Same old place 19:51.609N 31:16.177W
Row Across The Pond
Richard Hoyland and Steve Coe
Sun 31 Jan 2010 21:48
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Steve says...
We have been roughly in the same spot for 5 days and
anticipate yet another day before we can deploy the anchor and employ the oars..
Immediately, as i write this, whilst trying to take my mind off the fact we are
on the anchor, writing this with the boat pitching and rollling in a most
ungainly fashion immediatlely reminds me exactly where we are.. Today mood on
the boat has been kind of matter of fact with a touch of hope that we will be
under way soon... We have had some technical problems sending and recieving data
files and not sure what to put this down too.. Today we were due to recieve 30
emails but only able to receive 25,, we will attempt tomorrow to resume the blog
schedule.. it is a huge moral booster for us to be able to send our news and
also to receive news from families and friends.. The day was not completely
uneventful, we had fresh fish for lunch which I have to say was delicicious..
This was the first fresh food since leaving. Even the smell
of fish frying was amazing. we think the fish was a dorado,, stubby
thing with fish skin tough as old boots, but the meat when cooked was succelent
and like a really tender tasty chicken... we fried it in a little sun flower
oil, job done,, A little zest of lemon would have been the icing, but no point
going there....
Killing the fish was a tad traumatic as this is something
neither familiar to me or to richard. the job wasn't made particularly easy
as not only had this fish reinforced skin tough enough make shoes
with (not that we need those on the boat of course) it also had
to have what appeared to be a reinforced concrete bunker like skull,
we had met our match.. beare on mind the fish was only about three pounds in
weight. To be honest though i didn't really expect to catch a fish
whilst using an 3m long oar with a fishing real attached to it.... more like a
whale..
Our own armoury of weapons seemed quite pathetic against this
monster from the deep. Our light weight hammer seemed to have little impact
partly my fault for being so feeble,, call myself an ocean rower,, not likely..
If the fish could speak, and i am sure i saw it mouth the words in a deep husky
voice,,, "come on do me a favour, one good strike right on top mi
ed, for gods sake"... anyway we both can sleep peacefully tonight knowing
no murder took place on the boat, more the fish died of boredom.., however,
maybe richard may have a guilty conscience for he was the one that skillfully
placed his knife right behind the eye of the fish, something i had forgotten to
mention.... what a crime scene,, tools every where, finger prints all over
the place....
I will confess, although i could have kept quiet, richard won
the limerick competition.. I was disqualified as my poem did not meet
the strict requirements of a limerick which should only 5 lines
(Richard - thanks Abi)... any how thanks for taking part and to my family
who also voted for richard..... I'm not bitter..
Richard adds....
I must confess that Steve is the great fisherman and I was the
cook, what a team :-) Though Steve is quite right in that preparing it was a bit
of a scene from a comedy sketch. The fish was fantastic and I can still taste it
now as we prepare for the evening to come (looks like more big waves). Hold
that...is it a glimmer of hope that I see on our GPS, we have just started to
drift South West...which could be the first sign of the Low front passing and
the winds shifting direction. Fingers crossed :-) 1 nautical mile and
counting......
I wanted to add a continued big thanks to the team at Bupa for
supporting me on the row, I will get back on the oars asap and be back at work
in a jiffy.
Jake, glad to hear you are on the mend, nice one matey
:-)
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