Atlantic Rowing Race: Blog 8

Blog 8 – Annie

Race start has been delayed until Wednesday! The organisers are waiting for a shipment of flares which we’re not allowed to leave La Gomera without. It’s been a frustrating few days but on the up side, we’ve had more time to work on the boat and test her in the sea.

The ultimate test was a practice race yesterday between all competing crews, and it has to be said that Explore and her crew did very well indeed (surprising, considering the amout of Vino Blanco consumed the night before!). We were the fastest women by a long way and even managed to whoop a fair few of the guys, much to our satisfaction! We do have a very lightweight boat which certainly helps matters – the majority of the other boats are wooden and therefore much heavier.

The race took us 2 hours so gave us a perfect opportunity to really see how Explore performs. Overall we were extremily happy with her but needless to say we now have an even bigger list of things to adjust and tweak! Today we’ve been sorting out our auto-pilot. Not all crews have this onboard but we thought it was a justifiable expence...If it works properly, we won’t need to use the foot steering mechanism so much.

Both sets of parents are out in La Gomera at the moment. Sadly mine have to leave before race start but they did manage to somehow blag their way onto a super yacht yesterday, so got a really good close up view of us as we would be when we’re actually racing. Mum, Dad and I are off out for a farewell meal tonight. Tears are pretty much gaurenteed I think (On my part anyhow. They’ll be glad to see the back of me for a few months I’m sure!) Annie

If you would like to find out the full story behind Annie & Mel’s epic rowing adventure across the Atlantic, and why we are involved with them, you can find out more at www.explore.co.uk/atlanticrowers. You will also find details about how you can get involved and help them achieve thair other goal of raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

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