Glimmer of hope for a Sunday start
Row Across The Pond
Richard Hoyland and Steve Coe
Thu 3 Dec 2009 08:19
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Looks like there is a chance that we will get some
flares and the weather may be fine for a Sunday start (the winds are looking
good)? Fingers crossed. We've been in Gomera now for over a week and a half
and to be honest...it's time we should be going before we become
too accustomed to the pace of life on the island. The contrast between this
and the gruelling race shift patterns must be enormous. Where are we going
to get large steaming pans of fresh cooked paella in a weeks time? We just tried
out our dried rations in the harbour a few days...we'll be fighting over who
gets the Chilli con carne ;-)
We spent time on Wednesday sorting out our
course for the race, plotting it on the maps and then feeding it into our GPSs
(the main one and the backup). I suspect we may need to be flexible on this
score as I suspect that the sea is going to have something to say on our
progress down this very straight line. I
don't thing we're giving too much away by saying that we're going to keep our
route simple, as it's another leap into the unknown for us.
The technology is great and allows us to plot our
route all the way and get that information relayed to displays on deck,
rendering the compasses almost redundant. If all goes wrong with the boat
electrics we do have handheld a handheld GPS and good old maps.
Last night we watched the video of the 2007 race
shot by the winning south african team, it was great to see Nick and Jon
from No Fear on this, was great to see how close they came to lifting
the trophy. We're going to do the boat proud, she's certain to get us
across in one piece. Over the years of preparation we now know every square inch
of her now, plus will get to trust her even more on the journey
ahead.
Both our families are now on the island and so
we're slipping into a couple of days of normality before the off on Sunday at
12:00. If you ever come over here try the rabbit
pizza with an ice cold beer...great preparation for an ocean row.
Don't forget to check out the race website when we
start out on http://www.atlanticrowingrace09.com/ as
you can check out our race position, weather and photos/video...but comeback
here for the blog :-)
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