After a steady if not sensational night shift we had at last managed
to get off the not so magic roundabout and back on to the Mauritian
Highway, even if we were still in the slow lane - something i’m well
used to for those who have ever seen the ‘pimp’ mobile i had the
pleasure of driving for my first year at Ellerslie!
We made good progress during the day and all in all it was a
pleasantly uneventful period, something we have been craving for a
good while - doesn’t make for great blogging but makes for a very
happy crew!  Matt and Tom graced the ocean with a quick dip to clean
the barnacles and make some tweaks to our rudder system but aside from
that not much to report - not even any ‘fous fousing’!  We’ve still
got power concerns and it looks like we may be back hand pumping
tomorrow.
As so often happens out here things change so quickly and no matter
how good the forecasting model it seems almost impossible to get it
absolutely right - something i remember a certain Mr.Spaven telling me
from his many years at sea. So it was conditions began to deteriorate
and by night time it was yet again fast turning into another uphill
slog on the oars. Oh joy another long unrewarding night lay ahead...
Before i go and close the book on today i just wanted to wish Pete’s
wife Michelle a very Happy B’day! Here’s hoping you hammered his
credit card in Melbourne, we all know how he loves to splash the cash!

Sorry for the intermittent blogging but sometimes conditions out here
just don’t allow the Gammon waffle to get a full head of steam. As
you’ll see from the below we’ve just had an excitable couple of days
which meant putting finger to key board was kind of difficult! Anyway
bear with me as we’re still here and still blogging when we can...but
much like the little maroon dot sometimes you’ll just have to wait a
little to see any action.

So here we were 4 weeks in, over 1,000 miles under the belt and looking to knock off the next 1,000 as quickly as possible. Despite the gradual shift in weather the day before spirits were still high especially given the realisation that we had now been out here for 4 weeks and, all things considered, were still in relatively good shape – yes we had our problems with the boat, the power, the steering., the power etc but as a team we were still very much a unit and looking forward to the next chapter on board Glenda.
Following a tough night battling the elements the sun rose but forgot to bring any cheer with it. Infact the winds grew a little stronger, the swell a little more intense and all in all the going went from bad to worse. Had things been as they were the day before we could have soldiered on and plugged away but as things started to intensify so it became increasingly clear that we were going to really struggle to make any headway.
Al that said we had agreed post the last para anchor experience that this would be a very last resort. We weren’t here for a leisurely cruise and when things got tough we just had to ride them out until they passed – we had already seen for ourselves just how quickly conditions can change out here so there was nothing to say favourable winds and currents weren’t just around the corner. So with that in mind we plugged away, or rather did our best to haul Glenda through the oncoming waves and under the stiff headwind. Some 8 hours later and we had covered less than 3 miles...utterly soul destroying stuff. We tried everything, including a bit of tacking but to no avail, she simply couldn’t make any headway. For me the final nail in the coffin was when we were actually over taken by a stray pot noodle pack that had fallen over board some 30 minutes earlier – now i can deal with rowing boats going faster than us but a flipping pot noodle,  i don’t think so.
 Pete and I worked out that we had gone around in about 5 circles and when we looked at our latitude and longitude we realised we had not only failed to make ground but had actually gone backwards – put simply the current and winds were generating more power than we could with our arms meaning whatever we tried we just kept drifting further and further South East...exactly where we didn’t want to go. In addition to that we sadly lost our latest member of the support crew, Lamber, who not surprisingly either got dizzy following our boat or just got bored covering the same patch munching on the same plankton.
Pete and I called a crisis meeting with Tom and Matt and it was decided that they would have a crack for ½ hour to see if anything changed and to see if they could make any headway. Needless to say they couldn’t either so we decided to put the phone call in to big Al back in Auckland for a weather update and to see if he had any flash ideas up his sleeve re our current predicament – it’s rare he doesn’t have a flash idea it’s just whether or not that idea works that we always have to bear in mind (only joking Al we love you really). The news from Al wasn’t the best, infact couldn’t have been worse. Apparently we were slap bang in the middle of what’s called an occluded front – now when you’re stuck going around in circles in the middle of nowhere with seemingly nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and no obvious exit off this flippin roundabout the words you don’t want to hear are occluded, fronts and middle of...all in the same sentence! In short we were chasing our tail as two fronts battled it out so there was little wonder we couldn’t go anywhere because there literally was nowhere to go apart from with the elements which would have taken us in completely the wrong direction.
After some discussion and no little hair pulling, Zebedee (that’s  so got to be Tom with his incessant fidgeting),  Doogle (no question about that being Pete with his ever increasing boof),  Ermentrude (guess that’ll be me with my penchant for grazing...and sitting down/hibernating when it rains) and Florence (definitely Matthew with all his constant fussing – although arguably Tom’s insistence for wearing a necklace whilst on the oars and his general fascination for girls clothing could see him post a challenge on being this character) decided the only option was to put out the para anchor once again, batten down the hatches and ride it out to see if the conditions changed over the next couple of hours.
This was one of those moments we’ll all remember for a good time to come. Yes we had been through some tough times to date but for some reason this one really hurt. Whether it wa become it had come at a time in the journey where we had passed a few milestones and so were feeling a bit plucky only to get knocked down a peg or two or what i’m not sure, but all was not well on the fun bus...life had suddenly become all very depressing. Anyhow Tom and Matt deployed it and then 3 of us snuggled up in the aft cabin while Matt hid in the front one – oh the joys of squeezing into these rabbit hatches once again. The really frustrating thing about this was that the weather was actually fine in the main, better than some of the stuff we had rowed through yet the conditions were such that we just couldn’t make any headway whatever we tried...and we honestly tried everything, save getting in the water and trying to pull Glenda ourselves.
This was supposed to be a day of celebration and we had so much planned. We were going to start off with a row, then follow this with a bit more rowing and then finish the day off with some rowing – all sounded like such a cool day but the weather had scuppered our plans. However it being a land mark 4 week day meant we did at least have another party pack to open, a little ray of joy amongst the ever darkening gloom.
It was as if Bex, Michelle and Beth knew what the day would be like when they put this pack together. Inside this little bundle of joy were messages for each and everyone of us from loved ones and a thought provoking note/message/ditty that Bex had found for each one of us individually – mine was all about the paradox of life and i think the key message was just to stop working and enjoy life...thanks i’ll take that bit of advice and run with it! The theme to the party pack was ‘Girl’s night in’ – mmm music to Tom’s ears if not the rest of us. Inside was a bar of chocolate (oh my goodness i am soooooooooooooo craving chocolate right now), some skittles (remember those?) and...wait for it...and bear in mind we are trying to be tough ‘international’ oarsmen...with male prides at stake...the surprise was a face pack each. What to make of this? How did they know we would be having a night in? Joking aside it was yet again a lovely touch and brought a much needed smile to all of our faces. I can’t say we actually used the face packs because whilst it did cheer us up the gloom was such that a party was never really going to be on the cards, but rest assured i will let you know when the packs are put to use – may be just before Mauritius to help get rid of the thick layer of salt that has now become part of our faces.
After approx 2 hours of the para anchor it was clear that change was afoot, and welcome change at that. With darkness looming we made the call to give it a shot, so pulled the para in and got back to the oars to see if we could at last make some headway. To the enormous relief of the crew we were able to get dear Glenda moving again, and in the right direction. The winds had started to shift allowing us to tread slowly onwards on our journey. I can’t tell you how good it felt to get back to the oars, and the relief of being back up and rowing. After 4 weeks we had got in to a routine where fatigue was now manageable and the shift work just the way of life, and to have that broken once again was gutting. Anyway word got to us that other teams were suffering similar problems which helped add a little more fuel to the already burning desire to get a wriggle on and catch up on any lost ground we may have conceded during the past 36 hours.
So another eventful day on bard the RFP fun bus but thankfully one that ended well. We entered  the night time shift rejuvenated and ready to get this campaign back on track. Special mention at this stage to those of you who have sent songs to help cheer us up through those dark moments, they have been used on regular occasions and continue to do the trick. I haven’t really got time to mention all of them but one that has become a particular favourite on deck comes from Linda and Dave, a creative version of ‘Thankyou for the music’ – it goes as follows:

THANK YOU FOR THE ROWING
You're something special, in fact you're the best in a four
When I watch your blob, I'm definitely so proud and in ore
But you have a talent, a wonderful thing
cause you keep on rowing, you're now in full swing,
I'm so humble and proud
All I want is to sing it out loud
So I say
Thank you for the rowing, the miles you're pulling
Thanks for all the blogs you're doing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a blob and a blog where'd we be?
So I say thank you for the rowing
For braving the big sea.

Stay with us as tomorrow we have the much anticipated beard inspection following naval tradition where crew may discontinue shaving for 1 month and then must have an inspection to see if they have full coverage and full consistency – if they don’t they must shave immediately. Mmm tense times aboard Glenda...
Also there will be an update on how the crew got on at the Boat Show, as well as a progress report from Hamish down in Wanaka as he chases the magic $10k and, last but by no means least we’ll have an update on Gary which you won’t want to miss – scandal on the high seas me thinks! Until then my friends...

CORRECTION!
At the end of the last blog i put a note about the tracker being down and that you shouldn’t worry if it didn’t look like we were moving. Well, as you’ll see from the below i think i spoke too soon...so even if the tracker was working the dot probably wouldn’t have moved...read on

Last night we made good progress covering in excess of 26 miles with a gentle breeze helping us on our way and favourable skies allowing the jackets and sallopets to be left in the cabins. However sadly this wa to spell the trend for the rest of the day as the winds and currents started to change making for a llong slog behind the oars as we battled to make progress in to the ever changing elements.
As the day went on so the breeze started to swing further and further around to a NNW direction which when you’re trying to head north north west makes it nigh on impossible to build much momentum – and if there’s the odd free mile to be had when you’re with the trades and the currents then you hae to earn every sinle last metre when it’s all against you...a trade\off i’m not too keen on if i’m honest. That said nothing in life is free so we can’t expect to have everything our way all the time, it’s just when it is against you it amplifies the tiredness and with that the magnitude of the task in hand just seems to get bigger and bigger..
Anyway we plugged away all day and night making very slow progress, averaging a little more than 1 knot.
The one exciting thing to happen during the day was a phone interview at 10am with Willie Lose on Newstalk ZB back in New Zealand. Pete and I took this call and it lasted about 20 minutes including a phone in from some members of the public eager to hear first hand about the size of the shark, the state of our ‘facilities’ and various other bits and bobs about the adventure. Yet again this helped keep morale high and it’s that constant reminder of people back home following our progress that is proving to be a real boost to the boys – whether that be through phone calls, emails or telegrams...ah that’s right Gary has disappeared so that’s no longer an option. Anyway suffice to say it was great to hear from the outside world and a nice reality check that the world was still going around, the traffic in Auckland still rubbish and the Blues having another shocking season in Super 14! Guess that means i should switch my allegiance to the Chiefs...