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| Goodbye Eddy... we hope! |
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| Written by Lin & Rachel at sea | |
| Saturday, 26 January 2008 | |
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Well we think we owe you all a huge thank you for your efforts to will us better weather conditions. We received a load of messages willing us good weather, we know some of you were praying for us and we also know that Gordon and his colleagues and friends all sat and thought good weather thoughts for us.
When we set out to start rowing again on Thursday morning, we’d drifted South again so we set up to start rowing North again and over the whole day managed to claw back 3 n/miles from those we’d lost overnight. Then early evening we started to head South again even though we were fighting to row North. This was so frustrating that we stopped rowing early and let the boat drift over night. By Friday morning we’d drifted even further South and ready for battle we went out to start another rowing session trying to go North only to find no matter how hard we rowed we could only go South. With much frustration we decided to do what Joe and Andrew on Jaydubyoo has suggested all along – give ourselves a break and go with the flow. We also had a chat with Tony at Race HQ for some advice and he said he thought we could have been stuck on an Eddy as it’s not tying in with any of the weather forecasts. So we decided to row West and ignore the fact that we were still going South. However, just after noon on Friday, Lin checked the GPS and noticed the North figures were increasing. Not quite believing her own eyes as she’d just woken up, she gave them a rub and checked again and yep, we were going North. Lin popped her head out of the cabin and told Rachel who thought it was a very bad joke but it was serious. Not ones to miss and great opportunity, the shift pattern was changed back to 2 hours on 2 hours off and we rowed through the night again. By Saturday 12.30pm we’d reached 17 degrees North again. Now we’re just trying to maintain that and just travel West to Antigua. There were a couple of other eventful moments during our battles with Neptune. On Thursday afternoon Lin noticed a yacht in the distance and as is race procedure, got on the radio in case it was one of our support yachts. A bit of a surprise this time thought as an unfamiliar voice came across the radio. We had a very nice conversation with an American gentleman on Canar-Azores (apologies if this is spelt incorrectly) who was interested in the race and our progress and as he was also heading to Antigua, offered to buy us a drink when we get there.  The second incident was on Friday when again Hawkeye Lin spotted a container ship on the horizon. Although it was not on a direct course towards us, it could have come quite close so we tried to radio them and checked the AIS Radar for them and at first nothing. So with a bit of persistence on the radio we managed to make contact. Strangely as soon as they got on the radio, they also appeared on our radar! Trying to play our game of stealth boat we wondered! A bit difficult when you’re in a huge great big container ship! Also strange that they just took our position, slightly changed course and disappeared off our radar again!!!! So today sees us trying to keep a steady line at around 17 degrees North whilst heading West as fast as we can. The wind is still making that a little tricky but we’re doing ok with that. We’ve also had another small bottle of Champagne as we’ve received the great news that we are now 2/3 of the way there with less than 850 n/miles left to go (Thank you Gordon & Dave). It won’t be long now before we can tell our friends and families when we hope to arrive so they can book the flights – we can’t wait to see you all there and frequently dream of seeing you there when we row into English Harbour. Why have all these milestones? – To tackle a challenge of this magnitude, you have to break it down into bite size chunks and we apply that to practically everything. It would be quite sole destroying if all we looked at was the big picture of 2,552 n/miles of ocean to cross. The most significant milestone, apart from the finish of course, is the halfway mark, we knew when we got to half way that the other half was the homeward stretch. So breaking down the full distance into milestones keeps our spirits up and help us to focus on something other than a huge challenge. Even our two hour rowing shifts get broken down into smaller bits when we’re rowing, spaced out with water and stretch stops at around ½ hour intervals to help the time pass more quickly. This is something that we brought with us from our dragon boating past and it works well in all walks of life. For those of you asking about how Lin’s foot is doing – Rachel has rigged up a system for tying off the steering so it doesn’t move the shoe at all. This has been working great up until we had the hard slog of rowing North against the Southerly drag as the effort required has aggravated the problem a bit. So foot is out of the shoe again but at least with the steering fixed, Lin doesn’t have to put the wrong foot in the steering shoe now so it’s a great system. We’d both like to say how much we’re missing our partners, Charles and Paul and Lin’s also missing her son, Liam. It’s so tough being away from you for so long and we can’t wait to see you again. Messages:- Thank you to all the Westminster City Council Customer Services Team for the fish jokes – they’re keeping us entertained for sure. Kim @ Yachtpals – It’ll be great to meet up with some Yachtpals in Antigua – if you could let us know how best to contact them when we get there we’ll definitely do that. Or they can just keep an eye out for the pink boat pulling into English Harbour. My friend is sorting out our accommodation and I assume it will be in/around English Harbour area and we hope to be there for a few days at least. Anne & Bobbert – Great to hear you’re going to be there to see us in. Hope we get there in time, we’re rowing as fast as we can. Clint & Sally – thank you for the weather information and advice along the way. It’s great to know you’re there watching over us. Love & hugs, Lin & Rachel. |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 27 January 2008 ) |