Anchors away :-) 17:19.999N 53:17.500W
Row Across The Pond
Richard Hoyland and Steve Coe
Tue 9 Mar 2010 18:21
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Rich...
So we've just spent a number of days being totally 'mullered'
by Southerly winds and have tried to make as much ground as we can despite
various injuries....but the time has come to bow to the wind gods and say you
win ;-) (for today only)
The dreaded anchor came out a couple of times, overnight and
again at 4:00pm...which means that our daily stats have
been decimated yet again. We tried to row it today and made some headway,
but the waves died down and the wind built up so we were blown North West pretty
quickly :-(
Big benefit of being on the anchor is that you get the chance
to do normal domestic things...this morning I sat on deck watching the sun rise
and had hot porridge with a mug of hot chocolate as if a normal
civilian...no checking of the watch to see how long to next shift, no creak of
the oars, no metallic swoosh of the seat...just me and the sea, alone with our
thoughts. Easy to get negative when going nowhere..so brought out a tin of
peaches that I'd been saving and we ate them on deck in the heat of the midday
sun. It's the first time in months that we've tasted fruit and it was
fabulous...better than fresh fruit to my destroyed taste buds! Life on the
boat has very few high points...I take that back, life on the boat has very few
'different', 'out of the ordinary routine' moments..that a simple tin of peaches
can swing it. I'll probably be quite overhelmed by my first visit to a
supermarket on my return ;-)
Missing my normal life dreadfully now and the sea is
succeeding in continuing to keeping me and it apart for even longer. 'The worlds
toughest rowing race' seems to have delivered on it's title and then
some...I see a renaming on the cards for the 2011...'the world
toughest rowing race (but not as tough a 2009, which
was the toughest)'. We have some strange old conversations on the boat that sum
up our need for normality...e.g. one I started the other day was "...talking of
seats, remember back in the real world they have these soft things called
chairs? which you sit on and they don't periodically throw you onto the floor,
throw water on you and poke you with metal rails or wooden corners...and
they also came in big sizes called sofas?"...you guys have got it so easy with
your cars, fridges, running water, food, beer, crisps, television...need I go on
:-)
Louise dropped me a message that she'd taped a series on the
cable TV that we always follow and this is one of the most exciting things for
me of the past week :-) I've become a simple chap.
Waiting for the winds to die down and for the rowing to start
again....oh for another tin of peaches!
My wife and family have been so patient with the
adventure.
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