Team Hesco Blog Post 2 - Day 15-20

Teamhesco
Fri 8 Jan 2016 21:50
Day 15
Sea state really confused. Still blowing about 15 knots. Flash (the little bird who has followed us since Day 3) came and said hello again today... He really is loyal!

We have been surfing the swell when we can and today we hit our fastest speed of 12.2 knots going down the wave! If  only we could hold that speed.

Day 16
Sea state still confused; worse than yesterday.  We can barely get our oars in the water at times but the boat is still getting pushed along at 2.5 knots which is great!!!

Nearly had a major fail today....  Shane was in the cabin and talking to Theo with the hatch door open and all Theo said about 4 times, very fast and in a slight panic, was "Big wave, big wave, big wave, big wave!!!"  Shane immediately grabbed, slammed and locked the hatch door just in time, watching Theo, the deck and the hatch door get completely soaked.  Close one.  A lesson learned that we can't be having casual chats with the hatch open. Our bad!!

Oh and yes Flash came and said hello again!

Day 17
Disaster struck last night for poor old Flash; he came for a late night visit and must have hit the boat while showing off, doing his usual tricks for us. Shane found him hobbling around the deck so picked him up, administered first aid and got him in to a stable condition in our medical room (the bucket).

Night shift was pretty good. We both worked hard and we did some good miles.

We went to check on Flash in the medical room and he was nowhere to be seen. We thought he must have healed up and headed out but we ended up finding him on deck, sitting in a cool corner, so we just let him be and gave him some food and water but - knowing what the food tastes like around here - we don't expect him to eat it!

Theo was on the oars again today and a massive wave (about 7 metres) came out of nowhere, putting the boat at a 45 degree angle or more, and we're thinking "we're about to roll!"  Thank goodness we didn't as we had a few pieces around on deck that weren't tied down.  The water-maker was running and completely lost its water prime meaning half of the hull must have been out of the water as the inlet is about half way down the boat!  Big big wave!

Day 18
Night shift was a tough one. The sea state was confused making it really hard to row and it was pitch black. The moon didn't show his face till around 3am, making it a bit easier to read the swell.  We slowed down to an all time low of around 2 knots for half of the night. It was plain rude!

Flash went walkabout on deck last night.  When Theo got up for his shift he had to find him so he didn't step on him. He found him in the shadow of our cabin, checked he was doing fine and put him back in the medical room.

The day was also a tough one as the sea state had not improved but we're back up to 2.5 knots.

Day 19
Another tough old night and we really had to dig deep to stay at 2.5 knots. It rained hard on both our shifts. It was cold once the rain stopped as the winds kept blowing.

As for Flash - he was a good boy last night and stayed in his cabin. We found out he likes nuts. Now he is finally eating and hopefully he will heal himself shortly.

Theo went swimming today to clean the hull.

Poor old Flash didn't make it through the day. RIP buddy. It really feels like we have lost a third crew member.

After saying our goodbyes to Flash a whale swam past us which cheered us both up a bit!

Day 20
We had a good night. Calm seas and a light breeze which let us cruise at about 3 knots. Both of us got rained on heavily again in the early parts of the morning.

Nothing exciting happened today except we kept rowing and we're not too far off the half way point! Shane has a few surprises for us when we get to that point, hope Theo likes them!

Had another epic fail earlier.  Shane spilt paint in one of the buckets on race start day and didn't have time to clean it up.  We thought it would dry up over time and harden so we've been using it as a rubbish bin.   Well Day 20 and Shane cleaned it out and ended up with paint all over the boat, his hands, legs and feet. The boat looks a bit like kids have been finger painting all over it!

Keep the messages coming, we love them!

Lots of love Shane and Theo