Another perfect moment..plus hang our heads in shame 19:23.916N 34:59.458W
Row Across The Pond
Richard Hoyland and Steve Coe
Sat 6 Feb 2010 21:54
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Rich...
Just now at 19:45pm on Saturday 6th Feb we stopped to change
shift on the oars and the boat fell silent...really silent. We are in the middle
of a rare happening in the Atlantic, a completely flat calm sea...like a mill
pond. The sun is setting in the West and it is a beautiful sunset, again.
Tonight we took a couple of minutes to stop...shut up...and just watch the world
around us...a bird swooped round the boat skimming the top of the glass like
surface to the water, circled the boat and then was gone again out into the
ocean. The strange thing was that we both had ringing in our ears, almost as if
we couldn't cope with the complete lack of noise. Another perfect moment on the
boat...but would have been even more perfect with a G&T (ice included)
;-)
Despite a toughday on the oars as we drag the boat through the
calm seas, times like this make you realise why we are doing this journey. Now
I've done my fair share of marathons, triathlons and bike/running races, but
during none of those endurance events do you really get immersed so deeply in
your own company and pushed to such limits. In all seriousness I
would recommend doing this race if someone asked, despite
the pain/tears/hardship (which are not over yet by a long
chalk)..I've experienced an environment so unrefined, raw and yet totally
beguiling.
One point raised by Cath (who did the race last time and
taught me to row) and she is so spot on...I'm going to love the simple pleasures
of making a cup of coffee that doesn't taste of salt! Good call on that one. Or
even better.....a pint of beer round the corner from the rowing club...Cath, am
still trying to keep my back stright, not swanning (much) and starting to
get a little more refined in my rowing :-) (I bet Steve adds a suitably
sarcastic comment here....) Cath. he's rubbish. I think he must have the
memory of a goldfish,,,
Now here's the bit where I have to tell everyone reading this
blog to hang their heads in shame..as we have just seen the most disgusting
sight out here so far. We hit a patch of water which was covered with plastic
rubbish, bottles, nets, bags etc. and it made me ashamed to think that in some
way we/all of us could have contributed to this...not directly I might add.
On some of the rubbish, life had started to take hold and little communities of
flies, fish and who knows what else. A sad sight...and makes you think how much
of the Atlantic is like this. It's the first sighting for us and could be a
rarity...I hope.
Hi to Cathy in Australia, struth, great to hear from you down
in Oz..thanks for the best wishes...strange how small the world is with
email...me sat in my little boat slap bang in the middle of the
ocean emailing you in Australia. Hope life is good, always great to hear
names from the past, hope you and Lou stay connected :-)
Hi to all the Hoylands/Mitchell-Knights in Nottinghamshire
tonight, wish I could be there...but someone in the family has to row the oceans
;-)
steve
quiet day today, working really hard to make some ground,,
seas have been flat and calm, much like i would imagine the doldrums to be,, the
equatorial region where doldrums are common place,,, today, as there has not
been externaI influences to hinder or help our advances towards our target, I
have been able to do a little comparison to the effort required to keep an
ocean rowing boat moving. This is not scientific , more of a general
comparison, Pre doing this challenge I was curious myself a to
know how much effort is required,, the short answer is as much as youve got
or as much as you want to put in.. but to achieve lets say a respectable time to
cross averaging ,, 2 knots - 60 days, i am surprised with no wind at
all,, the answer is,, A LOT OF EFFORT.. thankfully we have
had the benefit of wind assistance much of the time where effort is
less but still surprisingly considerable,,
conclusion... The calmer weather, with no wind at all does
offer the rowing connasiour/masachist the chance to get
in the zone of pain and more pain...
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