We made back our 15 miles above 17 degrees North quite well, then got blown South a couple of miles. We managed to minimize this, both during the day and at night, but started rowing yesterday at 16 degrees 54 minutes North. Despite heading North all day, we only made back half a mile and every time we stopped, the Southerly drift kicked in again. It’s pretty soul destroying, though the saving grace is that we were still making great miles West. 

So, amid howls of ‘but I don’t want to go South’ from Rachel, we tied off the steering again, put a Scott Mills podcast on and settled down with our ‘less than 500 miles to go Champagne’ for the night. It was a quiet night and we both slept better. With both rowers in the cabin the temperature often gets unbearable and it’s tricky to sleep any way other than flat on your back. Not normally comfortable after the first few hours!  

This morning we woke up early and switched on the GPS, only to find that we were actually further North than we had been at any time yesterday. Typical! All that effort rowing yesterday to get nowhere, then we go to bed and make better progress!  So now we’re ploughing North and West, hoping to get back to the vicinity of 17 degrees North as soon as possible.  

Yesterday morning we were woken up by the radio crackling and overheard half a conversation between a French sailor and Dream Maker (he was in range but they weren’t so we couldn’t hear them). He seemed very confused as to what kind of vessel the boat was and asked if it was a dinghy or something! Later on they phoned us to say they had woken up to find the yacht extremely close to them. They couldn’t raise him on the radio so had to resort to shouting (that’s how close!) in order to get his attention and make sure he avoided them. Funny now, but probably very scary at the time! 

We also wanted to send our commiserations to Atlantic Jack as we’ve just heard that due to rudder problems slowing them down, they are going to have to take on a resupply from the support yacht. This disqualifies them from the race and must be absolutely gutting for them. It can’t be an easy decision to have to make, especially this close to the finish and our thoughts are with Cath and Margaret.  

Messages:

Caroline at ABSAR – we promise you won’t need to breathalise us when we get to English Harbour! Well, not while we’re still on the boat anyway!

Hilary – thanks for the rowing yesterday at Royal Chester, it must have helped as we’re making such good progress today. Looking forward to sharing some champers with you when we get back!

Penney family – hope Josh and Jake are enjoying their radio messages and hull cleaning. We’ll be scrubbing the deck before we get to Antigua…!

Dave Evans – cheers for the rugby result!