Archive for July, 2015

A productive day in Honolulu

The Team By

Today was a productive day on the beautiful island of Honolulu. This morning Nat, Izzy, Tony and Ems headed to the Hawaii Yacht Club to get started on our boat maintenance to do list. We audited the remaining food, added new footstraps to the boat, replaced the seat bearings with all new ceramic bearings kindly sent out by RM Bearings and got on with a whole lot of other DIY jobs. Ems has become the resident boat DIY queen and had a great day wielding a drill and a spanner.

While we were doing that, Lizanne and Laura were off at Costco and Walmart buying the food to go in our snack packs. They arrived back with a car full of dried fruit, nuts, cereal bars and porridge oats and then we set the parents to work dividing them up in to individual portions.

snackpacks

This afternoon we also had our most exciting media commitment yet involving hair, makeup and an entertaining photo shoot. Watch this space to see where we end up in October.

This evening we finally have a bit of a rest. Our amazing host families from the yacht club are looking after us like their own and Donna has made Cornish pasties especially for Laura, and Loretta made delicious chicken and rice. Yum! The hospitality we have received by these incredible women has been mind blowing and we really can’t thank them enough. It is making our brief experience here so much richer!

We are generally so amazed by the reception we have had on the island and the generosity and helpfulness of everyone we have met that it will make it very hard to say goodbye at the weekend!

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Aloha Hawaii

The Team By

We’ve arrived!!

We apologise for the delay in writing this blog, but since arriving at 19:30 last night, it has been a whirlwind of events.

Hawaii Arrival

We were overwhelmed (understandment!) by the reception we received at the Hawaii Yacht Club yesterday. We were expecting to be greeted by our parents and a couple of local friends, but as we rounded the corner into the yacht club, we suddenly heard the hum of cheers from many people along the dockside. It was amazing!

Hawaii

We promised ourselves that we would step off the boat as a team and in one go and so that we did, followed quickly with being showered in leis and handed a glass of beautiful, bubbly, ice cold champagne. It was an emotional greeting for Laura with her parents and Natalia’s parents too, alongside the wonderful Sarah Moshman the Director of Losing Sight of Shore (our documentary).

Hawaii

The evening proceeded with many celebrations along with an interview with the wonderful Sara Cox on BBC Radio 2. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0628vs7 – 2 hours 9 minutes in)

We have been overwhelmed and in awe of the support we have received, not just here in Hawaii but also back home seeing all the amazing messages on facebook and twitter etc. After today we plan to reply to as many messages as we can whilst we’re on land, but please take our heartfelt thank you for your support, it really means the world to us.

 

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Land Ahoy!!

The Team By

Land ahoy!

Last night, towards the end of a lovely sunset shift for Nats and Izzy, the first stars began to appear. Ems and Laura took over and once it was fully dark and they were rowing under a beautiful starry sky, they spotted some small white lights low on the horizon to Doris’s port side. Land!

We are rowing Northwest of the Hawaiian chain of islands towards Honolulu on the island of Oahu. This morning at dawn, the silhouette of the nearest island to us became visible and as the sun rose it unveiled a magnificent, green, mountainous island about 8 nautical miles south of us. The hills have steep cliffs and ridges stretching down to the water like enormous buttresses. There is no sign of habitation. It looks like a magical, prehistoric land, right out of Jurassic Park!

The little blue bubble that we have been rowing in for the last 67 days is no more and we have something new to look at beyond the sea. We have had a wonderful day rowing past land and watching the wildlife, including seeing a magnificent frigate bird dive, catch, and swallow whole an enormous flying fish.

The next island that we will see is Oahu. We are currently 40 nautical miles from the waypoint where we will rendezvous with Tony and Sarah Moshman. Dry land and a shower is tantalizingly close, but we have learnt not to become complacent. Nearing land presents its own hazards for us. We expect to see some other boats and to experience mixed currents and winds before our final touch down. We are focussing on arriving safely at Hawaii Yacht Club and enjoying the final row in. So close now!

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Day 66 – Lessons of life

Natalia Cohen By

Day 66 – Lessons of Life

We were overwhelmed by your messages of support after my last blog. We are constantly amazed and truly humbled to know we have so many incredible people following our journey. You really have no idea how much inspiration and strength we gain from YOU while we are out here in the middle of the big blue. Thank you x

Update:

– The race is now on to see if Ems will finish the pot of Nutella first or LP will polish off the Skippy peanuts butter.
– We are all a little overly obsessed with counting down the miles to our rendezvous point on the chart plotter.
– We’ve divided up the remaining sweets now our snack packs have run dry. Swizzles new range called drumstick Squashies are definitely my firm favourite! I’ve only got one pack left and I’m going to save them for when I see Tony and Sarah at the meeting point.
– Sadly our black bucket is no longer functional. We are now using the red bucket for all occasions!
-We still have our nighttime escort of mahi-mahi travelling with us.
– We have seen our first Brown Boobie and are looking out for other new birds – We are now within VHF range for the US Coastguard sector Hawaii and get to hear all their announcements.
– Izz and I saw a shark attack a mahi-mahi on our morning shift!

Outside of our routined existence where everything else is insignificant, we have all the time in the world for contemplation. If you haven’t all already gathered by now, I’m the ‘everything happens for a reason’, ‘lt’s all about the journey’, ‘learn as much as you can from your eras of life’ kind of person and I’m definitely the most ‘let’s wish on stars’, ‘salute the fading sun’, ‘stop to hear the silence of the night’, back to the moment member of the team.

So…apart from a handful of (understandable) frustrating episodes that have been shared, I defy anyone to not be mindful out here on this magnificent ocean. It automatically happens every day from watching the birds soar gracefully around the boat, to being mesmerised by the the ever changing waters and skies.

There have been many simple lessons that have been highlighted to me during my various journeys and many are similar to the ones being reinforced and reflected upon out here on the almighty Pacific. They are nothing new, nothing revolutionary but always need to be remembered… I think.

1. Everything changes

2. We may not be able to control the situations that we find ourselves in but we can decide how we choose to react to them.

3. When you find yourself in nature there is always something of the marvelous to be experienced.

4.Love your body in whatever form, shape or size it comes in. Your health is one of the most important things you have, so cherish it. Rejoice in your body’s adaptability, strength and resilience.

5. Have belief in yourself and the strength of others

6. Pay attention. It’s all about the small things

7. Learn how to laugh – at yourself and with others.

8. ‘Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints.’
Travel responsibly and respect our planet.
We all have a part to play in the future of our oceans. We need to be mindful not to add to the existing plastic pollution and take steps to prevent this from worsening.

9. Challenges will come in many disguises and hit you from all angles. Face them head on, one by one and even if you find yourself caught in a current – keep rowing.

10. Wherever possible – be in the present moment. That’s where the magic happens!

x

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Day 65

Emma Mitchell By

As I lie back in our sweat pit of a cabin to write this blog we are 151nm from Honolulu. So near and yet so far! For Izzy this is the end of the journey and for Lizanne it will be the beginning but for Laura, Nats and I it is only a short stop off as we are only a third of the way through our row. We always said that getting back in the boat in Hawaii would be the hardest part of our journey and it is at this point that what we are doing is so different to any other ocean row. Most ocean rowers as they approach land will be excited for celebrations of their success whereas we have a week to unpack, clean, repair and repack Doris before setting off for another at least 60 days at sea. And even after that we won’t be finished! I can’t speak for the other two but for me not getting back on board is not even an option as we haven’t completed what we set out to do yet but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a busy and challenging week on land ahead. Although reaching Hawaii is a big milestone, celebrations will be short lived as we have so much to do to get Doris and ourselves ship shape for the Samoa leg. As part of our weekly sit rep for Keith yesterday he had us include our hopes and fears for our time in Hawaii so I thought i’d share mine with you.

I hope that we take the time in Hawaii to celebrate what we have achieved as a team so far. We are going to miss Izzy. She sings us songs, tells us endless stories, is always there with a comforting word when you’re having a bad day and has the best dawn dance of all of us. Besides who is going to teach me poems or eat Nutella with a spoon straight from the jar with me (Lizanne I have you pencilled in for this role!) Importantly we also have to integrate Lizanne into the team and get her up to speed with everything she needs to know before we set off. The four of us have spent a lot of time together getting this project to the start line whereas Lizanne has spent minimal time with us and all of our recent contact has been via Skype. This will be both a challenge and a joy. Familiarity with each other and how we react to things is important however spending every waking and sleeping minute together will soon sort this out. We are all excited to have someone on the boat who hasn’t already heard all our stories and who hasn’t already told us all of theirs.

I also hope that we are able to use the time on land to share our story further. We are aiming to raise £250k for our two inspiring charities Breast Cancer Care and Walking With The Wounded and there is still a long way to go so we hope our arrival on solid ground will kickstart our fundraising. Another way we will tell our story is through the amazing Sarah Moshman, director/ producer of a documentary about our journey called ‘Losing sight of shore’. Sarah is coming out on a boat with the ever helpful Steve Dixon from the Hawaii Yacht Club to meet us about 5nm from our destination to capture some footage of our arrival. We can’t wait to see you Sarah!

I hope that we have time to recover and regroup both physically and mentally. For the last 65 days we have been rowing for 12 hours in every day and living with three other people in a space shorter than the men’s long jump world record where there is no space to stand up of stretch out without being pressed against another sweaty rower. We all have niggles and aches and pains. I feel lucky that physically I feel ok but after 16 days at sea walking on solid ground in Santa Barbara made me ache and I felt drunk and wobbly the whole week so I’m a little scared what I’ll be like now it’s been 65 days and counting. Hopefully a week will be long enough to heal and fix us up ready for the next leg.

I fear that we have so much to get done whilst on land that we will not take the time to have some rest and time to ourselves. My family won’t be out in Hawaii but I will want to spend time on Skype with them getting to have a conversation longer than 10mins on the sat phone. Laura and Nat’s parents will be there and it is important that they get to spend some time with them. We could all do with a bit of personal space after being cramped together for what has already been 81 days at sea. We also need to thank all the many people who have been sending us funny, motivational and inspiring messages while we’ve been out here. With another at least two months at sea before we reach landfall again there is also a lot of personal admin to get done.

So we are counting down our miles left to go and hoping to arrive on Sunday but we can’t relax too much as for the three of us rowing the full Pacific Ocean we mustn’t get too used to the comforts of land remembering that our beautiful 29ft pink boat Doris is still our home for at least another few months.

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Day 64 – A Mixture of Events

Laura Penhaul By

Day 64 blog- a mixture of events

I always imagined, that after 2weeks at sea i’d be struggling to find things to blog about, but yet on day 64 I have at least 3 key events that I want to share with you but with no time to separate them before we arrive in Hawaii, I’ve bundled them into this one blog.

Firstly, it was my parents 40th wedding anniversary at the weekend and I hear that their celebrations with friends was more eventful than a 21st birthday party! So many things i’d love to write about my folks and their lovely friends, but I’ll save this for another blog. One key thing though, is that my parents’ beautiful relationship is why they are amazing role models to me and why I dream of one day finding a man that will put up with me for 40 years.

Secondly, Adam Sargent (@beersargent) is a good friend of mine after he married one of my best friends Heather. As you’ll notice in his twitter handle, his job title for many years has been a ‘beer specialist’. As you can imagine, sport was never high on the agenda and was a constant debate that we’d have between us. Until 6 months ago, Adam hadn’t sat on the saddle of a bike since a child, which is why I was taken aback when I saw his Facebook post at new year which said he’d signed up to do a 204mile cycle ride in aid of his late father for a cardiac charity. Cycling is my preferred sport and any cyclist will tend to have a love of bikes and often more than one stashed in the garage. Seeing as I was now rowing and will be out of the country for 6months, I offered my Giant TCR to Adam as it was actually too big for me anyway so I figured would suit him. Seeing the start of his training was slow (ie. didn’t collect the bike until March!), I thought I’d offer an incentive that he could keep the bike as long as he finished the race. Yesterday I got a wonderful text from Ads which brought a tear to my eye, he had completed the race! Even after many times of wanting to give up he didn’t & made it across the line in last place. I can’t explain how proud I am to see him complete this & if this row creates any small motivation or inspiration to others like this, then we are truly humbled.

So, finally and certainly not least, following Izzy’s wonderful blog yesterday, I couldn’t blog today without saying a few words about Izz. I’ve realised that today will be my very last day of ever rowing with Izzy before we rotate our pairs tomorrow. Never again will we row in Doris together… Such a surreal thought.

Miss Burnham has without a doubt, been a pillar of strength to the row and to the team, both in her efforts of getting Doris prepped for the startline and whilst out at sea.

In true Izzy style, I will list here the things that I will miss the most about Izzy (note they are numerical and no more or less than 10);
1) her singing – without question izzy has the best voice by far out of any of us and whether day or night, with or without music, her dulcet tones were the Sound of Music in the Pacific.

2) Amazing Narrator – I have never met someone who can narrate in such detail, a movie/ book/story such as Izzy. Lord of the Rings with all their complicated character names and places, just dripped off the tongue like it was normal language, I felt like I’d watched the film after she finished, truly brilliant.

3) the brain – Izz is special. She has a gift like no other. In our sleep deprived, lack of energy or focused state, she can read a poem of 8 or more verses and no lie, within less than 5 minutes she would have remembered the whole poem word for word! Unbelievable!

4) ‘right then..’ – whenever Izz is about to do something, she psychs herself up and starts a sentence with ‘right then…’ And you wait to hear what next but nothing else is said, rather the phrase is just repeated until she starts to move (love this!).

5) quote queen – whether a quote from a movie, a song, a poem or a person, Izz would name it and it would be word for word. She always wondered why none of us wanted to play the ‘guess the quote’ game surprised that our minds didn’t quite work the same.

6) thoughtfulness – Izzy is always the one to remember a birthday or what people’s favourite things are. She is observational from afar and subtly picks you up if you were down.

7) peanut M&M’s – who will now eat all the packets of peanut M&M’s when izzy is gone?!

8) Love of her family – Izz has shared so many stories of her family in great detail that I feel I know Philippa and Emily (her sisters) extremely well.

9) kind and caring- I saw this first hand, after 5 days of vomiting and not being a fit state, partnering with izzy, she continued to support me whilst I was at my most vulnerable.

10) reading machine- most of us have listened to audiobooks and maybe managed to read 1book if we’re lucky, but Izz has exceeded that by far and has read over 10books!

Thankfully for the birds and the fish I understand that Lizanne has a wonderful singing voice, so this will make a good replacement. We will however miss the Burnham but will look forward to the regular updates from back home and can’t wait for the reunion after Australia!

Xx

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Day 63 – The time is near

Isabel Burnham By

Day 63 – And now, the time is near

Subject to any further delays as we approach Hawaii, this will likely be my final blog written aboard Doris. I will be saying goodbye to Laura, Nat and Ems in Hawaii and the wonderful Lizanne will be slotting into my seat and rowing with them to Samoa, before fabulous Meg takes over and rows the final stretch to Cairns.

With 230 nautical miles still to row, we are all still very focused on getting ourselves and Doris to that pontoon at Hawaii Yacht Club and it seems a bit early to start reflecting on our journey. I will no doubt write another blog when I’m home and have had the chance for everything to sink in a bit.

It is with mixed emotions that I approach Hawaii. We are all overjoyed to be so near land after what has turned out to be a much longer first leg than we initially anticipated. Thoughts of celebrations, fresh food, friendly faces, a proper shower and a sleep longer than an hour and a half are creeping to the fronts of our minds. However, we are not there yet and we are also aware that we have a great deal to get done in Hawaii to turn Doris around for the second leg to Samoa and to properly hand over the baton from me to Lizanne.

For me, there is also the huge excitement of heading home to see my precious family, friends and the good old English countryside. I’m particularly looking forward to meeting my nephew, Hugo, who is now just under seven weeks old, seeing my school friend Edwina get married to Ben at the start of August, and finding my way back into some hills in northern England. At the same time, I will be saying a very sad goodbye to the three incredible women who I have shared every waking and sleeping minute with since 19 April. It will be so strange without them. Other people haven’t learnt to anticipate what it is that I’m about to ask for in the same way and are unlikely to put up so well with my singing and nonsense stories. All our in jokes will be too difficult to explain to people back home and probably aren’t that funny anyway when you’re not in a tiny boat in the middle of the world’s largest ocean! I can honestly say that I couldn’t imagine better friends to have made this crossing with. It will be hard to see them head on without me, but I’ll be pleased for them having lovely Lizanne on board and so proud and excited for them all heading onwards on the next step of their epic journey.

I am increasingly conscious that these are my last days aboard Doris and I am trying my best to enjoy every moment and not to wish them away in eagerness to arrive. I will never again be in this position and I am trying my best to save the excitement of reaching land and getting home and, for now, to appreciate the beauty of the Pacific and the company of the girls.

In one of my early blogs I listed some things that I have learnt aboard Doris. After 63 days, I feel ready to add to that list.

1) I will not be upset if I never see another flying fish again

2) Never get too excited by prevailing winds and following seas. All you need is an adverse current and you can still make depressingly slow progress

3) Two hours is a very long and very short amount of time, depending on how you spend it

4) Never attempt any expedition without talcum powder

5) You will always end up with suncream in your eyes, even if you never put it on your forehead

6) None of this would have been possible without our wonderful core support team and the support of our fantastic charities, sponsors and supporters, so thank you, thank you, thank you

7) Tony Humphreys is (nearly) always right

8) Laura Penhaul provides endless amusement with her sleep-deprived gobbledygook in the small hours of the morning, can eat more protein shakes and bars than Arnie and knows the words to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air rap. She makes things happen and is one of the most brilliantly determined, professional and thoughtful people I have ever met

9) Emma Mitchell is an excellent maker of funny faces and never ceases to surprise me (“when I was in circus school”, “when I was rollerblading the Berlin marathon”, “when I rode the Lloyds bank horse”). She has a contagious smile, is a steadfast friend and I have no doubt that she will be (quietly) successful in anything she turns her hand to next (unless it requires smiling and speaking in coherent sentences within 10 minutes of waking up)

10) Natalia Cohen dances better and smells less than the rest of us. She makes disgusting concoctions by mixing her food and her Irish accent sounds suspiciously Scottish. She is inspiringly passionate and lives her life in such joyful, screaming colour that you can’t help but let it rub off on you

11) Lizanne and Meg, you’ll have a blast

12) This may well be the soppiest thing I’ve ever written

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Day 62 – Need for Speed

Natalia Cohen By

Day 62 – Need for Speed

I had a blog all planned and good to go. It was uplifting and inspiring and all about the lessons of life that have been reinforced to me while we’ve been out here journeying across the almighty Pacific.
That blog will have to wait.

For the 60 good days there has to be at least a couple not so good. The last few hours have been among my most frustrating so far and I made a deal with myself to share the real journey, with its ups and its downs, so I will write about this dip instead.

We are now 287 nm from Honolulu and mentally and physically, I think we’re all very ready to make landfall.

The last 24 hours have been challenging. We’ve had big swell and high winds in the right direction but a counter current that has halted our progress dramatically and meant we have been travelling at a very dishearteningly low speed.

This close to Hawaii, with the end now in sight, everything seems a little more urgent.
We’re ready to arrive.

All the clothes we own are filthy and always damp, we’re tired and to be honest, a little sea weary. Everything smells of fish, feet and sweat! Our electrical devices are dying and we’ve run out of snack packs. We’re all feeling a little bruised and battered.
It’s time…

The sea state was uncomfortable to row in during the day and even more so at night. I lost count of the number of times I bashed my own knees, shins, thighs, groin and stomach with the oars as they got submerged by a wave and then released with force.

With no moon for most of the night shifts, we were engulfed in an impenetrable black darkness that disguised the arrival of waves. We rowed with an expectant alertness and quiet resignation of the incessant pitch and roll of the boat.
It’s exhausting and not very pleasant but we all took it in our stride.

Inside the airless cabin the situation was also trying. We lay in a pool of sweat and rocked back and forth knocking against one another, every time Doris moved.

This was also, without a doubt my worst 24 hour’s day’s sleep so far. with an average of about 3 hours.

On my awake after my second night shift I was preparing for the 2 hour row and putting sudocrem on my behind when a huge wave lurched me forward head first into the switch panel. As both my hands were being used at the time to apply said cream, I had nothing to break my fall except for my…head. It was quite a thump and I swear I actually saw tweetie birds/stars like the cartoons.

Must have been quite amusing to witness but let me tell you – it was really quite horrendous at the time!

We all know how quickly things change – so here’s hoping that by the time you are all reading this blog the current is finally with us.

For all her beauty and majesty, the ocean can also be a little troublesome and cruel. She is always in control and has a lesson to teach.

So…we soldier on but I can speak on behalf of all of us when I say…bring on Hawaii!!! x

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Day 61 – An electric blue escort and a flyby from a friend

Emma Mitchell By

Day 61 – An electric blue escort and a flyby from a friend

Yesterday was a rather frustrating day as we had about 24 hours of painfully slow progress with mixed up winds and sea state following tropical storm Ela. We spent far more time than we would have wanted travelling at 0.1kts and in one four hour period we covered only a single nautical mile. It means that currently we are about 36 hours behind where we had expected. With favorable winds forecast for the next week we should be able to make up some ground but it is looking likely that our arrival into the Hawaii Yacht Club will be delayed by a day. All character building stuff as we’d been having it quite easy surfing along for a few days previously.

However in the evening things started looking up on board Doris. Firstly our speed picked up enough for us to switch the autopilot back on. Then Nat and I on our first dark shift were joined by a huge shoal of the electric blue mahi mahi fish. They were swimming along the boat on both sides, their bodies shimmering silver in the beam from our nav light. They are really inquisitive and were getting really close to our oars as we were rowing. So close in fact that both Nat and I managed to clip one as we were paddling. The fish stayed with us all night over a period of 8 hours and there must have been hundreds of them passing us in total. It was a pretty awesome experience and we spent a lot of time chatting to them as we rowed along.

Then this morning we had another visit from our friends the cargo ship Mokihana. They had emailed us to let us know that they should be passing us around 6pm UTC and so we had been excited about seeing them all night. They were a little bit later than expected and so Nat and I were out on the oars when they made contact on the VHF radio again. Laura had a good chat with them as they approached. Apparently among their current cargo is a couple of hundred head of cattle and a circus petting zoo. The petting zoo includes a donkey called Mokihana who was born on board the ship last year! Since it was daylight this time we could see them approaching and they are HUGE! A call came through on the radio from captain Tom ‘we’re going shaving, don’t worry we won’t nick you.’ They came for a proper flyby this time passing around 450m in front of us altering their course so they could get a good view. They were close enough that we could see them out on deck waving at us as we had a great time waving and whistling back. They are going to send us some photos so we can see what Doris looks like from that perspective. It properly made our day again and we are really grateful for them taking the time out to come and see us again.

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