Indian Ocean Rowing

Following on from yesterday’s lull in progress sadly today was another day of grinding for very little reward. We had the seats but with our new shrunken physiques it was taking some getting used to getting the old legs back to working at full tilt – suffice to say we were going to have to look to build up the strength over the coming days in the hope we could get back to something near full fitness sooner rather than later, especially if we were going to have too many more days in the doldrums.
We had been assured the conditions would be changing but yet again we were forced to play the very frustrating waiting game. When would they change? For how long would they then be with us? Would it be long enough to get us home? What if they never turned up or missed us? All these q’s were constantly being tossed around my head with the leading concern always being that of our limited supply of food . Whilst it was always nice to know what may or may not be around the corner we had been let down by the forecast so many times that i almost didn’t want to know, but i had to know for peace of mind...even if what we were told and what actually happened never actually matched up, it at least gave us some hope to cling on to that the goal was still achievable and that the challenge was still alive.
Bot surprisingly the mood in the camp was a little sombre today and i for one was certainly feeling the effects of yet another lull and another stall to our progress. A call from Tony from Woodvale soon put a change to that as he told us news of the favourable winds and swells that we could come to expecxrt over the coming days. In case you didn’t know Tony runs the operation along with Simon Chalk who is part of the 8 man team and it’s Tony who is i/c of all the scrutineering and general race\matter and who has been overseeing the entire race since we left Oz. It’s weird what an unbelievably comforting effect he can have on you but a few words of encouragement from him and suddenly our spirits were lifted and you would have thought we were home and dry! I had mentioned to him that we ‘may’ need assistance re food from the support yacht if we encountered too many more problems (this was more of a heads up just so he could warn the support boat to stock up) but rather than go in to too much detail about the processes and rules around this he merely shrugged it off as something we shouldn’t be worrying ourselves about because we WERE going to be fine and we WERE going to finish in good time with plenty of food on board. What a top man...and someone we could all learn something off when it comes to PMA.
In addition to the uplifting words from Tony i also had a couple of radio interviews to do, one with Andrew Dewhurst Radio Sport and one with my cousin Johnny back in the UK on BBC Radio Cornwall. Great to hear from both of them and nice to hear all the uplifting news from around the world with the likes of Swine Flu taking a grip on NZ, North vs South Korea issues and all the dramas in Iran – something tells me we are better off on this row boat in ignorant bliss of all the nasty shenanigans that seem to have erupted around the world since we left merely two months ago...and the All Blacks lost to France, arguably the most consistent under achievers abroad in the history of the game – mmm what is the world coming to?
During the day we plodded along making ok progress given the conditions but the night shift was a different matter entirely with the breeze and current pushing us NE meaning between 1-7am we made little more than 200 metres...now that’s what i call soul destroying stuff.
Following this we put in a phone call to AL who said the winds we were waiting for would be there in approx 8-10 hours. After a quick team meeting we all agreed there was only one thing we could do...and so it was we had to deploy the dreaded para anchor...the bain of our rowing lives.
Here’s hoping i have better news for you tomorrow. Until then many thanks from your continued support, endless messages and especially to all those who have donated to the cause and the challenge in recent days...we love you.