Atlantic Rowing Race: Bog 39

Annie’s Blog – 11th Feb - A bare behind in the middle of the ocean! Today we’ve moved to 9th place. We’re so thrilled to be in single figures. Now we just hope we can maintain pace or maybe even move up a place or two more. On Wednesday I saw an orange jelly fish floating alongside the boat I was excited as I thought I’d discovered a new species of aquatic life: sadly though it turned out to be a Sainsbury’s shopping bag closely followed by its contents of crisp packets, sweet wrappers and empty fag packets. I really hope it all just fell off a passing yacht and that no one is actually out here polluting this beautiful and magnificent ocean. On Explore we’re very environmentally-friendly and everything that goes overboard is bio-degradable. There has been a lot of shepherd’s pie though. All plastic is kept on board and will be disposed of once we reach land. All the food is plastic wrapped and despite carefully rinsing each out after use, they are stored in the hold and are really starting to stink. That’ll be a nice job when we reach Antigua My bottom hurts – in fact it hurts a lot. This race involves a lot of sitting, in fact rowing for 12hrs a day in damp conditions leads to what can only be described as nappy rash. Then there are salt sores from the ocean water and pressure sores from constantly moving back and forth on the seat.  We’ve tried every combination of clothing to alleviate the problem, but the seams and labels of even the best designed sports gear have a detrimental effect. We started with leggings, moved on to shorts, then swimsuits and then just pants. Now, (steady boys) I’m rowing with a bare behind on a sheepskin which is very comfy. On Wednesday night it rained – and I know we didn’t order that…I wonder who did? But then it rained some more and some more – in fact it poured all night and both of us ended up soaked through without a dry sock between us..lovely! Ocean planet – the support super-yacht turned up earlier and it was good to see them all. They were sporting beards and healthy tans – the ocean life on a nice yacht seems to agree with them. Now the sea is calm and there is very little swell so we’re just plodding along in the sun. We passed the half way point last night though and celebrated that milestone with a slug of whiskey. Today will be Christmas cake and flapjacks – but no shepherd’s pie – yippee! Annie xx …and yes mum I was wearing pants when the support crew turned up.

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