on this, and shows its displeasure by throwing me violently all over the place. Think one of those WWF wrestlers chucking their opponents against the ropes - except my version of the ropes are made of wood...

Once I've been thrown, it takes me a minute to gather my spears to remount the attack. During this time though, The Sea throws down wave after wave, ensuring that my little boat goes sideways onto the waves - and The Wind, if he's feeling co-operative. From this position I then have to struggle back onto my line, with my stern pointing into the waves, by any means possible. Don't tell The Sea, but sometime I stab him a bit harder than is strictly necessary, just out of spite :)

And so on it goes. Sometimes The Sea looks like it is winning for long periods of time - it can take half an hour to fight back from beam on to the waves - but I'm a pretty tenacious slave with spears, and thus far I've always come out on top. Touch wood.

I heard today about various crews having a really rough time, and my thoughts are with them. Great effort Chris Martin for getting his boat righted, well impressed with that, hope you get your oars soon and are drifting in the right direction in the meantime! Hope that Al is doing okay on Gurkha Spirit after apparently cracking some ribs while being swept out of the boat. Glad that American Fire's out-of-boat experience didn't cause similar injury. And so, so sorry to hear about Jo on Rowgirls, who is to be taken off onto Aurora with a back injury - I know how hard she and all the Rowgirls worked for this race, and Jo wouldn't quit without being in serious pain. Hope it's nothing permanent.

And after all that, I have to say I feel pretty lucky that we're still merrily trogging along making good distance, with nothing worse than sore backsides. Hope the luck lasts for another couple of weeks!

Rich

Dan's Blog:

Approaching the last third now with about two weeks left at the current pace. Conditions remain good so we're hopeful we can maintain this to the end. A couple weeks back we figured there was no chance of a january finish so it's great that we most likely will not stray in to feb now.

As we near the finish our route becomes much more important. If we descend to 17deg latitude too soon we'll end rowing across a NE which will be slower. hence we're trying to drop gradually but that is hard when there is a strong northerly compnent to the wind. It will be interesting to what the crews around us do.

With things going quite smoothly of late we've very much settled into a routine now. Each day is a copy of the last with minimal variation. In many ways this helps pass the time as you don't need to think at all, you just stay on 'autopilot'.

Had a brief tizz with the watermaker yesterday which led us to realise that we pretty much have enough fresh water on board to last us now, c. 150+ litres. Give it a couple days and we'll be sorted - although under the race rules we'll endeavour to continue using the watermaker and keep the ballast water to the end.

Having tempted fate above we're having a more prolonged problem with the watermaker. Touch wood we can sort that soon.

Cloudless day, v hot, baking...

Dan

Day 42
Wednesday 11th January

I had a brilliant idea today. Dan was doing a 90 minute shift in the evening, so I thought I'd grab an extra hour's kip. So, clothes off, alarm on, settle down. Dang, it's too hot in here. But the waves are pretty small right now, so I can open the back window. Excellent - nice breeze through the cabin, and off to slumberville I go.

45 minutes later and I'm suddenly awoken by the cabin becoming an indoor swimming pool. And the water's not even heated. D'OH! Not good. The waves had picked up, and instead of sending me a little splash to warn me, a wave had just rolled straight into the cabin, dumping about 10 litres in. Um, oops.

I mopped up as best I could with a t-shirt, but the cushions were drenched. Thankfully I'd taken the precaution of moving the sleeping bag up to the far end, and it, along with the electrical stuff, was dry. I'm now writing this nearly 24 hours after the event and the cushions are still drying... To Dan's great credit, he didn't get upset - simply saying something like 'worse things happen at sea' (a phrase which I ought to stop using!) I'm not sure I could have been so cool about it.

Today was hard work, with the lack of decent wind meaning we basically did the whole day by brute strength. It was therefore gratifying to notch up 58nm anyway - a sign that our target off 55nm per day is well achievable.

Lastly, I went to the loo in the middle of the night, only to find a dead flying fish in the poo bucket. What a way to go. And what were his last thoughts? Quite possibly: 'What are the chances...?

Rich

Dan's Blog:

Thank you for the music, the songs I'll soon be singing! Very impressed by the eclectic collection of song lyrics that you have all sent through. More than enough there to keep me busy and Rich awake at night.

Today saw us 'celebrate' six weeks at sea, six weeks of anything seems a lot and spending that much time on our little boat still seems amazing to us both. How easily we have settled into a much more spartan lifestyle than usual. Although I am glad i don't have daily worries about the rudder breaking or watermaker working back home.

It's amazing how quickly our expectations have changed. A week ago we considered anything over 36nm in a day to be good as we were floundering in the southerlies. Yesterday we got quite annoyed with ourselves if the pace ever fell below 2.5kts, we made about 2.45 for the day - a good result but we're actually not that pleased!

Our goal is 55+ nm a day to the finish, this should be achieveable even with some slow days thrown in, but we'd dearly love to go quicker. Just important we don't get too fixated on it as we arre still at the mercy of the elements.

Have heard that both the solo crews have capsized - fortunately both are "ok" and continuing although Chris is waiting for more oars. He had to physically right his boat after it failed to do so itself - a really fine effort by him alone in the middle of the ocean and rather puts our troubles into perspective.

Closing in on the last third now, will be a great milestone to reach. I can't help thinking how long we spent mired around 28 deg west and how far we've gone since then.

cheers

Dan

And finally, from the Webmaster's little helper:

Rich's poetic musings on Saturday seem to have inspired some of you. So, with thanks to Anna D, her colleagues, and whoever pays for them to spend their time writing limericks, here goes:

There was a young man we called Rich
who Kate thought a bit of a dish.
He went rowing at sea
but go hungry? Not he!
Cos his beard was so long it caught fish!

There once was a man who was rowing.
At incredible speeds he was going;
'Cos the whales, in shifts,
were giving him lifts,
using only his beard to tow 'im!

Day 41
Tuesday 10th January

Wotcha blob-fans,

It's just struck me that although we're performing a feat of great physical endurance, you lot are also enduring having to watch a small purple blob move slowly across a screen. I think you're doing awesomely well, so keep it up!

Today was another 60nm day, this is a habit I certainly wouldn't mind getting into. The going was a lot tougher than the last couple of days - less wind, and rowing slightly across the swell in order to not drop too far south. So it was gratifying to still make a good distance, and gives us hope that we can keep churning this kind of speed out.

My mood is improving day on day - it hasn't been a bad mood for some time now, but I'm starting to actively enjoy the rowing again. My little spreadsheet of time to go keeps looking healthier and healthier, and I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do in Antigua, and once I get back to the UK. Which is naughty really - we've still got at least a couple of weeks out here, and I should be focussing on that! It's just that everything is now going pretty smoothly, and we're in a good rhythm that (with luck) will carry us through to the finish.

Obviously, things can still go wrong - in fact, can still go very wrong - we're still 1000 miles from any land (incidentally, I believe today was the first day when Antigua was our closest land - for a long time the Cape Verde islands were closer, and the recently French Guyana in South America).

It was a bit of a shock yesterday to hear that the Digicel boys had capsized and had to be rescued, and even more unnerving to hear from my girlfriend that lots of crews around us were reporting dangerously large seas, with many near-capsizes. We haven't had anything that's actually been scary (either smaller waves, or we're harder to scare :) - although there have been plenty of times where Mother Nature has reminded us just how powerful she is. Winds that you can't turn into, instead carrying you along sideways (now I know how crabs feel). Waves that dump gallons of water into the boat, spin you around 90� and knock you off your seat. That kind of thing.

Our hearts go out to Gearoid, Ciaran and their families. We're glad to they're safe and well, which is the most important thing, but they must be absolutely gutted - I know I would be inconsolable. To spend so long preparing for the race, to be doing so well and then to have it all ripped away is unfair in the extreme. But I guess that's what we all signed up for. We're now very conscious of the possibility of fierce weather, and are ady to take extra safety precautions if necessary.

One last thing - some time ago I joked about being branded like a steer. Well, last night I fell over like a malco, and now have a neat imprint of a slide rail on my thigh. D'oh!

Rich

Dan's Blog:

Another decent day's rowing behind us. Very wobbly seas with loads of side on waves but still making good progress to Antigua. We also maintained a constant speed throughout the day without fading during the night.

Had one exciting moment when a gull swooped across a yard in front of my face last night. I just saw this largeish shadow swish past without warning. Gave me quite a shock!

Also saw a few flying fish doing their thing. Really quite cool the way they can stay out of the water for 25 odd meters.

Went through the 40% to go mark too, knocked off the last 10% in just over 4 days - a decent enough pace! With 41 days behind us making that speed makes the remaining time seem very manageable. Long live the trades.

A lame entry this i'm afraid, it was a relatively quiet day.

Day 40
Monday 9th January

Hurrah! We finished today, won the race and broke the record! Yay us!

Well, that was how today's blog was supposed to go anyway. Best laid plans, huh? Happily it's not all doom and gloom - we clocked up a cracking 72nm today. This was a bit of a surprise - only yesterday we'd been overjoyed to make 60nm - and to keep up an average of 3 knots over 24 hours is pretty cool.

The increase in speed has led to me starting to think the race might actually end at some point - up until now it's been rather a case of 'just keep rowing', without really having a target to aim at. And given that I have (a) quite a bit of spare time and (b) an iPaq with Excel on it, it's only natural to create a spreadsheet tabulating our finish time based on various predicted speeds from now until the finish. Geeky? You betcha, but who's going to tease me about it out here?

I've been a bit disappointed with the lack of wildlife recently. Since the last whale I reported, we haven't seen anything other than the normal birds (obviously we know where the whales are - the conference is stretching out in that interminable way that only conferences can. I bet the keynote speaker is still wittering on about the time he spouted too near an oil rig and got mistaken for a bomb). Maybe the seas are too big to spot anything, maybe the rumour has gone around that we're just not that interesting. Am still holding out a vain hope of a shark pootling by on his way to the nearest frenzy, but even that's fading. Ah well, maybe we'll get some parrots when we're close to Antigua.

There's been a few cooments in emails about how it's cold in the UK, so it must be horrendous in the middle of the ocean. Um, not quite. We're in the tropics, and most days it's baking hot. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid! Admittedly it can get pretty cold at night though, and if that's combined with driving rain, as it often is, it can get quite miserable. So I shall allow you to give me sympathy.

All in all, things are going very nicely now, so we're hoping the conditiins hold, allowing us to enjoy the last few weeks of our adventure.

I bid you adieu

Rich

Dan's Blog:

The ocean gods smiled on us yesterday. The good conditions lasted and we covered 72nm in 24hrs. By far our best day and v satisfying to bite off a meaningful chunk of the remaining miles.

We were still hassled by waves from the side, with many blade handle in hip moments, but that was easily worth it for the speed.

During the night i had my closest "out of boat" experience. A quality wave nailed our starboard side - it came with no warning - sending me flying off my seat down to the sea as the boat had tipped to a steep angle. I managed to grab the jackstay and hold myself in but it was a bit of a shock, kind of exhilerating too. Falling in at night wouldn't be great.

I note that today is the first day in our competition. Sadly the time for the first slot has already passed so I say to the owner of that "You are not the winner". It's great that so many of you entered and bought fast slots but it just shows, don't believe a word we say! Touch wood we finish within 60 days and someone owns the finishing time.

Should go through the 60% done mark later today, having covered the last 10% quite quickly. Sweet.

Cheers

Dan

Day 39
Sunday 8th January

Flying! Woo-hoo! 60nm today (midday-midday), first time we've done that since first few days - and first time at all that we've done it whilst only rowing one at a time all day. Haven't looked at positions yet, dunno if other crews have gone quicker still, but stuff it, I'm happy.

I was asked what mental stimulation we brought with us. Um, not a lot. A quick fairy story to explain.

Once upon a time, two brave princes set out on a quest. They knew that other knights were also on the same quest, but were sure that their faithful steed would allow them to finish the quest first. They had both read the fabled book of Hamill, and reasoned that if they were to spend every waking hour on their quest, they could emulate the legendary keewee-men of old. Thus they decided to weigh down their steed with no more than essential items, meaning that books and such like were forbidden. Alas, their quest was to prove tougher than they had thought, and they found they really had to rest one hour for every hour of questing. When their quest then became long and arduous, lasting veritable millenia, their rest hours became a test of their mental endurance, and solitaire on the iPaq became their only friend. The end (I guess this is why they call them grim fairy tales).

So yes, not a great deal. The iPaq is useful - we spend a lot of time writing these blogs, other emails, working out how many biscuits we're allowed to eat today, etc. It also has one game - solitaire - that's getting a serious amount of use! There was the iPod for music, but that's died (boo), and there's the satphone to call home, but that's expensive (also boo).

Beyond that, we can look at our chart to see how many millimetres we've moved, or read the various stuff in the cabin. I've been through the first aid book and the 'cockpit companion' quite a few times now. I've also taken to reading food labels quite closely - and I'll leave you with a few of the more interesting things I've learned:

- The first ingredient in Peperami is 'Pork (108%)'. Presumably the last (unlisted) ingredient is antimatter

- Fox's Chocolate Viennese biscuits are 'noyt the same sizee as shown on the wrapper'

- Mountain House freeze-dried food has been inspected and passed by the USDA - which apparently was 'Est 1394'. Now, my US history isn't perfect, but wasn't the US created by the declaration of independence in 1776? If anybody can explain this one I'd be interested!!

All for now, back to solitaire...

Rich

Dan's Blog:

Had a good nights rowing then around 9am this morning the boat speed dramatically increased. Yes, it increased - it actually got better - we're not used to things going from good to brilliant so this is a super suprise.

We've now rowed about 4hrs at comfortably over 3kts and the conditions look stable. Not sure why this is so fast, similar wind and swell to other days but the boat is surfing along really nicely. This also drums home how other crews have gained so much on us, finding conditions like this makes all the difference. I hadn't even realised these boats could go this fast rowing 1-up for prolonged periods.

Anyway the important thing is that we're steaming along and enjoying a welcome change in fortune.

One thing that hasn't changed is the waves from the side. We still hit these patches where you get flung violently about as the boat lurches on to its side. it's really quite painful as the blade handles get rammed into your hip/thigh and your feet get wrenched against the footstraps.

No rain yet today, a pleasant change, we've got quite used to regular drenchings during the day and night.

Good spirits on board Talkeetna today.

Dan

Day 38
Saturday 7th January

You know, this Darley chap is tough to keep up with. He's exceedingly strong, very mentally tough and ferociously, ridiculously fit. I'm no slouch, but I do struggle a bit sometimes.

But there is one area of life on board where I'm winning hands down. It's a vital part of crossing the ocean - indeed many would say it is not a true crossing without it. I'm talking, of course, about growing a beard.

Now don't get me wrong, Dan has a reasonable 'tache, and a bit of a goatee. But there's nothing more than wispy bits on his cheeks and chin, poor chap. I, on the other hand, have a handsome golden (that's GOLDEN, not any other word beginning with G) mane, covering the entirety of my lower face. Of course, I try not to draw attention to this too much in front of Dan - I don't want him getting an inferiority complex :)

Sadly, most of you won't get to see this eighth wonder of the world in the flesh (strictly speaking, in the hair, I suppose). I have little doubt that a certain young lady who is meeting me in Antigua will frogmarch me to the nearest barbers if I refuse to shave it myself. But never fear, I shall ensure that photographic evidence of this behemoth is retained: I expect the UK copyright libraries will require a copy too...

Had a quiet moment in the cabin today, and found myself feeling poetic. This was my first attempt:

There once were two rowers from Britain
And a brilliant idea they did hit on
'Lets row the Atlantic!
It may be gigantic
But we'll take lots of cushions to sit on'

But I prefer my second one, shown here in a sanitised form!

There once were two blokes on the ocean
Who rowed night and day with devotion
Their bottoms grew sore
And their goolies red raw
But 'twas worth it to keep them in motion!

Okay, less thinking, more rowing! Speak again soon.

Rich

Dan's Blog:

After Aurora's visit yesterday we settled back into the routine and the day passed both quickly and uneventfully. Conditions weren't as good as before but still fine so we continue to make decent distance.

I actually had a great night, slept well and put in three good rowing sessions. Had oats for brekkie and now feel better than i have done in ages.

Someone asked if we've seen any of the other boats since starting. We did see SoC after 24hrs and then we think we saw C2 a week later but nothing since then and probably won't now, i suppose not surprising given the vastness of the ocean.

I find it interesting what one misses when away from home for a while as everyone seems to have their pet loves/hates. At the moment:

I miss...

Relaxing for more than one hour
Not having to ration everything
Proper time to myself
Food (pizza, bacon sarnies, krispy kreme donuts...)
Being dry
Reading a good book
A hot shower
Sitting down comfortably
Being somewhere stable

I don't miss...

The tube, esp the northern line
Queueing
TV
Daily news
Shaving
Booze
Wearing clothes ;-)
Surprisingly, a good night's sleep

Given our recent progress and the reduced distance to go i am finding it hard not to count down the days. With three odd weeks to go that seems a bit premature so i'm trying to remain focussed on one day at a time, but it's so nice to think about dry land!

As the ipod is now dead i need something to amuse me at night. Could a purple blob watcher please send us the words to Jerusalem and Swing Low? I can memorise them and then annoy Rich by singing them at night!

Cheers

Dan

Day 37
Friday 6th January

Hello, purple blob army,

I've been thinking for a couple of days that once we're up to speed and cruising along happily, there wouldn't be much to write about. And then a day like today comes along, where so much happens you don't know where to start!

Last night we went through halfway. This actually made me feel much happier than I thought it would. The second half of the crossing will be quicker (good lord, how could it be slower?!) and we're aiming for a quick time - just to be able to tell people we really were a quick crew, we just had horrendous conditions in the first half.

We apparently (according to the website) clocked up our second best day so far yesterday. It's difficult for us to know whether this is accurate, as they measure calendar days (0000-2359), whereas we use race days (1205-1204). But it can't be a bad thing, and we certainly put in some good miles.

And the very end of the day was very exciting. Dan spotted a yacht ahead of us, and we were about to give them a call on the VHF, when he then spotted a very large ship immediately behind us and heading straight for us! Given that we've basically seen no-one for weeks, two boats at once was a bit of a surprise!

I called the ship on the VHF, but didn't understand the response. Becoming mildly concerned, I was about to try again when Lin's (skipper of the support yacht) voice came over the radio, saying basically what I'd been saying but much better! The ship responded to that and changed course, eventually passing a few hundred metres away from us. Very glad it didn't happen at night!

Support yacht Aurora then came over and we had a good old chinwag. They've apparently covered 4500nm! It was good to see familiar faces, albeit from a distance, and once again they took some photos which will hopefully make their way onto this site. (If any of them are of me with my top off, apologies for the sheer whiteness of my body - you may have to turn down the brightness on your monitor!)

But the strangest thing to happen today was just before the ships encounter. I was rowing along, with conditions getting slower - averaging maybe 1.5 knots. A squall approached, and the day went from bright sunshine to torrential rain in the space of 15 seconds. It stopped just as abruptly, and I suddenly found I was averaging 2.5 knots. If anybody can explain that one I'd be most interested!

Rich

Dan's "We're half way" Blog:

Good things come to those who wait. The waiting has been hard work but we have now crossed the halfway point - at about 9:30pm yesterday or after 36 days and 9.5 hrs. We really hope to cover the second half more quickly!

Another good day behind us, it went a bit flat at night again but is still so much better than what we had last week. If it stays like this to the end we'll be very happy.

I've been eating all my least popular meals over the last week. I'll do a count later to see what i have left but am hopeful there will be some nice stuff to see me home. we're using Mountain House brand freeze dried food and some of the meals are excellent, including the scrambled eggs with bacon that i've just wolfed down. it really helps to have a genuinely delicious meal to look forward too.

Wow, i was just about to write that nothing exciting had happened when we had two, yes two, boats come past. The support yacht Aurora turned up a mile away just as we saw a large container ship heading straight at us from the stern. Some broken radio communication saw the ship turn to port so they merryly came past a few hundred metres away from us. V glad that didn't happen at night. Aurora took lots of pics, gave us some race gossip etc... before heading on to the next crew.

A welcome break from the routine but back to the oars now, got to keep moving west...

Dan

Day 36
Thursday 5th January

Well, as they say, what a difference a day makes. Midday to midday we've clocked up 55.9nm, compared to an average over the last week of about 30nm. It's a different world.

The emotions it produces are many: happiness, relief, gratitude, and a feeling of 'about time too'! If this was to continue, we'd still make Antigua in January, which we would now see as a minor victory.

The gripes on the boat are still the same: we're tired, our backsides hurt, we're not entirely sure we have enough food - but when combined with going quickly, these don't seem so bad. Hopefully we can now have those few days of rowing where we can just get on with it.

I think it's now fair to say that we're racing against the clock, rather than to win. I haven't wanted to admit this so far, but at 300 miles in front, it's going to be tough for us to catch edf. Sorry to all those of you out there who have been faithfully rooting for us to win.

Obviously, admitting this hurts my competitive pride, but there comes a time at which there's no point in beating yourself up any more. You can take it as read that we will keep pushing on though, both with a view to breaking 60 days, and catching those crews that have recently overtaken us. As one blobber put it very succinctly: 'Eye of the Tiger'!!

We should go through halfway very shortly, and that will be a cause for celebration. I think we've got some party poppers left - maybe it even warrants those!

At the same time though, wow - we'll only be halfway. This, to be perfectly honest, is both a terrifying and depressing thought. To be out here for so long, to be 4 days away from our target finish time, and to still not yet be halfway - horrendous. But of course, barring more low pressure systems or record-breaking hurricanes, the second half will be much quicker, and that's a nice thought.

Keep sending the emails, they do help, and will continue to do so through the third quarter of the race (in a standard rowing race this is always the most painful bit - not sure that applies here, but send emails anyway!)

See y'all soon

Hopeful Rich

From Dan:

Another day passes by. Some more miles behind us. After five weeks at sea it's fair to say i am looking forward to reaching land, preferably Antigua. I guess the real problem we face now is boredom, we've had good seas, bad seas, wind from every direction so to an extent have seen it all before. last night, with big seas, would have been exciting a couple weeks back but is now too familiar. hopefully from halfway the motivation of seeing the distance tick down will help keep us focussed.

We've covered about one degree west in the last 24hrs which is our best day in ages. V satisfying and i wish is something that continues! With a decent prevailing wind such distances are easy to achieve and we even had eight slow hours during the night which i assume was Zeta.

The moon is v cool atm. Still nowhere near half full it produces a huge amount of light at night - so much that you can just see the waves nearby.

Saw our first ship in a long time this morning - a big tanker i think, about one mile south on the same course as us. Overtook us without too much trouble despite me putting in a big push. I didn't see any rowers or sails so i figure they were cheating and using an engine.

Another scorchio day here. After a long period of rainy squalls it looks like we're set for it to be hot hot hot for a while.

Dan

Day 35
Wednesday 4th January

Blobbers of the world,

A joyous thing happened today. I shall tell you all a happy tale.

The afternoon and evening of 03/01 went reasonably well, notching up nearly an average of 2 knots - much better than we have been managing over the last week or so. But then, as always seems to happen at night, a strong southerly picked up, we lost our momentum and progress slowed right down.

So it was with a weary heart that I got up for my second nightshift, from 4am to 6am - definitely one of my least favourites. For a hour and a half I plodded away, making just over a knot, and feeling pretty sorry for myself.

And then it happened. Over the course of 5 minutes, the southerly gradually died down, and a very, very gentle south-easterly took its place. Then there was a strong gust of wind from the east, and lo and behold, the gust just didn't stop! I suddenly had a good easterly!

It's hard to describe just how happy I felt during the last half hour of that shift. Pure, unadulterated joy. The rowing was a piece of cake with a following wind and sea, and I made nearly as much ground as in the preceding hour and a half. But the joy really came from the restoration of my faith that good winds were out there, and that we weren't fated to have dreadful conditions all the way to Antigua. And the joy was undoubtedly all the greater as the good conditions were set against the rubbish that we've been battling through for so long.

By the time of my last nightshift the wind was less good again, but as I write, a decent south-easterly has picked up and we're once again making good ground. It probably won't last for ever, but boy it's good to get it for a while.

A very perky Rich

From Dan:

Yesterday's favourable weather continued until about 11pm when it sWitched to a v strong southerly again. Completely wrecked the boat speed and gave us some real lousy conditions for the night shifts. A real shame as rowing through dross is much more sapping at night.

However Rich found some good SE winds in the early hours which lasted for about an hour each. Yey! Whilst i was rowing the next shift they completely disappeared so handed some rubbish back to Rich to deal with whilst i had 2hrs kip. Fortunately by about 9am a decent SE had again established itself making Rich a happy bunny and so whilst we can't head south we are now making fair westerly progress again. Fingers, toes are crossed and touch wood this lasts. It seems like we're tantalisingly close to proper trades.

As we still have little idea how long the crossing will take we continue to ration our food. If we're over 60 days this will have been a wise move. Either way we're both shedding some weight, nothing desperate yet so no worries atm but looking forward to reacquainting myself with Ben and Jerry upon my return.

have noted a couple more instances of Sod's law at sea.

1) No matter how much you stir the freeze-dries meals you always have a lump of congealed gunk at the bottom which you missed.

2) 5 min before your shift ends a stray wave will drench you. This holds especially true at night.

Closing in on half way...

Dan

Day 34
Tuesday 3rd January

Hello blobbers, and welcome back to those of you who've been away or just out of the office.

Food. Now there's a thing. Food's great. I like it a lot. One of the absolute bonuses about preparing for this race was that I could eat whatever I wanted - indeed, was positively encouraged to put a little lard on my bones. Going through two takeaway lunches became commonplace. Brilliant.

Now that we're out here, food has been one my comfort factors - we've had plenty, so any time something went badly, out came a chocolate bar. Also brilliant.

But unfortunately we're going to be out here rather longer than planned - and that means we don't have enough food to eat as much as we have been. So over the last few days we've started to ration the food we have, only eating if we feel we must. Not so brilliant.

Luckily, extra energy is coming in the form of energy drink, which we haven't been drinking nearly as much of as we thought we would. So we're not starving ourselves. Yet. There's not going to be much fat on us when we get to Antigua though!

There have been a few amusing conversations though: Dan revealed he's taken to licking all the chocolate off his chocolate bar wrappers, and I thought I was in heaven when I found half a pack of Werther's in a rubbish bag! Dan is also looking at rigging up a fishing line (we have line & hooks, but no rod) - but you'll know we've got really hungry when I stop picking the pineapple bits out of my Beef Teriyaki!

Same old same old on the weather front - keep sending north-easterly vibes if you can, and hopefully they'll spring up soon. The problem apparently is Hurricane Zeta, which is not all that strong, but is sitting to our north-west, and amusingly moving with the same speed and direction as all the rowing boats! So we just have to wait for it to fill and we're good to go. And that will be super-brilliant.

Rich

From Dan:

I may be stuck in the middle of the ocean going slowly (mad) but today I draw a small shred of comfort from the thought that lots of you will be back at work, the holiday season behind you. I apologise for drawing pleasure from your misfortune but anything that brings a smile to my face works for me right now. Anyway, don't work too hard (except the folk in GLP who should work really hard!) and keep following the purple blob.

The last 24hrs have been marginally better but still nothing great and we lost some time in the night to a strong headwind that sprung up stopping us dead. We're now back to our southerly so looks like another one of those days.

If any budding meteorologists out there can explain why we've had 5 days of S winds we'd love to hear from you. It would in some way help to understand what is causing that and why the wind is so consistently from that direction.

** STOP PRESS **

Rich just spoke to the support boat Aurora (this morning) who explained that hurricane zeta isn't that far NW of us. It is causing winds that are affecting a number of crews and annoyingly it is moving at 2kts on a bearing of 245 so tracking us a bit. Each day the forecast for NE winds assumes the hurricane has "filled" but it hasn't so each day the forecast is wrong. Reassuring to have a good reason and at least once zeta goes we might see an easterly coming from the east!

The watermaker is behaving exceptionally well so we've got loads to drink and are both better hydrated than at any other time in the race. The rudder looks fine too so touch wood those troubles are now behind us.

Have just done my best hours rowing in a week, 2.4nm in a bit less than an hour. The wind is more SSE now and the swell allows you to row enough to maintain the speed. This won't be possible at night as you need to see the waves around you but hopefully we can put in some miles this afternoon.

Trivia Q for you. When will the moon next be full for us - it'll be c 2 weeks but a date would be great.

cheers

Dan

Day 33
Monday 2nd January

So, here I am, plodding along in less than brilliant conditions, and suddenly Bloop! - there's a whale behind the boat. It just very calmly surfaces and then slips back down again. I think 'cool', tell Dan, and we both spend the next 10 minutes watching for it to surface again - but to no avail.

Now, it's nice to know we're sharing the ocean with big beasties, and given that I'm pretty much minding my own business, I can't blame Horace the whale for doing the same and not sticking around. But here's the big question:

What is Horace doing?

You see, generally I don't leave my flat unless I'm going somewhere. True, very occasionally I go for a walk, but most of the time my wanderings are for a purpose - to work, to the shops, to get to Antigua under human power, that kind of thing.

But as far as I know, Horace doesn't have a flat (definitely not in my building anyway, I'm sure I'd have heard about it). So does he swim about all the time for no purpose? I'd like to think not.

Maybe he has his own patch which he patrols - in a kind of neighbourhood watch thing. And when he's not doing that, he pops over to Terry's area for a bit of a chinwag: 'How goes, Terry?' 'Oh, not bad Horace. Had one of those pesky colossal squids here yesterday - they're real troublemakers, they are. Had to chase him away - got Fred the sperm whale to help'

Come to think of it, the last two whales I've seen have been heading in the same direction. Obviously there must be a whale convention on down south. I suspect there'll be talks on how to keep your sea-bed free from weeds, and how to behave when talking to mermaids (politely, I'm told - they can get very testy). There'll probably be music from Cod Marley and the Whalers in the evening too - kinda wish I was there too!

And clearly, when Horace gets a free moment, he'll write a blog. And I suspect today's entry will run along the lines of: 'Saw one of those row-boats today. Don't mind them, but what do they do all day?'

Rich

From Dan:

Another update devoted to my favourite topic - the weather.

Around midday yesterday we were in some good conditions, no tail wind but calmish water. We were easily doing 2+ kts. This continued until 11pm when things changed rapidly. The fabled easterly had again failed to materialize and the southern suddenly returned with vigour. By the end of my shift at midnight it was nasty slow rowing again.

Rowing afficionados will know that timing is a very important part of the sport. It appears I have mastered this as within 15min of me getting into the cabin Rich was being drenched in a downpour which conveniently stopped for my next shift.

Throughout the rest of the night the wind swung from S to SW to NW - it was as if a low was moving eastwards north of us. The strong rapidly changing wind kicked up a dreadful swell which really threw the boat about. This caused both of us much grief at the oars as our rears don't cope so well with such constant sideways lurching any more.

Fortunately by 11am things had mostly calmed down but it's another low mileage night, and for me, probably the least pleasant so far.

We get two forecasts a day. These consistantly say that we should have NE or E. I have a thought that like in 1984 the forecasters are just renaming the directions to present a favourable picture to us. Today we'll call winds from what used to be known as the south "easteries" instead! It'll be interesting to see which direction today's "easterlies" come from ;-)

Despite the turtle like pace we are slooowly getting closer to the halfway mark. Much slower than hoped but it will still be a great moment to pass that point and one i am eagerly awaiting.

Cheers

Dan

Day 32
New Year's Day

Well, 2006 it is - a very Happy New Year to you all.

New Year aboard Talkeetna was a strange affair. We decided to 'celebrate' at midnight GMT (being the People's Republic of Talkeetna means we can decide what time it is on board - maybe we could use this to finish in a record time after all!) We didn't have any champagne though, and decided singing Auld Lang Syne with linked arms would be a bit odd (not to mention likely to end in an unplanned swim!)

So we were at a bit of a loss for how exactly to celebrate - when suddenly on the stroke of midnight we both were 100% sure we could see a ship on the horizon, bearing down on us fast. There was nothing else to do but set off a rocket flare - which strangely showed that we were entirely mistaken and there was no ship. But we got fireworks for New Year ;)

In fact while I'm sure many of you went to great parties, at least we didn't have the neighbours telling us to turn the music down. Mostly because a) we're in the middle nowhere and have no neighbours and b) we can't play any music anyway!

Resolutions then. Well, my first resolution is to start making this boat move quicker - although this seems to be entirely out of our control. Despite all the weather forecasts saying 'you currently have a force 4 easterly', we can put our hands on our hearts and say that the easterly feels suspiciously like a southerly - and hence we are truly plodding along. Most irritating.

I also resolve, like some of you I guess, to eat less. This isn't an attempt to lose weight though - we're just going to run out of food if I don't! We're not tooooo concerned just yet, but we do need to speed up a bit.

When I get back, I'm going to stop entering stupid races for a while and enjoy having time that is my own. Although having said that, I've just found out I got a place in the London Marathon. I reckon I'll be pretty much the only person there for whom the Marathon is a flat out sprint - or alternatively the only one whose prep included rowing an ocean as cross-training!

Training has already begun, with half hour runs around the deck whilst Dan rows! (you may need to see a pic of the boat to understand how ridiculous this would be!) I guess given our rudder efforts, we ought to be able to construct a suspended running track around the outside of the boat, fashioned from spare oars, salt-stiffened clothing and bits of string. I'll let you know how that one goes...

Off now to let you nurse your hangovers, enjoy your lasr bits of holiday!

Rich

Dan's New Year's Day Blog:

So what's your resolution for the new year? Eat less? Exercise more? Fewer boozy nights? Mine is to not row across any more oceans. This is fun 'n all but once will be enough! I know new year resolutions are notoriously hard to keep so i hope i can summon up the will power to stick to mine. Fingers crossed on that one.

Thanks for the questions, riddles and brain teasers that you send through. Keep those coming - ideally short Qs that you can think about whilst rowing and don't need pen and paper.

Now here's a dilemma for you. You're on a small boat and have two buckets. You use one as the "head" and one to supply water to the watermaker. You lose a bucket over the side. What do you do? Fortunately this is hypothetical for now but is the situation we are in and a scenario i do consider - i'm really not sure of a good solution. (note we don't have any bucket like containers)

Yesterday went smoothly which makes a welcome relief. We've got stacks of fresh water as the watermaker continues to behave and managed to charge all the gizmo's too. Only annoyance is the wind hasn't swung easterly yet and the ipod still won't play. Thanks for your suggestions on that, i've done the hard reboot many times but it's still narky. I suspect music is off the agenda now :-(

It's getting a little bit groundhog day here as yesterday's southerly, forecast to swing and become easterly, steadfastly remains a southerly. No obvious signs of change either.

After some cloudy days my tan is progressing again nicely now. should last a while even back in the UK I hope. Even Rich is getting some colour now too.

I'm also wondering if this will be the first night for about a week without lightning? We've been accompanied by storms now for a while and whilst of late they have thankfully stayed north of us we can see regular lightning flashes and sometimes hear great growling thunder.

As mentioned yesterday we kept a keen eye out for ships last night. At midnight we spotted what looked like lights on the horizon and after a little discussion decided to launch an illuminating rocket (white para flare) just in case. This was a tad disappointing as i was expecting a really bright white effect but it was more like a fairly bright orange lightbulb in the sky. We never did establish if the lights were from a ship or not but at least we rang in the new year with a bang.

Have just taken a break to scrape the barnacles off the hull and re-fit the watermaker - although i'm leaving it at an incline as that seems to help.

Good luck with those resolutions.

Dan

Day 31
New Year's Eve

Hmmm, in most people's eyes, 31 days constitutes a month. We've been out here a MONTH?!?! It really doesn't seem that long - although at the same time, the times when I got a full night's sleep are a dim and distant memory! Whatever - I guess it's one of the more memorable months I'll have in my life.

Many people say this race is all about finding yourself. I thought I'd found myself last night, but it turned out to be a discarded jelly baby. It was reassuring to know I wasn't a green sugary sweet. And once I knew it wasn't me, it didn't feel like cannibalism any more. Mmmm, discarded sweet...

More seriously, I'm learning about myself. I'm learning that however exhausted I feel, I can keep going if I can sort out my mental state. I'm learning that not everything has to be perfect all the time - a day when you aim to hit 50nm and only make 48 is still pretty reasonable.

Most of all, I'm learning that however much I dislike doing it, I can change my goals if I had to. Going into the race it was all about winning and looking for a record. Waiting out the storms meant I had to re-evaluate and forget about the record, but we could still win in under 50 days. Equipment failure gave some crews the chance to get away, and bad conditions since mean that we'll be doing well to break 60 days. So now we're looking at coming in the top 5, in a time we publicly stated before the race we'd be 'gutted' with.

All of which combines to mean that this doesn't feel like the most successful trip in the world. But all being well, we'll still get to Antigua and be able to say that we rowed across an ocean, entirely under our own steam, despite numerous setbacks. And when I think about it that way, it's hard not to think of it as a success. I guess this is what finding yourself is all about.

New Year tonight. We have a few party poppers (these ones survived), so we'll think of all of you as we set these off, and raise a bottle of lukewarm sports drink to your health. Hope you all have a great night.

Rich

PS The 'bound, bound, bound and rebound' slogan was mostly washed off by a rain shower. Doesn't matter, it's there in our hearts!

Dan's New Year's Eve Blog

Almost through another year, and we're just through a full month at sea. I can't quite believe how long we've been out here, it doesn't seem like a month - the days slip by pretty quickly.

It seems most odd when i think of everything that i would have done if i were back in the uk. It's a busy time of year and i've missed out all the usual stuff and instead just rowed, i can't imagine how i would normally fit it all in.

A quick update on our rowing - S to SE winds persist making rowing difficult and slow. Low mileage again today and possibly a while before that changes. Exceptionally frustrating but nothing at all we can do about it except keep rowing, every mile today is one less for tomorrow. Our finish eta keeps slipping...

We're writing these updates on an ipaq - it has a predictive feature where it offers four words based on the letters you type. the words it offers are based on how frequently they are used by us. it gives a funny insight into our world seeing the words it suggests.

An = Antigua
Fru = frustrating
D = distance or direction
Ro = rowing
Wa = watermaker
C = conditions
P = progress or problem
We = weather
Oc = ocean

We're hoping to see a ship tonight, preferably around midnight. Will let you know if we do tomorrow and good skills if you can think why!

Hope you all have somewhere fun to be tonight, enjoy.

Quick PS: just received daily weather report. A new TRS about 300miles away - fortunately moving away from us. So much for the hurricane season ending in October!

Dan

Day 30
30th December

Minutes of the Meeting of the Fates
29/12/05
Present: Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos
Apologies: None

It was noted that the deluge inflicted on the Atlantic Prince team had failed to stop them making progress, and indeed had not dampened their spirits on anything more than a temporary basis.

It was resolved that further action should be taken; the nature of such action was the subject of heated debate.

C advocated the sending of a plague of frogs, but with amphibians in short supply due to the recent frog wars in Ghana, this was ruled out.

L suggested collision with an oil tanker, but it was noted that the crew had defences against this happening. L's second idea, of turning the sea pink in order to convince the rowers they were part of a giant blancmange, was applauded for its originality but rejected on cost grounds.

A, always a good source of mayhem, was congratulated on his idea to put an adverse current in the rowers' path, and the motion to carry this out was duly passed. A to be in charge of the operation.

Date of next meeting: 30/12/05

And so it was that we found ourselves in the middle of the night, rowing west as hard as possible, but making virtually no ground, and instead being pushed north. Joy and rapture. We averaged about 0.5 knots overall - ridiculously small.

But we took heed of our new slogan: str has been replaced with 'bound, bound, bound and rebound'. This is from a Pixar short called Boundin' which Dan has on his iPod - it's all about picking yourself up when things don't go your way. Apparently you can download it from the Pixar site if you want understand where we're coming from!

So now we're battling away to make any progress at all, and it looks like we have tough times ahead. But we'll get there!

Rich

From Dan:
Weather: hit a northerly current last night which was desperately trying to take us N so we rowed deeply against that. In addition a SW wind sprung up the combination of which meant we struggled to go 1nm in a two hour shift. I.e. Exceptionally slowly! We finallly broke out of the current around 9am and afte a few more hours of rain we now have sun again. Yippee, we can dry everything and the watermaker is producing loads too.

Equipment: the footsteering has died so we're using back up. Fixing the primary will involve some very lateral thinking.

Q&A: i thought i'd answer some of the many questions we get asked.

Do we row naked? Often but more usually we have a top on, to protect against the sun in the day and the cold at night.

Why are we doing it? A tricky one this. I'm doing it because the event had immediate appeal as a challenge for both mind and body as well as being an unusual thing to do. I know i'll get a lot out of it both during, and after.

What do we eat? Freeze-dried meals and snacks, e.g. Choccie bars, biscuits, cereal bar type things.

How long will it take? Original target was 40-50 days but after the storms and nights like last night you realise it will take as long as it takes. Mentally it has been tough to adjust to this but there's no point beating oneselef about stuff you can't affect.

A plea for help. Our ipod (video type) has stopped working - it can access photos i.e. the harddrive still works but it won't play vid or music. It allows you to select tracks etc... But when you press play the play symbol appears but nothing actually plays. If someone can think of anything or check the FAQs on the apple site that would be most appreciated.

Cheers, Dan

Day 29
29th December

Evolution is an amazing thing. Little squidgy things became fish, fish grew legs and lungs and became mammals, mammals got big brains and became human. I've now taken this a step further, and evolved to become the bad guy from Inspector Gadget.

Where once I had hands, I now have claws. They might still look like hands, but they are set in a curled position, with just enough space inside to fit an oar handle. Opening or closing them further is becoming increasingly difficult - I guess I have a great future ahead of me as a novelty car drinks holder.

Water is becoming the centre of my life. It is all around me. Producing drinkable stuff is the first job of the day. Making sure I drink enough is the second. We regularly check hatches to see if they're dry. It's important stuff.

One way we haven't really had to deal with it much yet is in the form of rain. Well, clearly the fates got bored breaking our boat and decided to send us a deluge instead. It's now been raining pretty constantly for 2 days, with the result that everything is wet, or at least damp, and try as we may, we couldn't avoid this including the cabin. As Dan started his first 2-hour shift last night, I snuggled down into the damp sleeping bag on the damp cushions, with my head on the damp pillow. Niiiice.

We did have a thought about how the water could help us though. We've been struggling a bit to find the fast conditions - something edf seem to have become masters at. So we thought if we could scoop up a bucket of water, we could then interview it: 'So, Mr Droplet, where are you off to then?' 'I'm heading to Brazil, for the carnival'. Oops, better head a bit north. Try again: 'Where are you going, Mr Splash?' 'Going to Antigua, my good man' 'Excellent, we'll stick with you then. Any chance of a tow?' I guess if he refused we could threaten to feed him to the watermaker...

Off to do some rowing in the rain now,

Rich

From Dan:
writing these daily updates is becoming something like therapy for me. Apologies for that, it feels like i'm on the couch and you're all patiently listening to my complaints and issues. I'd consider myself to usually have quite a sunny disposition but suspect that of late i come across as a bit of a whinger - not a label i aspire to. I shall endeavour to be more circumspect and present a cheerier picture to you all although i do intend that this still represents my thoughts fairly accurately - and this hasn't been the most fun at times!

I find that i'm feeling low because our eta is dragging out - i don't mind being here, it's tough but manageable - but i do mind losing spare time after the race and the slower crossing has really messed up the bookings of friends and family for the finish. It's weird how one's priorities / goals shift.

We made a big error recently, we deliberately didn't rush south with a following wind but cut across WSW - this has backfired as conditions south of us remained good whilst we've now had nearly 2 days of southerly-ish winds which we're really having to battle against.

Last night was in particular difficult. Totally overcast it was pitch black and with some bouncy seas each 2hr shift was a slow torturous affair. I did see a great thunderbolt drive down (up from?) the sea - most here arc across the sky.

I did manage to cheer myself up with a bit of schadenfreude last night thinking about the unlucky flying squid. I mean, it had just mastered flying - quite an acheivement - and then in a place where there is water for 1,000miles in any direction it somehow contrived to land on the deck of our little boat. What are the odds of that? It must have been gutted.

Some good news this morning was that we did briefly spot the sun and the temperamental watermaker worked first time. Hooray, a small win.

It's been drizzng all day with no sign of letting up - slowly all our stuff is becoming damp. Annoyingly the ipod has stopped working and the rain just makes me think of the lemon drizzle cake from my local Tescos.

Well, re-reading the above it's a tad too introspective but i don't see that changing, there's not so much to distract one from one's thoughts out here.

Cheers

Dan

Day 28
28th December

Yee-ha blobbers!

It's me, the rootin' tootin' Wild Rich Hickok, the baddest rodeo rider in town! It's become clear that somewhere along the way, I stood in the wrong queue, and instead of entering the Atlantic Rowing Race, I've ended up in the Atlantic Rodeo Race.

Sitting on the seat on our bucking bronco bears no resemblance whatsoever to being in a rowing boat. The waves come this way, you roll with them, then they come that way and so over you go. Frequently I've found myself leaning back so much I'm pretty much horizontal in an effort to keep my balance (LMBC would fit right in). Between this and all the fat burning I should get a cracking six-pack!

Every so often the mule gets upset and throws a huge wobbly (wonder if this is the derivation of that expression?!), and you get dislodged from your seat. If you're lucky you land back on your seat, albeit in a position that does nothing at all for the sores on your derriere. If you're unlucky - well, all steers have to have their rumps branded, right? Would sir prefer a seat rail or a footplate motif?

If you're feeling confident (well, actually whether you're feeling confident or not, you don't get a choice), you can try rodeo extreme. How about in a hailstorm? Or maybe in the dark? Heck, why not both - whilst also holding a chicken and reciting psalm 14 in sanskrit? Remember, you're an ocean rower, you can do ANYTHING!

On the subject of bad weather, I've seen some pretty bleak vistas in my time. On the river in Cambridge, for an early morning outing in the freezing fog springs to mind. As does outside the Leadmill nightclub in Sheffield at 2am on a Thursday morning with no cash to get you a cab home. But for a couple of hours today, these were easily surpassed. A grey, sullen sea, perfectly matched by a grey, sullen sky; virtually no horizon to see; howling wind; sleeting rain at 10 degrees off horizontal; a steely looking swell, and no prospect of escape for another hour. Bizarrely, really satisfying to row in.

Rich

From Dan:
The sea is broken. Spent last night rowing through some awesome storms, loads of lightning and driving rain. The storms tend to create their own little micro-climate with vicious winds swirling around, hence had a spell with a southerly last night which was unexpected. The sea also had two distinct wave patterns with a big swell from the east and a smaller swell from the south. This means no matter which way you point there are always waves hammering into the side and sending the boat lurching over. This can't be right and needs to be fixed.

This morning the wind has really picked up, coming from ESE, v strong gusts with huge waves. We can each only just turn the boat to face away from th swell and if it gets shifted you're immediately beam on again. I got lucky and picked up a big 'un that gave me a new pb, 7.3kts! Well chuffed but Rich then lucked out and hit some big waves peaking at 10.3kts which is awesome!

Totally grey and overcast today, reminds me of England without the green pastures.

For avid blob watchers you may notice that we head a tad north today as we really can't fight this wind and make any meaningful progress in a SW direction.

Quick update, the wind continues to strengthen and the waves are fierce. V difficult conditions but worth persevering as we are making good westerly ground. Will have to think about what to do tonight, will be tricky when you can't see the waves coming.

Cheers

Dan

Day 27
27th December

Wotcha, oh blobtastic ones,

Been a weird, weird day today - difficult to know where to start. A strong north wind sprang up on Boxing Day afternoon, and slowed us right down until we worked out how to deal with it. But once we had, the speed was good and coming easily.

It then came around to a north-easterly, and we thought all our Christmasses had come at once (although now I come to think about it, I'd rather not have a force 4 north-easterleee as my Christmas present for evermore). Great fun on the waves, and not even so bad in the dark now I'm used to it.

But morning came around and the situation deteriorated. The sea became uneven, with random swell everywhere, the sun was hidden behind clouds, hence not much solar power, but that didn't matter as the watermaker had decided to stop working again anyway ('And what did you do on the 27th, little Freddie?')

I have to admit, for the first real time this trip, it all got too much and I felt seriously depressed. I never actually thought of giving up, but if I could have taken a day off I might have been tempted. My poor girlfriend took the brunt, with a somewhat emotional phone call.

Happily conditions picked up, the watermaker is now working once more (it would seem we're winning the battle against the fates - they're running out of new things to go wrong, and we're getting good at sorting this one out!) and life feels better.

The only recent wildlife has been birds. All the way through the trip, there's been a type of small bird come visit fairly frequently. It's brown, looks a bit like a miniature hawk in its wing and beak shape, has a wedge tail (I think) and has a white chevron on it back, going from the middle of the front of one wing to the tail, to the middle of the front of the other wing. And it answers to Zebedee. If anybody can identify it, do let us know.

Anyway, this bird always makes us giggle (in a very manly way), as we assume it's the bird that Ben Fogle referred to in a Telegraph article, saying he hated seeing as it meant they we close to Africa. Given that we're now about 1500 miles from Africa, we can't help picturing the bird waking up in Cote d'Ivoire and thinking 'I know where there'll be good food today - 1500 miles west. Ah well, better get going!' His missus must have a fit.

Rich

From Dan:
So there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the watermaker is working again, the bad news is that it took another few hours of persuasion this morning. Eventually got it to go by operating it in an inclined position. It's also totally overcast with lots of storms which isn't great for solar power (but we need to drink less).

still v windy with big seas, wind more or less from NNE to N which isn't perfect but allows us to make progress. Some really big waves occassionally - i hit a pb speed today of 5.8kt, our 2-up pb is 9kt set a few weeks back - you get the high speeds momentarily when surfing at the top of a wave.

The big waves also really throw the boat around if you don't catch them end on - in the cabin as you can't see what is about to happen you suddenly find yourself hurled across into the side with no warning.

The sea ia also being v inconsistent - most waves rolling in parallel but every now and then a few at totally arbitrary angles. These tend to leave you soaking as they slam into the side and send spray liberally about the place.

Had a good night's rowing but feeling tired and hungry now. It's demanding stuff atm, looking forward to some easier seas.

A quick q - we see quite a few (one a day) of these small birds, look more like a regular bird than a seagull. Any idea what they are and where they would go to nest? Seems a lonely life for them out here.

Dan

Day 26
Boxing Day

It's just not funny any more (and I'm not just referring to my blog!)

If somebody had said that on the Atlantic, it never rains, I would have assumed they were referring to the lack of precipitation. In fact they would more likely be quoting the proverb 'it never rains...'

We got the rudder working. Woo-hoo! Almost as if on cue, the watermaker abruptly stopped producing water. Picture the scene in return to school in January: 'What did you do on Christmas afternoon, little Freddie?' 'I played my new games with my family, miss'. 'And how about you, Rich and Dan?' 'Oh, we sat in the middle of the Atlantic ocean in a 24ft boat, trying to determine why a watermaker that was bought brand new 5 weeks ago was not doing the only job it was required to do. It was great fun'

Probably the worst thing about this (other than the fact that we'd have to drop out of the race if we couldn't get it working, obviously) was that while Dan tinkered with it, I could only row in the bow seat. Which doesn't have steering attached. So I couldn't even use the beautiful new rudder! Frustrating doesn't even come close.

He did finally get it working briefly, having used the tried and tested 'take it apart, change nothing, and put it back together again' method - but not until about 6pm. By which time the sun wasn't strong enough to run it (because of our kaput battery), so we left it for the morning, happy that it was working again.

Morning came and it didn't work, so we've spent another frustrating few hours doing the same thing. 'And what did you do on Boxing Day, little Freddie?' etc... I'm happy to report that it's currently working, at least for the time being. Fingers crossed!

It's worth noting (mostly because it gave us a huge boost on an otherwise deeply depressing day), that despite the fact that we spent so long faffing with the watermaker during Day 26 (midday to midday), and that we didn't have a GPS for much of the night (as we killed our kaput battery trying to run the watermaker), we made up ground on everybody ahead of us. Now if we can just stop breaking things...!

A bit of amusement to finish. We have a bit of whiteboard above the cabin door, right in front of us as we row. The idea was that we could write encouraging slogans on it to keep us going - as it happeens we haven't done this a great deal. Anyway, for some time now, it has said 'STR'. I eventually got around to asking Dan what this was going to be, to be told 'I was going to write "Strength in Adversity", but the whiteboard was a bit damp, so after 3 letters I gave up'!!! I nearly wet myself. Good job we've greeted the last few days with a little more stoicism!

All for now. Hope you're enjoying eating your Christmas choccies and watching bad films.

Rich

PS On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, two days of tension, and a force 4 north-easterleee

Dan's Boxing Day blog

So the hectic run up to xmas is over and another busy xmas day is behind us. thankfully it'll be another 12 months before we have to go through all that again ;-) maybe next year the grief of xmas shopping etc... won't seem so bad compared with our effort this year!

The weather has generally cooperated for the last two days so we've made up some distance towards the finish. Hopefully this will continue but there is potentially a new low coming in from the south soon which could change things, hard to be sure at this stage.

Mainly i'm looking forward to a normal day where we can just stick to the routine, no rudder traumas or watermaker problems, it would be great to just be able too row. On one level part of the race is all about overcoming these trials but every now and then we'd be happy to just do 12 hrs rowing in a day without distraction.

Our hands are really starting to seize up now, in the rest periods i spend a while massaging them until i can clench my fists again - it's not so much painful as annoying atm but don't want it to get worse.

Sorry for the random order of topics in my notes but i tend to write stuff as it occurs to me or happens here...

Have had a frustrating day so far, turned the watermaker on this morning and it managed to utterly fail to work. given that we have less than 10 litres left and it is roasting this is becoming a real issue. Tried all sorts with it to no avail but progressive tests pointed to air getting in so i rechecked all the candidate areas and now, finally, it seems to be working again after a few false starts. Amusingly i called the woodvale yacht to report the problem and literally as they answered it started working - and then stopped 5 min after we hung up. D'oh! The net result of all the work on it means that i've only just had a chance to get into the cabin and out of the sun, feelung a little worse for it.

But to be clear, it has now run smoothly for about an hour so the immediate crisis is over.

Have strong Nly winds/waves - not that ideal as we're heading west and this makes the rowing a pain. At least we have a rudder as without it these conditions would be awful - and if the rudder survives this it should cope well enough with the crossing.

Have rambled on too long...

Dan

Day 25
Christmas Day

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, a force 4 north-easterleeeee.

Yep, the winds are good, and we're finally in a position to be able to use them! The rudder was sealed with epoxy, sikaflex and a whole heap of vaseline (we decided that the calorie value of vaseline didn't warrant saving it as food), and remounted, and the foot-steering system (the original one, not the back-up) reinstalled. And hey presto - it worked! You moved your foot leftand the boat turned left, and EVERYTHING! We have allowed ourselves some self-congratulation over this - we suspect that it's one of the more extreme fixes that's been done in the race - unless somebody's managed to construct a new watermaker from a bucket, a hand pump and some duct tape. I wonder if there's a subsidiary prize...?

Christmas morning (the VERY start) was marked by the immediate playing of cheesy Christmas tunes. Cue me singing along to Slade in the darkness as I whizzed along. We found a flying fish in the boat in the morning - it worries me to think that hearing my less than dulcet tones were its last life experience. Maybe I'm lucky and they have no ears - that'll ease my conscience.

We'd not brought a whole heap of Christmassy stuff with us, but had a special meal. The only freeze dried turkey meal we could find was 'Turkey Tettrazini' - a kind of turkey, asparagus and pasta thing. Mmmmm. I guess pasta took the place of roast potatoes and and asparagus the place of sprouts! It actually was okay, and I didn't miss the Christmas lunch toooo much - although I instantly regretted calling my folks this morning when they informed me they were having bacon sarnies. Now there's a foodstuff I could develop a yearning for!

We also brought crackers and party poppers, but on inspecting the hatch they were in, found it to be under 5 inches of water. Oops. The crackers were promptly renamed squelchers - although we salvaged the hats! One of the crackers also contained a snowman sticker, which now adorns our cabin. I think Cedric could become a good companion during the long night shifts - wonder how long before I start talking to him (and worse, how long before he starts replying!)

Anyway, gotta get back to the oars and make the most of this wind. Hope you're reading this feeling pleasantly stuffed, and not a little tipsy

Merry Christmas

Rich

Dan's Christmas Day blog

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Xmas

Not sure when this will posted on the website as Martin, our web guru, will no doubt be enjoying some well earned time out. I'm sure you'll all be feeling the side effects of gorging on mince pies, turkey and all the other 'traditional' Xmas stuff.

We had some success yesterday and now the rudder and foot steering are working ok. Another problem and we'll be stymied as we only have so many repair materials etc... But for now we are enjoying some fairly quick rowing in good conditions with the luxury of not steering by heaving with one arm or the other - my left arm is knackared from that now.

Whilst sorting out the rudder we had a look through one of the cabin floor hatches and discovered that it was full of water! Not really sure where from. This has killed some toilet paper and a few bits will need drying out. In emptying it i managed to ditch Rich's all-in-one over the side - i'm sure he'll tell you about that in more detail.

Annoyingly the water also ruined most of our v minimal festive stuff - ie a few crackers brought mainly for the naff jokes. Not a big deal but something we could have done without. Water really does get everywhere...

After a good start on Xmas day our water maker has decided to play up. A bit rubbish really as it's brand new so should do more than 4 weeks without maintenance. It's scorching hot today so touch wood we get that working soon or we'll have trouble.

So far Santa hasn't delivered any presents, i can only assume he's still searching for us. Here's hoping!

Quick update - took the watermaker apart and lubricated a few seals, not sure if that helped but it seems to work now - we'll find out for sure on Boxing day.

cheers

Dan

Day 24
Christmas Eve

We've spent all our time today (when not being the person rowing) fixing up the rudder. It works! Excellent early Christmas present. We're currently tonking along very happily at the best speed we've done in weeks.

I'll write a proper blog tomorrow, but for now I wish you all a truly tremendous Christmas. We'll be keeping a lookout in the night sky tonight for a bloke on a sled!

Rich

Dan's Christmas Eve blog
Well, fingers crossed Santa got my letter yesterday.

As i'm sure Rich wrote we had some real grief with the rudder yesterday night. Essentially some dodgy welds had cracked on it leaving the rudder useless. As this happened at night in quite strong seas we decided to wait till daylight to fix it and so lost about ten hours that night and another six or seven repairing it. Given the relative paucity of tools and materials on board we had to think pretty hard to find a solution. Eventually we've come up with a fix that any DIY bodger would be proud of. Whilst not as strong as the original we have taken a foot off the bottom of the rudder to reduce the stresses on it. With luck this will get us through a few more weeks and if need be we row the last week or so without a rudder. Very frustrating that something we didn't do (we paid to have the rudder made for us) has messed us about so much.

Xmas hasn't featured on board, we decided it may make things tougher if we got focused on the niceties back home so will keep it simple tomorrow.

Advantages of being here are that we've not had to endure xmas shopping, incessant xmas songs or a TV schedule jammed with familiar repeats. Disadvantages are that i won't get to eat myself stupid and relaxing isn't really on the cards - we'll be rowing tomorrow too.

Woke up yesterday to find a squid on deck, about 6 inches long or so. No idea how it got there. Then last night whilst rowing a flying fish landed on deck, i tried to rescue it but it went mad flapping around and eventually jammed itself in a little niche so i waited till morning to ditch it. From this i have surmised that the squid was in fact a flying squid. I believe these may be quite rare, being very secretive about their flying powers, so i shall endeavour to capture this elusive creature on film for you all next time.

I doubt you'll have time to check my xmas day blog, and probably not this one either, but either way i'd like to thank everyone who is following our progress and supporting us. All your messages are really great and keep us motivated to row as hard as possible. I wish you all a very Merry Xmas and hope Santa brings exactly what you're wishing for!

From a festive purple blob

Ps first testing indicates that the repaired rudder works ok but more sea trials needed...

Day 23
Friday 23rd December

More than one person, upon being told I was going to row the Atlantic, said 'won't that be dreadfully dull?' Ahem.

The eagle-eyed amongst you blobbers (especially those still stuck in the office, trying desperately not to do any work, cos hey - it's Christmas, right?) will have noticed we lost ground on the fleet in the last day. Happily we haven't just become soft - there is a tale to tell...

So I'm rowing along in the evening, and the rudder strings go tight, and I find I can't move the rudder. Odd, thinks I. Looking down the stern the strings don't look caught in anything, and then I spot the white thing sticking out of the side of the boat. Looks suspiciously like a rudder.

Apparently the same problem we'd had with the top pin had also happened to the other two - both welds on both these pins had broken, and the rudder was now held on only by one dodgy pin, which was itself held on by a hosepipe crimp. This was a very bad thing. In fact, we were pretty stuffed.

There was a lot of cursing - of the sea, of the rudder, of the people who did the welds (boy, are they going to receive a strongly worded letter!) and some more just to make us feel better. Didn't work though - we decided that rowing without a rudder in the largish seas, and both went to bed feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. I had a myriad of thoughts racing through my head - chiefly 'Is that it? Are we going to have to pull out? Do we simply become another statistic on the 'not good enough' list?'

Morning came and sadly it hadn't been a bad dream. We still had a deeply stuffed rudder. Our only idea was to repeat what we'd done on the top pin - except as the welds were broken on both sides, we'd need two crimps on each pin, one for vertical stability and one for lateral stability. So we set about doing that.

Numerous smaller problems abounded - the crimps we had didn't fit through the holes in the metal bands, so we had to saw the holes bigger (ever tried sawing hardened stainless steel with a junior hacksaw?) - the wood of the rudder got in the way of the crimps, so we had to chisel sone of that away (with a blunt screwdriver) - the one surviving pin was bent, so we had to remove it and use just two pins, but the one surviving weld appeared to be the only thing that was indestructible - but finally (despite the constant rocking) we had the top and bottom pins on, at least in a fashion.

So now we had to find out if the rudder would fit back on the boat. Doing it with one person hanging out of the back window proved impossible, so in the water went Dan. But still the waves were making it impossible to line up the pins - and anyway, we were unsure that the pins would be strong enough to hold the rudder against these waves. Solution - saw about 18 inches off the bottom of the rudder!

Having done this, we tried the fitting again, and unbelievably it worked! We've now removed it again to dry properly before whacking a load of epoxy around the fittings, which we'll do tomorrow, and then hopefully we'll be back in business! In the meantime we're rowing rudderless, which is okay as the weather is fairly calm, but it's tiring in the arms to keep yourself straight. Hey-ho, such is life.

We've lost 30 or 40 miles on the fleet, but given that I'd been thinking we might be stopping entirely, this is a small price to pay. It will be tough to make up, but there's a long way to go yet. Fingers crossed for tomorrow's refitting.

Rich

PS More wildlife! We awoke in a bad mood, to find a squid on deck! It was slimy and dead, but it still counts! Plus, while I was trying to to refit the rudder, I saw a flying fish glide effortlessly over the waves for a good 10 seconds. Incredible!

From Dan:
Dear Santa,

It's been a while since i've written to you - i think i asked for a bike last time. at the moment a bike isn't exactly what i need, but some other stuff would come in very handy.

First off, a new rudder. After giving us a bit of grief a few days ago it completely failed last night when all the welds broke. We've spent most of the day repairing it but if you could grab our old one - it's by my chimney in London that would be perfect, and see, i'm even providing my own present, you just need to bring it here!

Second, some food would be handy. With all the delays were going to be cutting it fine and quite probably rationing in a few weeks time. A bit of chocolate and the like would be great.

Third up, a strong easterly wind and current would help us out too. Say for, erm, 4-5 weeks should do it. You know, i've got plans once ilm back so need to finish at some point!

fourth on the list, i hope i'm not being greedy here, but a new marine battery would be fantastic. Ours is kaput. I should warn you that they are quite heavy so you may need some of your little elves to lend a hand with this one.

And finally, a bit more personal this, but some relief for my posterior please. it would be lovely to sit down without wincing, not sure what magic you can work to do that but anything would be appreciated.

to find us just fly across the atlantic and look for the little rowing boat wandering aimlessly like a, er, row boat without a rudder! We'll hopefully be pointing at Antigua but don't count on it.

Thanks!

Dan

Day 22
Thursday 22nd December

Howdy blob-fans,

I know that for most of you, the tale of simulating being smacked in the shins by an oar handle was simply an amusing anecdote, quickly forgotten. However, yours truly has been coping with the increasingly painful effects for a few weeks now, and I have two neatly matching wounds which get opened up again on a regular basis!

Well, today I got creative on it. Sam splints are foam with a layer of aluminium inside, and should be used for immobilising broken bones. Tubigrips are stretchy dressings that should be used to hold bandages in place. However, put the two together and you have instant shinpads! In tests, 1 out of 1 owners said their shins preferred not being grievously wounded every few minutes.

It makes me think of my schooldays actually, and my classical civilisation lessons. Greek heroes used to wear such shinpads, called greaves, to stop the oppo lopping their legs off. I quite fancy myself as a Greek hero actually - I have the greaves, the breastplate (well, a t-shirt), the helmet (a hat) and carry two long spear-type things. Plus there's my olive complexion of course :) I'm a veritable Achilles of the ocean. Which makes sense, cos the footplates aren't half making my heels sore.

No exciting wildlife to report today. Deeply jealous of team Sun Latte and their shark though. Yes, I'd have been terrified at the time, but what a cool story for the pub!

Rich

From Dan:
Progress is still being made. Yey! The wind got pretty strong last night, staying Nly, with some good swell. for the first night shift i used the ipod (not using the speakers due to dodgy battery) and had some great clubby dance music whilst getting thrown around by the sea. A quality experience rounded off by a brief encounter with the second support yacht, Sula.

Otherwise not the most eventful day, pretty hot so we took things carefully - it's easy to try and row 2-up through the heat of the day but that inevitably backfires as you get totally drained.

The main thing in my life right now is my bottom :-) which hurts a lot from sitting down so much. We're trying ever more intricate combinations of cushioning to solve this but i expect we'll both be in some discomfort for the rest of the trip now! Still, most of the otheer aches and pains seem to have sorted themselves out now.

After a hot start to the day we're now under grey skies and surrounded by lots of small storms, these lash down with wind and rain so hopefully we won't get hit by too many of them. This makes for slow progress...

Cheers

Dan

Day 21
Wednesday 21st December

A day of high excitement! Yes, yes, we saw a whale (it was big, black, had a fin like a dolphin, and was irritatingly inconsistent about where it came up - impossible to get a photo) - but I'm sure Dan's talked all about that.

No - I'm talking true, edge of the seat, jaw-dropping excitement. I got rid of my old seat sheepskin and broke open a new one! They're so soft! I had totally forgotten what it had felt like when we started. My bottom said thankyou, although if I'm honest it wasn't long before it started complaining again. I wonder if this one is an adept of sa-ka-wel-chi?

Had a pretty cool sunset last night, very pleasant to watch. Shame that the person rowing can't easily see them - maybe we should be rowing west-east? I guess we get the sunrises instead, although these don't generally seem as impressive.

Had a surreal moment on the boat last night - these seem to happen every now and then. Was looking around and musing on quite how desolate it all was, and was struck by the fact