Day 60
Ok so the quiet optimism and semi jubilation in the camp on reaching the 1,000 mile mark was replaced with a more subdued sedate camp this morning as the conditions had if anything deteriorated further making difficult rowing even harder. To make matters worse it appeared we had stumbled across a southern current, even though all the routing charts and all the charts said we should be right in the thick of a dreamy westerly current tasking us up to Mauritius. First thought that came to mind cannot be printed in the blog, second thought was ‘oh sh*t’ and third thought was to start going to church more when i get back.
The sea had gone from a state of slight swell to that picture postcard glass – there was not a ripple to be seen and not a breath of wind in the air. Put simply folks this was paradise, for everyone other than ocean rowers – with the sun beating down on you, crystal clear skies, turquoise seas and complete tranquillity all around this could have been mistaken for being heaven. Eager not to let this go by i tried to savour this moment knowing that this was really something very special and serenely beautiful...and if i could have painted it i would but match stick men are about my limit.
To top all of this off we were then visited by a whale later in the afternoon. Was this Bryan coming to offer moral support to keep our chins up or just another one of these magnificent creatures of the sea popping in to say hi? Regardless this was amazing, there he/she was no more than 5 to 10 metres from our stern merrily gliding through the waves from one side to the next letting off the occasional head of steam before diving back thought the waves and off to another part. He/she tracked our course for a good ½ hour diving under and around the boat and with it letting off some incredible calling noise that was clear as a bell from inside the cabin. Whether this was a call to mum and dad or a simple acknowledgement to us that she was here i’m not sure but it was magical – i have given up sitting on the fence re sex and assumed she was a female because only a female could chatter that much without coming up for breath...although i could give it a good go.
So whilst the going was tough to slow to a nightmare moments like these gave us the hope and zest for life we needed to keep strong and keep positive. The one major worry for us was how yet again we had been brought to our knees by the elements, and in this instance elements that were by no means aggressive or bad but which none the less we really struggled to come to terms with. The current was pushing us steadily south and we could do little or nothing to counteract this save pull as hard as we could just to maintain our position.
With all this in mind Tom once again got cracking with the improvised rails to see if we could get something up and running to help provide a little extra power – whether the legs would allow this was another matter entirely but for now just having the option was the main concern. Towards the end of the afternoon shifts Tom had all but finished the new sliders and the prototype which we had trialled briefly a few weeks back was now ready for its debut...exciting times for all but the buttocks which were about to get another good kicking. So it was we tried and to our enormous joy we saw immediate results. What would have normally been a frantic scene of shoulders lunging forwards and backwards, backs hunched, faces torn with stress was replaced by a more refined scene of coordinated, not to mention more pleasing on the eye, conventional rowing strokes which yielded instant results as speeds went from approx 1.5 knots to 2.5 knots. Could this be the start of a bright new dawn in our challenge, would this be the turning point allowing us to do battle more often when conditions had otherwise demanded a halt to our progress? I didn’t know the answers but for now was just content to have the peace of mind that there was hope, now all we needed was to get rowing fit once again as our leg muscles had waster meaning we could only do short sharp bursts before having to resort back to the ungainly technique of the pull and jerk!
So there we have it, another mixed day but one with enough hope to take us in to day 60 with a hat full of hope.
Highlight of the day: seeing the whale and then watching in amazement as Tom stuck his head in to the water to try and talk to the dear creature – an extraordinary sight but another sign that Dr.Doolittle lives and breathes through Wiggers! It’s moment s like these that are like gold, nothing premeditated about it and for Tom it just seemed the natural thing to do...
