Archive for December 2009
Just to keep you up to date with what we have been doing over the last week.
We have been out rowing as the conditions locally have improved and yesterday we had our first opportunity to practice deploying our para-anchor.
Picking up para anchor tips in a morning work shop.
The para anchor is basically a 9 foot diameter under water parachute that we deploy off the front of the boat on the end of 50 metres of
rope, when winds are too strong to row against. The parachute opens out under water as the boat is pushed back by the wind and we are then hopefully held in place rather than being pushed backwards.
We have also been working to improve the action of our auto-pilot which we will hopefully use to steer the boat automatically to the course we set in our GPS. The system is based on a tiller pilot that is usually used to steer small yachts with tillers and is not designed for ocean rowing boats so there has been the need for some modification of the system that we first installed.
We took the opportunity to clean the bottom of the boat whilst out of the marina. This involved swimming under the side of the boat with mask and snorkel and scrubbing the algae and weed off. This is something we will need to do every week or so on the trip as the build up of weed and barnaclesw will slow the boat speed down significantly.
Following the recent improvement in the weather in the Atlantic it has been announced that race start date will be 4th January 2010 (I suppose it will need to be the Atlantic Rowing Race 2010 from now on).
This date is 80-90 % certain and this certainty increases as we get closer and the forecasts beecome more accurate. Yesterday we were only 60 % certain of this date but that has increased as the 2 high pressure systems in the mid-Atlantic continue to grow and push the low pressure North. The winds are turning more to favour us although it is likely that we will have light winds against us for the first few days. It is also likely that we will encounter swells of 3.5 to 4 metres however these should be long rolling ocean swells that we should easily be able to cope with.
The atmosphere around the fleet has improved immensely over the last 2 days as bored and fed up rowers begin to prepare at last for departure.
There is a row on my left hand and a row on my right hand. For now they are as if little balloons have been inflated just under the first layer of skin – apparently they are called bleeesters! But don’t get me wrong – Mick and I had a fantastic row this afternoon and into the early evening. We came in with the masthead light on (what else do I call it? It’s our ickle mast!) and the compass light and GPS glowing red.
Lia and Mick are both back in La Gomera and the wait continues. After an extended period of adverse weather (which had already delayed the race by over three weeks) there has been a further official delay. Crews have been told the race won’t start until after the New Year and they anticipate that means the 2nd or 3rd of January but even that isn’t certain. Mick is pleased to have a few more evenings in the Blue Marlin (an infamous ocean rowing haunt) and Lia is pleased to have more time to get her head around a number of things, not least of which is how to avoid rashes on her bum. She told me she hasn’t worn cycling shorts since she was 14 and given her description of what they did to her after just one extended shift in the boat yesterday I don’t think they agree with her bum! So we discussed the options and her favorite so far seems to be either rowing naked or rowing in cotton boxer shorts. I suspect the former will scare both the fish and Mick so probably isn’t advisable.
Mick and Lia have both been home over the Christmas period. Just before Lia left La Gomera it was hit by torrential downpours for a few days. Fortunately this led to the discovery that two of the hatches on deck leaked so Lia was able to sort out alternatives when she was at home which have now been installed. She has also been getting very detailed weather routing lessons from a friend. Given she already knows her way around an ocean or two and is more than capable of plotting a good course I anticipate her new level of expertise in this area will shave at least a week off the row.
With so much time in La Gomera the crew are getting to know many of the sailors who they are moored next to, not least of whom are Sam Davies parents who have very kindly taken Lia under their wing. And of course the comradery between the rowers is fantastic. In fact Lia left our Skype chat earlier so that one of the solo rowers, Charlie could come and help her with the autopilot setup on Dream Maker.
Lia and I flew into Stanstead airport at 17.30 yesterday to be greeted by 3 inches of snow and a temperature of -1. Just five hours earlier we had been complaining about how hot the taxi was on Tenerife as we hunted for a surf shop to buy some foot straps for the boat on the way to the airport. The display in the taxi was reading 24 degrees.
I had only shorts to wear on the journey as I had sent all but my rowing clothes home with my family a week and a half ago figuring that the next stop for me was Antigua via rowing boat. It was with some relief that on leaving the plane that it had connected to one of those covered walkways so was spared the usual trek across the tarmac you get with budget airlines (thank Thompson Airlines).
A slightly surreal experience being at home in the lead up to Christmas when I had expected to be a third of the way across the Atlantic, especially knowing that I will be back in the Canary Islands within the week and still have an ocean to row!
With family visiting I was clearing the snow off my trusty truck this morning and it was then off to the supermarket for those last minute items (oh the unexpected joys of Christmas).