Not a huge amount to report today, generally we are finding the 1.5 hour row 1.5 hour off working out better. Favorable winds again and making steady headway.Heard from another team today that they had also seen some whales but amazingly also a swordfish! Not sure if it was leaping out the water or just cruising by.

Thought that i’s take this blog to tell everyone a little about our boat ‘The Reason Why’ she is a wooden rowing boat made of marine plywood and as bilt from a kit by Paul Harris and Steve Gardener who were the two who rowed her across the atlantic in 2007.

It is a design of boat tha is very stable and also has self righting cababilities for safty. There are two rowing positions on the deck and a cabin at each end- the front one for storage and the stern one for sleeping. We have to carry our own food with us and be completely self sufficent-any thing that can break we must be able to fix or do with out.

We have 150liters of fresh water in the bottom of the boat to help stability and also to act a an emergancy reserve if our ‘watermaker’ brakes. The water make is a very clever machine which takes the salt out of the sea water so that we can drink it.

All the electrics are powered by two batteries which are charged during the day via solar panels on the cabin roof. As well as the water maker, this laptop and satalite phone we also have a GPS so we know where we are going, a VHF radio to talk to other boats that are close by, a AIS radar device so that we know where other boat are and they can see us (we are much smaller than the boats they normally look out for!) and the GPS beacon so you can see where we are on the race website:

www.atlanticrowingrace09.co.uk

We have a small gas stove for heating water for food, and three buckets, one for washing and the other to use as the toilet (not figured out what the third one is for yet...!)

We also have two emergency ‘EPIRB’ beacons, a liferaft, life jackets, safety harnesses, and survival siuits; all of which we hope not ever to need to use!

We are clipped on to the boat when we are on deck via a surfers ankle strap so if we were to fall in we would not be swept away from the boat

That is basically about it for our home and vessel for the crossing, hope you can imagine it better now. I certanly feel very safe and confidentt in her ( though the cabin is starting to smell a bit lived in!)

Jim and Paul

PS if any one has any mental riddles or puzzles they can emiail us please to as they will keep our prodigious minds alive and we impress you with the speed of the reply! thanks