Oh Peter....Oh Peter....it's No Fear Here again
Row Across The Pond
Richard Hoyland and Steve Coe
Tue 23 Feb 2010 16:38
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steve
yo ho ho,,
i write this lying on my back with my feet up,, the sun is
shining and it is hot,,, again, sounds like heaven,, well im not complaining,
There is of course a reason why i am lying down writng
this ..simply there is no where else to sit.. If we sit outside on the deck
area, several problems arise, firstly we would not be able to see the screen
because of the brlliant light, secondly, the salty sea air would quickly corode
the terminals on the laptop.. (incidentally, we religiously store the computer
in a water/air tight bag cos we don't have one of those expensive rugged
panasoonic laptops that weigh a ton,, not that it would make any difference to
our speed) and errr I can't think of any more reasons, oh yes of course, we get
very hot.. There is one other overiding reason why we lay down though,,and that
is to rest up between shifts on the oars.. simply this is the only way and place
we can recover and we sieze this moment aswell as to rest but to catch up with
emails and blogging. However, during the course of the day, when
temperatures rise and there is little or no breeze (most of the time SImon the
messenger...) the cabin can become a very hostile environment and is on some occasions a no go zone. Under these circumstances we
go out and find some shade under a tree (no, only joking.. ) or
quite simply we lay on deck getting more frazzled,, the
cool of the nights cannot come quicker.. Cath, I thought you
said it didn't get hotter??
Another phenomina that might otherwise distract from your
usual home or work thoughts,, I have
just returned from another hour on the oars and have resumed blog position again
(see above). Whilst on the oars, d
the familiar sea swell of ooooh approx 5m high, i noticed when
atop of the crest of a wave the marginal cool effect of the breeze, sure enough as the boat settles
into the huge trough of the wave the breeze vanishes and once again you are
bathed in scorching heat from sun,, during this session out came the water spray
bottle for chilling down.. the size of the sea swell is huge, approx 300m from
crest to crest.
Finally, we have had the pleasure of the company of, not one
but two Albatros'sss. So far all the sea birds have been masters of flight
gracefully flying very close amonst the waves, never going much above 10ft above
sea level, the Albatros however fly quite high and soar purposefully seeking
there catch..Either that or they were vultures checking us out...
Rich...
Last night another target appeared on our AIS screen, and the
subject was of particular interest to the pedigree of our boat No Fear. In the
last race Peter Van Kett and his rowing partner narrowly won the pairs
race by the narrow margin of a few hours (I think it was 6 hours). This
year, Peter is in the solo category and last night his boat Nyamezela was
in our sights. We tracked alongside Peter about 8nm away and today
we still have him on screen, although a little North of our current
course. Unsettled business for No Fear perhaps?
This latest sighting is the third we have had in the last few
weeks as teams start to converge onto straight lines to Antigua...Pendovy Swift
and Mission Atlantic have also been visitors to the AIS screen. The introduction
of the AIS into race rules this year makes the Atlantic seems a smaller
place...as soon as you have them on AIS you can fire up the VHF and have a
chat...with real human beings :-)
We're pushing on in these light winds and waves to get the
most out of the boat...the push for home is definitely in our minds, we have 914
miles to Antigua.
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