We managed to track down the cause of our power problems – a faulty regulator! With a quick rewiring job, our sick batteries are now on the mend and we are able to make water again.

However, we’re still running a ‘stealth’ boat at night – just using head torches and conserving power for when we really need it – like two short spells over the last two nights.

Two nights ago, Lin spotted a ship in the early hours and when we changed watch it was getting a little close. So we dropped stealth mode and radioed to tell them we were here. Amazingly Atlantic Jack picked up our message. They had already contacted the ship and asked him to divert to avoid them – unfortunately this put the ship into our path.Thankfully the ship had seen us and all went without incident.

Last night we had a similar incident when Rachel was on the oars and again Atlantic Jack managed to get hold of the ship as well as ourselves. We think this time the ship had seen us and was coming over for a closer look but soon changed course when we confirmed who/what we were.

Wonder what all these ships think about all these women bobbing around the ocean in these titchy little boats?

We’re both quite tired at the moment but paddling on relentlessly. The days are sunnier now but the winds have changed and is making progress quite difficult. This may see us on the sea anchor again tonight to ensure we don’t drift backwards.

Night time rowing is really tough and we’ve both found ourselves nearly falling off our seats as we dose off while rowing.

There’s been very little wildlife to report on. Fern & Reggie the Storm Petrels keep on visiting us and we did have a few jumping fish a couple of nights ago.

Jo, thank you for passing on our blogs to all our supporters, we hear they’re in great demand now. Also thank you for the fish jokes, cheesy as they are, they do make us laugh.

We’d love it if now and then someone would text us the miles we done and how far we have left to go as shown on the Atlantic Rowing Race 2007 website. We’ve set ourselves a Champagne break at 500 miles!!!!

Love and hugs

Lin & Rachel

Position:

N 23.52.50.7

W 022.18.42.1