Indian Ocean Rowing

Come day break still no sign of the winds we had been told were on their way and a phone call to the main man Al led to the devastating news that the weather system may have passed us by – not the sort of thing you want to hear having been holding out for this for the past 2 to 3 days. At this stage i think i can honestly say the mood of the camp hit rock bottom as far as the trip to date was concerned. Yes we had already experienced emotional times and yes there had been internal dramas but as a combined unit this was the lowest we had all been. Why? Well i think it goes back to the emotional roller coaster of this challenge and the huge highs and lows we all seem to experience almost on a daily basis. As the trip goes on so these seem to increase as the expectation of completion increases. Yet again we had all loaded so much expectation on these winds arriving to help take us on to the final stage of the crossing and to hear they may never materialise was nothing short of devastating – and yet again it emphasised just how vulnerable and exposed we were to the elements.
For the first time in the crossing thoughts of not actually finishing, or at least not finishing under race rules where it dictates you cannot get any outside assistance re food supplies or anything else, started to creep in.  The mind is a very dangerous muscle and yet again it went in to over drive with every semblance of a positive thoughts being wiped out by negative visions of emancipated rowers being stranded on the ocean. Mmm time yet again to draw on what the SAS man had told us.
No sooner had the heads dropped and the doom descended on one all than King Neptune dealt us the card we had long been waiting for...strong SE winds and a juicy swell to get stuck in to. Suddenly tails were up and once again this top start campaign was off and rowing, and at some pace. Pete and I managed to sneak 11 knots out of G’Pa and scenes of weeks gone by when you as screams of joy on surfing the faces of the towering waves returned to the deck with interest.
So once again we witnessed just how fickle this game can be and once again the bodies and minds went through the emotional carnage that seems to be part and parcel of any ocean crossing – one thing’s for sure it does nothing for your mental stability when every minute of every day is spent living on a precipice never quite sure whether to leap for joy or weep in desperation. For now however life was sensational.
As so often seems to happen the conditions didn’t last and by night fall the winds had dropped considerably offering little if any real assistance. That said we could at least still row and we could make some ground which i had now learned can never be taken for granted...the next para anchor could be just around the corner. So a quiet night with very little mileage clocked up but the wind often dropped at night so we were hopeful that we had infact caught the weather system Al had been talking about and that we would infact have it for the 4 or 5 days originally promised.