Hello
Red Arrow
Rich Hume & Tom Barnes
Sat 13 Mar 2010 13:29
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Righty right, how are you all?
Feeling alot better today, mainly because we are
moving. It took us 8 days to move from 300 miles to 200 miles to go when ive
have been covering that distance in 2 days easly for alot of the time.
I have had a lot of emails and text refering to the
fact that i had given up on "HOPE" and that i shouldn't because so many people
around the world rely solely on hope. I thought i would address this first in
this blog. Firstly, i never ment to offend or upset anybody but i have realised
that on land and in the sea, hope are two very different things. I cant think of
a situation i have been on land where i havent managed to atleast give a
solution a go. We might flippently say "oh, this is hopeless" but we atleast try
and get ourselves out of the mess we are in. If we dont have a job, we go job
hunting and HOPE we find a new job. If we are in Iraq fighting, we actively
continue to run missions in the HOPE of achieveing our goals. Hope on land is a
very strong word and one i use and will use alot in the future. But on
para-anchor, out here, HOPE, in my eyes is different. You sit there getting
battered and whichever way you look at it, there is nothing you can do about it.
On top of that, you dont know when it will finish, how it will finish and how
bad will it get before it finishes, if indeed it will finish, and that is where
i find "hope" a differcult word. Were, whatever angle you look at it from, there
are no answers or even possible answers, and after you have HOPED eachday
would get better and it doesnt, you begin to question a few things. Does
that explain it ok? I HOPE so.
OK, on to the rowing. Red arrow is flying along at
the moment and we currently have 182 miles to go to the finish. The weather is
apperently good for the coming 4 or 5 days except tomorrow could be
slightly against us with winds comeing from the south. As a result, we have
drifted slightly south so that these winds will push us back north but we will
be able to continue to row without stopping. Whats really exciting is that by
monday, if we do manage to row throughout tomorrow, we could be looking at land.
Then its a matter of 2 days rowing and we are in. Fingers crossed.
There hasnt been a whole lot to report since i last
wrote, except for the fact we are moving again. But, yesturday i was rowing
through a rain storm. Actually it was hale and really rather hurt. In some
places it was haling from above but then hitting the water so hard, water was
coming up from below. I got well and truely soaked and very cold. Today?, no
different really. Its drizzling and cold, but there waves are moving us
thankfully at about 2 knots an hour. Long may that continue.
The guys and girls who are in antigua have decided
to go over to a nearby island today, so i hope they are having fun today.
Its funny knowing they are there. On the one hand, you feel very close to them
but also a long wayaway as well. 3 or 4 days to go, will feel like a month
atleast. But, both myself and tom are looking forward to getting there, having a
good meal, shower and bed, ah the thought.
I hope i dont jinx it!!!! But, Red arrow is an
amazing boat. she is perfroming amazingly and when the last owners said she knew
the way to antigua, i idnt really take much notice of it, but, SO FAR, she
really does seem to know. Very little has gone wrong. We did loose our 152 GPS
very early on, infact day 1, i think, when we realsied we couldnt run that
and our other GPS without blowing a fuse. As a result, to make sure one
continues to work, i diconnected the 152. The telephone areal broke, i tried to
fix that with no luck, but fortuantly we have a back up or 3! The water maker
has only failed once and doing the restart process fixed that easly enough and
weiredly, thats about it. The cabin has been great especially with it being
slightly bigger than most boats, the power (batteries etc) have worked exactly
how they should have, which makes a change. I have nursed them along and not put
them under too much stress and it seems to have done the trick, the rowing gates
have squeecked a hand full of times, solved by a wet wipe and the runners/seats
have been perfect. If you want to buy a boat, this is the one for sure!!!!! BUT
the biggest sucess for me has been the rudder. It is the cause of so many
failled attempts and apart from one break on day 2, a simple knot solved this,
it had been faultless. Not sharing shoes (which was the original plan, and one i
hated) and having both feet moving inorder to steer has help massively and
i think wil become the new way to steer ocean rowing boats. Were the only one in
the fleet to have that, and its been brilliant. Long may it all continue. Well 3
or 4 days at least.
Right, im gonna go. But have a great weekend and
when i next write to you on monday, i might be able to begin with......I CAN SEE
LAND!!!
Take care
Rich
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