Paranormal? No, para-anchor!
Row Across The Pond
Richard Hoyland and Steve Coe
Wed 25 Nov 2009 20:29
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We're still on the harbourside but getting
perilously close to being allowed into the water either tomorrow or Friday. All
our kit is stowed away in the boat and we've completed all the jobs that our
scrutineering showed up :-) All we need to do is antifoul the bottom of the
boat...and hey presto. The antifoul is pretty essential as we're going so slow
that all sorts of flora and fauna hope to hitch a ride.
There's starting to be a real change in the crews
as they start to see beyond the hardstanding we are sitting on. Conversations
are turning to the time at sea..."one friend surfed on their boat to 19
knots","what watermaker are you taking....oh...we've had a friend that had that
one and it broke down". Sometimes the only option is to play the hand you were
dealt...we have our boat...we have our kit...we have chosen our route and food
etc....everyone has a different opinion in this game. Are we the fastest
boat? (not by a long chalk) are we the best trained? (even longer chalk here) do
we have faith that our lump of plywood and metal will take us across?
(Yes we do).
We had a humbling training session today around the
use of the para-anchor, which is a large nylon parachute that we deploy
in the water to stop us being blown backwards. Apparently we use
this for winds around 15 knots up to 35 knots but then pull it up and turn
the boat around and run with the wind if it goes above 35 knots. This has
taught us how much we have to learn...and the learning starts after the first
tug of the oars out of the harbour on 6th December. As I sit here looking out of
the balcony out to sea, I realise that in just over a week that we leave dry
land behind and there's no more paella in the little restaurant around the
corner.
It doesn't get more challenging than this in life,
but as one of the guys Olly just said on the way back from the harbour
"the Sea will just do it"...profound words
:-)
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