Pinch, punch, 1st of the month!

Red Arrow
Rich Hume & Tom Barnes
Mon 1 Mar 2010 15:07
1st of March………………well I can honestly say that I never thought we’d still be rowing come March!

If the race had started on the 6th December then our worse case scenario would have been that we would have been pulling into Antigua for mid to late February but never still going in March! Anyhow there is nothing we can do about that now and we’ve safely passed through another month. Unless something goes seriously wrong we will finish the race this month! As I type the GPS is showing 565 miles to run so if we can sustain 50 miles per day we have another 12 days at sea. This would get us into English Harbour to see all our Family & Friends and then rush off and watch England v Scotland in the Six Nations!

 

Rich had a tough night last night and he’s described it as “my worst night yet”. During changeover he looked in pieces and during one shift had covered a mile which is not like him at all. I experienced this early on in the race but thankfully haven’t recently. Your body is so tired it just wants to sleep and you’re trying to force it to stay awake and put it through 2 hours of exercise. Eventually the body will shut down and Rich had found himself losing an hour but maintaining that he rowed when he was asleep. Not sure how that works but thankfully he’s back on the oars now and fighting fit.

 

I had a brief call with the office on Friday and it was good to have a quick chat with Eugene and the crew. It doesn’t appear that I’ve missed anything and everything seems to have continued as normal. As soon as I hung up I meant to ask what was on the canteen menu that day as I’ve really missed the canteen. See you all when I’m back to work in April and keep all the texts and emails coming.  Can someone clarify once and for all if Jo is pregnant please?????

 

During one of my nightshifts last night I was thinking – I’ve done a fair bit of thinking since I’ve been away. Remembering some good times and also some bad times, thinking about things I’m proud of and also things I’m not so proud of, things I want to do in the future, places I want to visit – basically anything that enters my head. Last night I was thinking about quotes and the quote, “Happiness is a journey not a destination” got me thinking………... Firstly, whoever wrote that hasn’t spent 56 days on an ocean rowing boat – the journey has been one hell of a challenge, a huge adventure, an escape from normal life and whilst there have been many happy moments there has also been some serious soul searching. So, the journey has not always been happy! Secondly, are you telling me that we won’t be happy when we arrive into Antigua? What a load of b*llocks – I will be ecstatic, the happiest man alive, on cloud nine………you get the drift. To me, the happiness in this trip is the destination. Perhaps whoever wrote that quote should sign up for the next race and when they finish then let me know if they still think they’ve got it right!

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No more from me today as I need to get some shut eye

 

The row must go on – Antigua here we come.

 

Barnesy

 

A few personal messages from me…….

 

Denise Parkin - We’re getting there and thanks for the text.

 

Amanda -         Not sure which DVD you mean? Love to Grace & bump.

 

Olly -                Thanks for the text commentary from Twickers.