Firstly and most importantly, HAPPY 30^th LIVVY. Yet another good friend has their birthday whilst I’m away. On the up side, it has saved me a few quid on presents! I hope you had a good time up in Bristol and that you enjoy the rest of the celebrations – whatever they maybe!!!! Livvy is one of our most loyal supporters and the boat receives a daily text or email from her – all of which start with “Snout” – which is a nickname Livvy coined for me! If you want to buy some amazing handmade jewellery have a look at www.OliviaWotton.com (could be co.uk).

Secondly, we saw another boat. After a few weeks of seeing nothing but sky and ocean we’ve finally seen other life. I’d just collapsed into the cabin after my 22:00 shift last night and Rich took to the oars. 5 minutes later the cabin door sprung open – “Barnesy – there’s a ship in the distance, whack the nav light on”. I slowly stirred and put the light on and then poked my head out to see for my own eyes. On the horizon, some way away was boat navigation light and we couldn’t tell anything else. Not knowing whether they were friend or a lost Somalian Pirate ship  I quickly reached for my “How to speak Somalian” book and memorised in my best African dialect – “I’m prepared to swap the Ginger one for fresh food. He is Royalty and you will get good ransom”. However, this wasn’t needed as the boat moved off into the distance and we didn’t even get to speak to them on the radio. It was good to know that we are not alone out here!

Thirdly, some stats…………..You’re all probably watching the dots and are aware of the large vast blue ocean still in front of us to reach Antigua. We are currently on day 32 at sea and have approximately 1600 miles to run and we’ve been putting everything into this. The current world record for rowing the Atlantic is 33 days (not sure on the hours and minutes) which is held by a 12 man boat, “La Mondiale” from 2008. A friend, Oli Dudley, was part of this crew and has been a real help to us over the last 6 months. Even more amazing is that Red Arrow (formerly Queensgate in 2003) still holds the current World Record of 36 days for a 4 man crossing. As I’ve told Oli before, they should have been much quicker if 8 extra men only makes you quicker by 3 days!  Both these records are incredible and what Rich and I would do to be finishing in the next few days!

Joke of the day (which I’ve slightly amended) is from is from Andy Downie…….  

TEACHER:            Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"
RICH:                     K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L"
TEACHER:            No, that's wrong
RICH:                     Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

Sorry Rich, I know you’ll get me back!

Some personal messages from me………….

Iestyn -                         Good to hear from you pal. I thought you smelt when we shared a tent for 3 weeks in the Himalayas!

Gunny -                        Cheers for the email – very amusing. I hope that 2010 is going to be the year that you find love………..I’m sure we’ve been saying that every year since the Millennium!

Reynolds -                    Please note that the email from Marcus was sent during work time!

Come on England.............rest assured at 16:55 I'll be upstanding and singing the national very loudly and very proudly!

The row must go on – Antigua here we come.

Barnesy