Still not moving!
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I
know I said I was getting tired and could do with a nights sleep to recharge but
4 days of doing nothing is too much! Rich and I are still stuck on our para
anchor as the wind and wave direction are both coming from the West (the
direction we want to travel) but we aren’t able to row against >25kt winds
and 30ft waves. Instead for the last 4 days solid we have been tossed around
like clothes in a washing machine!
The
most bizarre thing is that since we haven’t been rowing we’ve actually overtaken
some of the other boats in the fleet. We had considered adopting this tactic all
the way across to Antigua until my mathematician Dad said it would take us an
additional 941 days (just over
two and a half years)! We’ve decided that once the weather turns, which the
forecasts show as being Tuesday at the earliest, we’ll get back on the oars.
Days
at Sea:
26 (tomorrow will be our 4th week at
sea) Last
24 Hours:
We’ve done very little over the last 24 hours apart from ate, slept,
talked and played games. We haven’t rowed since 11:30 on Wednesday
27th. Other
Boats:
Nope, still not heard or seen any. What’s
been happening? An
update from the last couple of days………………… 1.
Cabin
Fever I
cannot begin to describe how unbearable it is for 2 six foot men to be confined
to this cabin for the majority of each day. The limited amount of space, the
dampness, the rising temperature throughout the day and the close proximity of
each other is very testing. We haven’t argued but we wouldn’t want many more
days of this. Rich is currently glued to my right shoulder and it is very
uncomfortable to type this blog on my lap. Red Arrow actually has a bigger cabin
than most of the fleet (one of the reasons we bought her) so I’d dread to think
how some of the other teams are fairing. 2.
20:00
Movie
This
has been the highlight of each day for me as it seems so surreal to be watching
decent films in a cabin, somewhere in the Atlantic. We strap an iTouch to the
internal cabin roll bar frame with duct tape and connect an adaptor (thanks
Laura) so that both our headphones can play sound. Rich and I lie back and watch
a film each night. No popcorn or kissing but I think it’s pretty cool. So far
we’ve watched all of the 3 Bourne films and I’m not so keen to watch the Perfect
Storm or Titanic though! 3.
Foot
well full Most
mornings we wake up and look out the cabin window to see a foot well full of
water. The waves break over the sides of the gunnels and the water that doesn’t
filter back into the ocean through the scupper gates on deck flows into the foot
well - which is a design feature of the boat. One morning I scooped 20 buckets
of water out before finishing the job with the bilge pump. Water fills the foot
well during the days as well and every time we venture out of the cabin one of
us will empty the water. 4.
Toilet
Lost Ellie
– I’m sorry, the toilet you bought us was ripped off the side of the boat the
other night and we were just left with the lanyard. In case you were wondering
we’re now using on of our spare buckets. 5.
Quiz
Update We’re
still playing and it is getting very competitive. Rich has clawed back some
ground and we’re now drawing on the number of actual quizzes won but I have a
few more individual points! Looking
forward to:
Email
of the day goes to Aunty Jean (AJ). One of my ambitions whilst rowing was to try
and learn a language however I didn’t bring any material with me to do that.
Thankfully, AJ sent me some Chinese to learn – you must read them out loud.
Some
personal messages from me…………. Mitas
-
Hello
in NY. Thanks for all the texts and I can see you’re struggling with 160
characters??? Tip for you – you can send more than one text just say at the top
of the text – “text 1” or send us over an email. Steve
Voice -
Thanks
for a quality letter and I’m so pleased Laura had arranged this as it is such a
nice surprise. I love your suggestion about what Reynolds and I should do at
your wedding – consider it done. I’m really looking forward (invited or not) to
the wedding later this year. Hope everything is going well in NY. I hope Mitas
hasn’t ruined your apartment’s en-suite like she did at the
Rammo’s! Lucy
Pittey
-
Hello
– what a nice surprise. Good to hear from you and I hope married life is
treating you and Jon well. Long overdue a catch up when I get
back. Livvy
-
Next
weekend you’ll be a 30 year old carnivore. How hard is it to send me an
email???? Send it to Laura and she’ll forward on. The
row must go on – Antigua here we come. Barnesy |