Atlantic Rowing Race: Blog 47

Mel’s Blog – Monday 8th Note – due to satellite comms problems, this blog is being published a little later than it should be, but hopefully it all makes sense anyway. Hi everyone Hope you all had good weekends having roast dinners, reading papers, socialising, going for walks in the countryside and other things which seem a world away to us. Unfortunately we had what has become a typical weekend of battling unfavourable weather. The wind has been going gradually south and building and by yesterday (Sunday) we had made progress west in our boat which loves to go sideways. All we could do was north-west, but that was preferable to being on para-anchor. Progress has been quite slow and has required every ounce of energy on every stroke. During the worst hours we were only moving at 0.5 of a knot and half of that was in the wrong direction. Rowing is usually a pleasurable experience and when you place the blades in the water and drive down with the legs you can feel the boat pick up and as soon as you drag the blade through the water you can feel the boat go under you as you up the slide. It was so far from that yesterday it was laughable. Forget treacle, this was like rowing in setting concrete. Moving the boat required an almighty effort and up the slide you could feel her going backwards or sideways! And all that for 0.25 of a knot! Effort like that costs though. We’re both feeling it today, pretty much everywhere. Thankfully the wind died off early evening and we were able to make progress west again. Today has been mostly west, although the wind is still gradually forcing us north-west at times. It’s supposed to die off and then come back from the east later today. We sincerely hope it does because at the moment, conditions are making that bar in Antigua seem a long way off. Mel. xx

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