Archive for May, 2015

Day 9 – David Attenborough and spotty bums

Natalia Cohen By

Day 9 – David Attenborough and spotty bums

After another partner swap, LP and I are back rowing together.
We had a couple of hard night shifts, rowing only on the right side and battling to get Doris in a favourable position to the wind, waves and current. We refused to let the very slow progress made, cold and regular soakings get us down and instead entertained ourselves by creating a voice over of a new David Attenborough episode about the “primates of Doris”. We watched Izz and Ems wake and ready themselves for their shift and narrated the whole process.

Please read the below in 100% David Attenborough style:

“As we can see with this special species, the change from the warmth of their safe burrow and into the harsh conditions outside is always a laborious one. They silently move around their cramped living area busying themselves with ritual preparation. These primates follow a watch system where there is always at least 2 members of the pack outside the burrow. Their transition outside is always where they are at their most vulnerable. These creatures are not the steadiest on their feet and the changeable conditions outside the burrow determine the effectiveness of the watch change. They often slip, slide, waver and crawl into place before settling into their positions” Etc etc… You get the point.

This was a 4.30am shift and LP and I were in absolute hysterics – Izz and Ems were sleepy, confused and had no idea what was going on.

The other developments aboard the good ship Doris are uncomfortable rashes that are developing on some of our bottoms! Hardly avoidable as we are sitting down for pretty much 24 hours of every day. We get wet and then remain damp, layered in thermals and wet weather gear and although we take every opportunity to air, these are few and far between.
Also, as the salt water dries, it leaves small salt crystals that are abrasive to the skin. We manage the situation by cleaning and applying nappy cream/sudocrem (thanks to Green People) and then talc’ing wherever possible.

I’ve taken to calling the way things are looking at the moment for most of us as ‘angry bum’!
I have to be honest though…I’m not really looking forward to finding out what the next stage after angry bum will be…

Johnson’s baby powder has now become one of my favourite things. Great for helping to dry the feet (and bum) and smells amazing compared to all the other smells we have in the cabin!!

The one thing we have all still maintained so far during the randomness of our personal interactions, vast and beautiful surroundings, incredibly unusual living conditions, sleep deprived state and highly routined existence is…a sense of humour x

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Day 8 – Happiness is a dry pair of socks

Emma Mitchell By

Happiness is a dry pair of socks

Despite the cramped conditions, constantly being soaked by waves, sore bums and sleep deprivation, life on Doris is actually beautifully simple. Eat, sleep, row, repeat! The smallest of things can brighten up our whole day. For example having a dry pair of socks. Having to put on wet socks every 2 hrs to go out on the oars is probably my least favourite thing about ocean rowing (it was also my least favourite thing about spending a few months in the Belize jungle). I can’t remember the last time I put on totally dry socks. I do have a pair stashed away in my pocket in the cabin safely in a ziplock bag but I haven’t got them out yet as everything is always so wet that even just wearing them to sleep in during leg 1 part 1 ended up with them getting damp. But I know they are there waiting for a special occasion. My second least favourite thing is that with a disturbing regularity we get soaked by a big wave within the last 5 mins of every shift on the oars. This is regardless of which pair is rowing and what time of day it is and means that along with the wet socks we also have to put on soggy wet weather gear to row.

However there are a lot of moments in every day where being on our little boat on the Pacific is the most beautiful place in the world and makes me stop and appreciate how lucky we are. The sunsets which paint the whole sky in colours I can’t even describe. Sunrises which set the horizon on fire and can make you forget that you were falling asleep on the oars minutes before. A clear sky at night filled with stars which give me a crick in my neck from trying to row whilst looking up. The deep and bright blue colour of the sea and sightings of whales, dolphins and the twice daily visits from Albert the albatross. The peace and calming tranquility of the sun on the water and being self sufficient while leaving behind most of the stresses of the real world. Before we left the UK we put together a plan for our time on the ocean with Andrew from New Level Results using the Best Year Yet program. We set our major focus as ‘Enjoy the journey! Live in the moment.’ and despite all the challenges we’ve faced already and our current painfully slow progress west we are still remembering to appreciate what an incredible experience this is.

As my friend Katy reminded us this week ‘ the only way to eat an elephant is in small pieces’ So true and we’ll keep eating up the miles one at a time. Katy you gave me the same advice when I was writing up my PhD thesis and if I could manage that this should be easy!

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Day 7 – Antics on the night shift

Laura Penhaul By

Day 7 Antics on the night shift

During the night, we each (in our pairs) have 3 night shifts to get through. Last night, Ems and I had just got on the oars at 01:00 for our second shift. The night was a beautiful clear sky so we were looking at the amazing stars & trying to pick out the North Star, the plough, Orion’s Belt & our star ‘Doris’ (my friends had bought us it before we left). Suddenly in the distance I saw what I thought initially was a firework (until I realised we were mid-Ocean so guessing there’s not too many parties out here!) so soon realised it had to be a red flare which is a signal for distress. Emma had spotted it too which reassured me as I’ve been known to see things when I’m tired (that’s a whole other blog post!).

redflare
We got the girls in the cabin to screenshot our location on the Navionics maps just in case it was needed again. Next step was to get onto VHf but there was no response and we couldn’t see a ship on AIS either. So we called Falmouth coastguard to inform them of our sighting and they kindly put Natalia through to the U.S. Coastguard. Lieutenant Anthony was extremely helpful and had very kindly said that they had been looking out for us over the recent weeks (always reassuring to know). Anyway, he asked a series of questions for Nat to relay to us, So he could estimate the distance the flare was from us, firstly by measuring your fist height above the horizon, estimate the wind speed where we were and its direction. After receiving this info, we’d assumed that they were checking AIS and Radar for the boat’s location so they could contact them directly. We figured that we’d done what we could and didn’t think any further action was needed. Much to our complete surprise, about 20-30mins later, Emma noticed a red and green light flashing in the distance, these lights actually were the helicopter of US coastguard! They hovered over us to clarify some further details and then spent the next hour circling the area. I suddenly felt really guilty for calling them out as what if we were mistaken with what we saw?

We’re still unaware of whether they did find anyone, but If they didn’t and it was a false alarm I feel bad for sending them on a wild goose chase! At least it’s better that way than to not report it and have missed something significant.
Either way, it certainly made our shift go quickly!
Personal notes: Howie – thank you for the email. Knew it was you before reading the name based off those riddles. Looking forward to hearing the answers!
Hilton – also looking forward to hearing the answers too, they’ve certainly puzzled us.
Michelle and Heather – happy birthday for this weekend you two, thinking of you both xx

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Day 6 – Take 2

Isabel Burnham By

Day 6 – Take 2

Last night was beautiful and starry with no moon. Nat and I passed the time telling stories and the two night shifts flew past. The hardest part is getting yourself up and out of the cabin onto the oars when you have only been asleep for an hour or so. In our little cabin we both wiggle out of our sleeping bags and get our Crewsaver wet weather gear on (usually soggy from the shift before), grab our Sealskinz waterproof hats, gloves and socks, fill up our water bottles and find a little snack to take into the deck. One by one, we then switch over with the girls on the oars. Balance always seems to be lacking at night time and we must look ridiculous as we swap around. Some choose to crawl along the deck, while others prefer to try to walk using the shoulders of the rowers for support.

The sun has been with us for the last couple of days and our hands and faces are continuing to get more and more tanned, although the rest of us is still covered up in our wet weather gear. We are still rowing hard, but moving frustratingly slowly as we are caught in an adverse current. Fingers crossed we will break free from it in the next 24 hours and be able to make some faster progress West.

My iPod broke very soon after we left San Francisco and the stop off in Santa Barbara fortunately meant I was able to replace it. I have been really enjoying listening to my music on the oars. We also have plenty of power coming through our Solbian solar panels and our Victron batteries, so this afternoon we were even able to plug an iPod into our Fusion speakers and play music out on deck – Mr Probs “Wave after Wave” was the tune of the day!

Although we don’t have an ideal wind direction, the conditions have been more stable than last time which feels like it has given us a bit more time for other things when we’re not rowing, such as eating, reading, clothes washing and social time. This afternoon, while Nat and I were on the oars, Laura and Ems appeared out of the aft cabin wearing clown face paints and sang a little clown song to keep us amused!

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Day 5 – Take 2

Natalia Cohen By

Day 5 – Take 2

The days are fast becoming a blur of eat, sleep, row, repeat, eat, sleep, row, repeat, with random moments that jump out in between.

The first night shift greeted us with an amazingly star strewn sky. We have once again lost the sight of shore and have no other light pollution, as well as there being only a tiny slice of moon at the moment. Izz and I rowed hard against current and wind.

The second night shift was completely overcast. It was as black as night (literally!) and we had no idea where the waves were coming from. We kept pushing hard against the wind and same southerly current that we actually seem to be stuck in. Another physically hard rowing session but all are passing quickly with half a session of life story telling from each of us and then half with music or audio books.

I’m currently listening to ‘The 100 year-old man who climbed out the window’. It’s wonderfully well narrated and providing some great amusement. I’ve never actually listened to an audio book before. They’re fab!

The sunrise shift was lovely. I decided to bring the new day in with some salsa and got very hyper on the oars as this music always makes me want to dance. Salsa is not an easy thing to do on an ocean rowing boat let me tell you, but at least my attempt provided entertainment for the others!

We’re still rowing mainly on the right side to try and keep Doris on course and keep inching as west as we can. Here’s hoping we get to do some left arm rowing balancing out at some stage soon as 60 days of only rowing with the right arm is not going to be the best look on our arrival into Hawaii!!

Other Day 5 highlights included:

  • cloud watching
  • a lunch of expedition food macaroni & cheese with added sachet of tuna (a luxury item on the boat and my absolute favourite)
  • frequent visits from 2 new friends Iggy and Jay who are beautiful Layson Albatrosses – we have a bird book now
  • breathing in deeply the pure ocean air
  • a change into fresh underwear! Ahhhh…..the small things…it’s always the small things… x
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Day 4 – Take 2

Emma Mitchell By

Day 4 – Take 2

After a night on the para anchor we were back on the oars at 6am this morning and have spent the day trying to go west. If you’re watching our tracker you’ll see that we are (very) slowly going south west in the right direction. It’s hard work out on the oars and we are mainly rowing with our right oar trying to hold our bearing in the unfavourable wind. First thing this morning I was finding it quite hard to enjoy life on Doris but after some fresh air on the oars with a cuppa I’m feeling a lot happier about our slow and steady progress. Our team is still strong and regardless of the situation we find ourselves in we always find something to giggle about. Laura and I spent a lot of our last shift on the oars singing all the songs we could think of which contain a reference to the weather. In the last 24hrs we’ve had sunshine, rain, rainbows, clouds, wind of varying strengths and a beautiful sunset and sunrise. It’s funny to think of everyone back home going about their normal lives while we exist in our little 29ft bubble.

Today’s meal of choice: mild chicken korma
Today’s condiment of choice: tomato ketchup
Today’s favourite snack pack content: dried mango
Today’s podcast of choice: the best of Nick Grimshaw
Today’s song of choice: Walking on Sunshine
Today’s beverage of choice: tomato soup
Today’s fashion accessory of choice: pink beanie

Frustratingly we are now rowing against the wind and current and struggling to make ground west but we are powering through with the help of some power ballads and the Backstreet Boys and we’ll see where we are in the morning.

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Day 3 – Take 2

Laura Penhaul By

Day 3 – Take 2

Currently Izz and I are paired together and so after our night shifts the sunrise shift at 05:30 was beautiful. It started with blue sky and sunshine with a little wind but heading in the right direction -WEST!
Albert the albatross is getting more and more friendly often landing now right next to Doris, which gives us plenty of amusement to talk to a bird instead of your team mates! Today he stopped off for a spot of lunch with his mates as they tucked into some fish. Unfortunately from about11am today our faithful friend ‘Hercules the wind’ decided that we weren’t ready yet for easterly winds and so he’s mixed it up again to a less favourable north westerly 18-21+. For over 6 hours we battled rowing hard against it, our autopilot wasn’t too happy with going backwards so we switched to hand steering but the wind and swell had different ideas of which direction we should travel. So as we were losing ground fairly rapidly we put out the para anchor for a few hours until the wind eased.

The amusing part was that during this time ironically Izz was listening to Bastille Pompei ‘when you close your eyes does it almost feel like nothing’s changed at all. How am I going to be an optimist about this…’ Interesting words! We’re all pretty gutted to be back in the cabins after starting to make good ground but hey ho we’ll be back on it later plus it has lead to some very amusing antics on board which has had Izz and me in tears of laughter :)! iPad photo booth, I highly recommend it to make you giggle – pics to follow!

One other massive bonus for me is that (touch wood’ nada sea sickness and eating like a horse again! Woohoo! For me I think the Sopaderm patch with additional cinnazine when conditions change. Happy days! Huge thanks to Dr Spike Briggs from MSOS (medical services offshore) for getting the patches and extras sent to Tony for Santa Barbara.
Anyhow signing off now from the fore cabin. Thanks for all your continued support we love hearing from you and one final thing – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MUM and also my SISTER-IN-LAW KATIE. Thinking of you both today (16th May) xxx

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Day 2 – Take 2

Isabel Burnham By

We’re adjusting to life back on Doris. Last night we made steady progress along the coast to Point Conception and have now turned away from the shore and are headed West. Overnight I felt quite seasick which took me by surprise as I did so well to avoid it last time in the bigger seas. I’m currently paired up with Laura, who was a superstar and looked after me, and I’m feeling much better today so hopefully that’ll be the last of it.

SBdeparture

Last night was beautiful and starry but hard to stay awake as we are adapting to our 2 hours on 2 hours of sleep pattern again. The dawn shift is always the most difficult one for me to stay awake on, but this morning treated us to a beautiful sunrise and some sightings of dolphins. The daytime brought the first rain we have had. Laura and I sang as many songs as we could think of that mention rain to pass the time on the oars. After a lunch of freeze dried expedition foods (cottage pie for me and chicken pesto pasta for Laura) the sun came out and boosted our spirits.

Laura and I were discussing how amazing it is to think of so many people back at home following the little pink boat on our website. Hopefully this time you’ll be able to watch some consistent progress West to Hawaii! A couple of short personal messages:

Mummy, Daddy, Em, Ben and Phil – thinking of you all lots Wrens class – I hope you are enjoying following our journey The Dryden girls – I am averaging at least 2 renditions of Build Me Up Buttercup a day!

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Day 1 – Take 2

Natalia Cohen By

So… We’re off…again.

We left Santa Barbara harbour as the sun was setting on our home for the last week.
Although unscheduled, it’s been a good stopover with new insights and unexpected opportunities. The first 18 hours we had mild wind and calm sea conditions as we hugged the shoreline and retraced our steps from a week ago. Pelicans glided past us and it was great to have visual stimulation and a speed gauge by watching the coast.
Everyone was well dosed up with sea sickness pills and patches, except me, so fingers crossed the first week will be more pleasurable than last time for my girls!

Oar

Apart from a couple of hours when the wind direction and current meant we were struggling to make any progress (so we put out our anchor to avoid drifting backwards), all went smoothly.
That was until the night fell and whilst moving through the inky water, we found our speed suddenly plummet from 1.7 knots to 0.3! From nowhere we found ourselves in a ‘sea’ of kelp. The seaweed was long and thick and as it wrapped around our rudder and snaked up on our oars it was like a giant octopus/sea creature reaching out to cover Doris. The weight of the stuff was incredible and it was like trying to row in quick sand, where you feel as every move is getting you deeper intertwined. Patience and persistence got us through our small adventure for Day 1 and served to remind us that we have so much more to experience and to be prepared for anything that may come our way over the coming months… x

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