1/2 April 2006

Frasersboat
Sun 2 Apr 2006 21:47
Hi,
A few good days when we have made some reasonaable milage.We have really
enjoyed making good progress. The sea and wind were with us but still no
rollers. Things are very different today with the wave pattern evrywhere
making progress extremely slow. If we do 20 miles it will be lucky..
These changes and differences have got me thinking . (mulling) Today we have
pushed harder and harder and got slower and slower. I have thought about
wind direction, wave patterns, storm effects fron the north, ocean currents,
rowing angles, compass directions and so on. I ahve also thought about how
all these affect mood, efficiency, and morale.I'm not down in the dumps
about today but thinking about how difficult it is to remain on a high whn
conditions change so rapidly.
Morale is a difficult thing to pinpoint and say exactly what it is It would
be imposible I suggest to feel the same doing 55 miles in a day as doing
20.. Its about how we
feel compared to the task being completed. Its also about an acceptance of
whats
real in a positive frame of mind. I think that this is the important point.
Its not the thoughts that effect morale but how we deal with them once those
thoughts emerge.
When things go well I let (Or rather my mind does) my thoughts stretch out
away infront and i look forward to meeting targets, completeing stages or
even the finish in a number of days. This affects my mood, energy and my
outlook. During last night the seas flattend, the wind dropped and we were
left with a wallowing sea, which slowed progress to less than a knot. All my
mind driven targets of the best day, the quickest 100 and a sooner finish
slowly evaporated as dawn arrived with a pudding sea. It would be impossible
to have the same thoughts about progress, targets and so on but its
important to deal with it and avoid becoming too down in the dumps. It would
seem
so shallow to have a confidence so easily dashed.by something that could
have been expected.
Mike has discussed this with me and does not feel particularly cheesed off
thinking
it as just a "dot day" which will be part of the whole thing. This led to an
interesting discusssion about highs and lows.- if the highs are less, does
that
make the lows easier. Does a low have to follow a high ?
This is part of the process as we work around the
issues remembering that it is just one day and important to keep the eye on
the basics, rowing, sleeping, eating, etc. We are also in beautiful weather,
in an incredible ocean, making a passage which few have even attempted. A
wonderful event, with highs and lows.

Talking of eating ........

Food is completely sorted with a menu lasting 34 days Today menu.
Breakfast
!/2 bowl of porridge with essence of bilge water
I glass of fresh orange ( orange energy drink)
21 (according to Mick) currents and honey in porridge
1 cold coffee

Mid morning
single twix and energy drink

Lunch
1/2 expedition meal (stew)
! bag of nearly acceptable crisps

Main Meal
1/2 an expedition meal (beef in spuds)
a portion of 4 crumbled digestives with custard mix (our favorite)
Tea (cold)

Evening snacks for night time rowing
!/2 bowl raisins
I piece of fruit cake

We have sorted everything now so the above type of catering wil go on until
we finish. We will review it every 10 days and adapt it as necessary. At the
end nothing will be left. We are also using powdered milk to drink milk -
yums and putting sugar in everything. We have a lot of high energy drinks.

If we see a passing boat worthy of a call we will chatto them over the vhf
and see if we can cadge something. Only problem is that is lttle left if our
plans go adrift but we'll deal with that if and/or when.
Take care t x

Hi this is mick. - . Tomorrow could be good could be bad , we are going to
get dot days and that
is a given. We have to take it and try not to get down. Today will be low
mileage and hard graft as a result. Lucky we have the new regime menu to
soften the blow!