Day 49 – Our Best Year Yet!

Update: In the last 24 hours we’ve been treated to the highest winds we’ve had since leaving Santa Barbara. Intermittent squalls have come with dark, menacing clouds, driving rain and waves faintly visible by the misty moonlight coming at us from all angles.
Safe to say we’re all wet again but not quite as cold as we were. We are thankful for some fresh water to rinse out our salt encrusted wet weather gear but find that as soon as that happens, we get dumped on by yet another saltwater wave undoing all the good work! However, yet again, we remain in high spirits and still laugh at ourselves and with each other. Why?

I am truly dumbfounded and quite frankly astounded by how the 4 of us have dealt with life over the last 49 (or 65 from San Fran) days.
Why have we not wanted to kill one another?
Why have we not had moments of complete frustration with how long this leg is taking us?
Why are we not completely delirious from sleep exhaustion?
Why do we never complain about getting up every two hours to go and sit on the oars in driving rain, pitch black darkness, rough sea state, cold or hot conditions?
Why are we still joking, laughing, looking after each other and in essence…working amazingly well together as a team?

There are definitely a number of reasons…but for now I want to share one of them with you.

I love how there is a universal order to how things happen in life.
2 serendipitous moments led us to working with the amazing Andrew Duncan at New Level Results to create a Best Year Yet programme that has helped streamline us as a team and get to the start line as well as how we are functioning out here on the Pacific.

Flash back to 2001 when I was working in Nepal and I met a group of people who had just come back from the most successful summiting of Mount Everest in history. They had broken 4 World Records and their elation at conquering the roof of the world was incredible. First blind man to summit, oldest man to summit, first father/son team to summit and most people to summit at any one time.
Turns out that they had been following a Best Year Yet programme.

Flash back to 2012 when I was working in Mallorca and my path crossed with Andrew and we spent a few hours talking about values and with the aid of his value cards I had to whittle down 10 of my top important life values into only one.

Andrew and I remained friends and reconnected in the UK when I got involved with the row. Turns out that the programme offered by Andrew was the glue that allowed us to put procedures firmly in place and gave us a solid framework to follow to improve our effectiveness as a team – vital to the success of the expedition.

Although we are all very different characters, we are able to work really well together as we have a shared objective and shared values. This is very important.
We’ve always had clear objectives.
Best Year Yet (BYY) helped us set out our objectives, our top 10 goals and prioritise what needed to be done. It was just what we needed to keep all our admin together in one tidy and effective package.
We needed an online system that would not take up too much of our time and would help us all focus on the job at hand and keep us all on track. It made each of us accountable for championing certain areas and get results!

The other great thing about the program is that we have an external coach/facilitator work with us. They are objective, there is no personal tie to the project and they can offer a unique professional perspective.

Our project has been in 2 stages:
Stage 1 – Getting to the start line Essentially setting up a business. We had to deal with areas including sponsorship, PR/Media/Marketing, logistics, finances, legal and admin
Stage 2 – Successful crossing of the Pacific, the expedition

Below are some of the guidelines we came up with for Stage 2.

Coxless Guidelines
1. Believe in yourself, trust in each other and the strength of the team
2. Row with SPIRIT (our values)
3. Be unstoppable, stroke by stroke

Coxless Paradigm
Control the controllable and conquer our Pacific

Major Focus
Enjoy the journey! Live in the moment

Inspiring and encouraging others to reach their full potential is exactly what New Level Results and BYY aim to do through their programmes and is also exactly what our expedition is all about. A HUGE thank you to Andrew and the team and we look forward to our next review in Hawaii! We’re certainly doing our best to ensure we all enjoy the journey x

www.newlevelresults.co.uk

Day 45 – The Inspiration Wall

Update: – Less than 990 miles to go to Hawaii!! Yeeeehhhaaaaaa!
– We are all getting really dodgy tan lines!

As well as being the ‘entertainer’ aboard Doris, I am also the mindfulness monitor. I am responsible for ensuring that we all enjoy as many of the moments out here that we can, or at least reflect on the journey so far and find the time to think about daily highlights and lowlights, hopes and fears.
From time to time I’ll throw a random question out to the girls or suggest we do a body scan or just stop rowing and watch the orange globe sink behind the sea to end another day or drink in a star filled sky.

The one luxury we do have out here is time…and plenty of it. Time to be practical, ridiculous, to ponder, to reflect, to think and to stop thinking.
One of the ‘easy’ questions I’ve been asking the girls is, “what is the most important thing in life for you?”

I don’t have my definitive answer yet and apart from the usual replies of love, happiness, family, talc powder (!!) the one thing that stands out for me is that I have always made an effort in my life to enjoy the journey. During the different eras and experiences that I have had, apart from the natural beauty and energy of a place, the highlight for me has always been the people that I have met along the way.

Whether for a reason, a season or a lifetime, most of the people that have crossed my path have had an impact on my journey of life. Whilst having the time to recount all these personal life stories out here in the middle of the deep blue, I find myself following many of the names of a person who features in a story with,

“They’re on the wall”.

The wall being referred to is our ‘Buy A Mile inspiration Wall’. This is the ceiling of our fore cabin that is covered with the names of all our followers, family and friends. The names are all different sizes depending on how many miles a person has bought (£10 per mile and the more miles you buy, the bigger your name).

This wall of names is our inspiration, our drive, our motivation and for some of us, almost a condensed version of the people that have touched our lives and those we hope to still meet. I have been truly humbled and at times felt totally in awe of the support that we have received not only on a personal level from people that I know but also by the incredible generosity from random strangers as well as the friends and colleagues of the other girls.

We do not have words to express our deepest gratitude for your support and the money that has gone into Buy A Mile (BAM), has been instrumental to getting us here where we are today and will hopefully help us to complete this extraordinary expedition.
We are happy and honoured to not only have each of you in spirit, but also to have your name physically share in our long, arduous journey riding the waves of the mighty Pacific with us!

I can safely say that almost everyone that has touched my heart, features on the BAM wall and there is something quite magical about lying beneath it and drinking in all the love and support.
In difficult times, I know that this will be a great source of energy for me.

There will be many more BAM blogs to come from all of us over the coming months as we all have our own stories to share of friendships, inspiration, romance and insight gained by people that feature on the wall.
In the meantime, to those of you that are already travelling with us – THANK YOU, and to those that would still like to be part of the journey from Hawaii or from Samoa, we very much look forward to having you join us x

Buy A Mile

Day 41 – Let’s get physical

Update:

• We believe we have passed our half way mark! Woohhhoooooo!! We haven’t seen our miles made good table but by careful scrutiny of our chart plotter it certainly appears that way.
• I officially went the longest I have ever gone without washing my hair! 40 days and 40 nights. It was washed yesterday whilst we had our second group shower on deck. Amazing!
• It was a spectacular sunset, clear starry night and a sunrise that led to a day of prevailing wind and clear blue sky. LP and I woke from our rest shift at 10.15am dripping with sweat! The aft cabin was roasting. If it’s not too cold it’s too hot! Are we ever satisfied??! This is a taste of things to come, as from now on it’s just going to get hotter and hotter.
• We had a great social hour today, where we all got out on deck and did some stretching led by LP.

We would say that this journey is 90% mental but…

Maybe you’re interested in what is happening to us physically.
LP has collaborated with GSK to do research on what could possibly happen to us out here during an expedition of this type and length (more detailed, scientific info regarding the research pre, mid and post row to come on a later blog by LP).

In the meantime I thought I’d do a simple run down in layman’s terms on what the last 41 days has brought.

In order to have the necessary extra reserves, we all had to put on between 7-12kg, increase our fat percentage and gain substantial muscle mass before beginning the row. This programme was drawn up by the amazing Alex Wolf (Strength & Conditioning Coach) in conjunction with LP.

Whether from the cramped conditions during the rest periods or the 12 hours of rowing that we do daily, here is some of the physical symptoms we have been experiencing:

Muscle soreness
– Tired/aching legs
– Stiff neck, back and shoulders – general stiffness in the body as we are mainly hunching, crouching or crawling around the aft cabin when we are not rowing.

Joint pain
– Claw Hand is probably the worst ailment for some of us. Every time we wake from a 2 hour rest shift, our hands have seized up. LP says that this is tendon related as well and has given us tendon gliding exercises to do (she can explain more about this). Getting dressed can be a little bit of a challenge as well as the first 10 or so strokes on the oars before we get warmed up.

– Seat bone pain is an issue for some. We are spending an usually large time sitting and for some with more pronounced seat bones or less ‘padding’, this has started to cause discomfort. We have a variety of different seat options to try and help with this problem but for some, getting out on the oars for a 2 hour row shift is just a pain in the arse!

Muscle wasting – Most of the amazing muscles that we had when we launched…have sadly disappeared.
This was expected but personally I never knew how quickly it would happen.
If you don’t use it, you lose it, so as we are only using a very select group of muscles out here, the others are wasting. Again, LP will go into more detail regarding this and all the varying exercises we need to do to ensure that we stay as conditioned as we can given the unique environment we are living in.

Other – The strangest things are happening to our nails! They have white marks beginning to run down from the nail toward the cuticle. Possible calcium deficiency but they seem to be improving somewhat the drier we remain. –

Hands – we’re not doing too badly here. We all have nice calluses developing on both hands at the base of our index, middle and ring fingers. These are rock solid and make putting suncream on our own faces and bodies an interesting process as it feels terrible!

– Skin This has been constantly peeling/flaking away on our hands and on some people’s feet. This makes clothes washing interesting as all our relatively clean clothes are covered in our dead skin from our hands as we wring them out before drying!
We need to be careful to maintain good hygiene routines to help prevent fungal and bacterial infections which are a constant risk with the wet conditions. I fear that this may increase the further west we travel and the hotter and more humid the weather becomes.

– Bums – Angry bum has already been mentioned and we’re happy to report that since we have been drier this has improved dramatically. There can still be issues with chaffing and we need to be aware that the situation with angry bum can revert quickly as soon we are getting splashed again and have to move back into our wet weather gear all the time!

– Sleep deprivation

– Sun damage

Once again…it’s fascinating to see what we usually take for granted…
Standing straight on solid ground
Being still
Having the space and capacity to exercise, stretch, and work all areas of the body and have a variety of movement…

Regardless of the adverse conditions we find ourselves in here on Doris, in the middle of the almighty Pacific, it is truly amazing to witness first hand how adaptable the body actually is.
I have no doubt there will be more physical challenges ahead…but together, as a team, we will share, face and overcome them x

Father’s Day Blog

Being out here in the middle of nothingness with all the time in the world, gives you an amazing opportunity to think long and hard about what is important to you in the ‘real world’ and how we have become the people we are. Obviously the main thing that we all agree on is that family is paramount. It is their support, guidance and encouragement that we truly appreciate and are forever thankful to them.

LP and I spent one of today’s shifts taking about our wonderful parents and we reflected on how both of us share a mixture of traits from both our mothers and our fathers (the good bits of course!). There is so much respect and admiration we have for our mums but as it’s Fathers Day today, we thought we would share with you an insight into our fantastic dads and what we believe some of the traits are that we have been lucky enough to have inherited from them.

Laura
My dad has always taught me strong morales, he is a man that is laid back and easy going but will stick to what he believes in. He is compassionate and will show his kind, caring nature in going above and beyond to help others. He’s taught me the art of problem solving and without a doubt has instilled in me to see things through and never give up. On a practical note, I can certainly thank my dad for my driving skills, having been taught from a young age in the fields of Cornwall. This means I love driving any car, at any opportunity, in any location and I’m not a female afraid of parking in small spaces (which came in handy on the hills of San Fran!).
My dad has shown me the values that we share as a team, he has taught me integrity, trust and above all he is my inspirational father figure, that I am very lucky to have. Love you Dad xx

Natalia
I get my patience and the love of meeting new people from my dad. He is the peacekeeper in the family and I seem to have also adopted that trait.
My dad has always been one of my heroes. There are many reasons for this but the main one has to be the admiration I feel for him dealing with the huge challenge he faced as a young man. My dad has certainly overcome his own adversity by not only fighting and overcoming cancer but also the life changing experience of losing a limb (right leg, above the knee amputation).
He has always been the most incredible father and encouraged me to be the free spirit that I am. He embodies the values that we live by on Doris by showing not only strength and resilience but also great perseverance. He is my constant inspiration.

To all those fathers out there, Happy Fathers Day!

Day 33 – Monotony and chunking!

There have been and will continue to be many challenges that we face out here in the mighty Pacific. I’d say one of the main forms of adversity of ocean rowing, due to the 12x two hour shift patterns that are continually repeated, is the monotony of it all. Every time you awake from a rest shift to get back out onto the oars for your 2 hour row shift it feels a little like groundhog day.
Luckily we had previously considered this issue and as some members of the team need variety more than others (clearly obvious from our personality testing we had done), and so we have a number of ways to try to disguise the monotonous way of life out here.

*Team dynamic
Every 4 days or so we change rowing partners. This is a great way to mix things up a bit. As each of us is really different, so our team dynamic changes with a rowing partner swap giving instant variety.

*The shifts
We rotate rowing position every shift so that when you are in the front position you are in charge of steering and then the next shift you move to the back rowing position etc
The view from the back seat is the back of the front rower and the view of the front rower is the front of the aft cabin bulkhead and cabin.
We have a plan pre rowing shift what we want that shift to be and options include music listening, story telling, silence, reflective or a mix of any of the options.

*The sleeping positions
The 2 rowers resting are usually both in the aft cabin. We do a head to toe sleeping arrangement and even that we vary. Each shift we will rotate the position that we lie (facing the stern of the boat or facing the deck) as well as sleeping bags and pillows!

*Food
As we have now audited and rationed our food, we know exactly how many of each type of meal there is remaining. We make sure that we all eat the same number of each meal and it makes sense to eat a different meal each day until the rotation begins again.
There is a good variety generally with our freeze dried food including spaghetti bolognese, shepherds pie, savoury beef, chicken korma, beef curry, macaroni cheese, scrambled egg, beef and potato hotpot, vegetable noodles, sweet & sour chicken, beef stroganoff and chilli con carne.
We have breakfast, desserts and we also have our daily snack packs which are all slightly different.

*The sea
50 shades of blue!
I never knew sea blue had so many subtle differences but when you spend 12 hours of every day staring out at it, this begins to become noticeable.
There is also the forever changing sea state which makes the days varied.

*The sky
When not an overcast and continuously grey sky and pitch black night, (which we are having at the moment), the ever changing cloud formations never cease to amaze me. Rowing shifts change between dawn, day, sunset, nighttime with a starry or moonlit sky and this offers variation.

*Enjoying the journey
We each write a blog. Every day would soon become monotonous but every 4 days is very manageable as we rotate between the four of us and we all love sharing our journey with you. That’s what this is all about. Sharing the highs and the lows and dealing with all the challenges we have and will have to face – together.

*My personal passion is photography and although I was unable to bring my own personal SLR camera, I am still making an effort to capture as many moments out here as I can. Trying to be creative and come up with a variety of different types of shot definitely keeps me on my toes.
In case you’re interested I also seem to have adopted a strange habit of speaking in different accents daily – so that also keeps me highly amused.

The big picture of this expedition is overwhelming. We’ve already been out here 33 days and are still a long way from Hawaii. We have a very very long way to go to Cairns and thinking about that is daunting.

It’s all about breaking things down into bite sized manageable sections or ‘chunking’, as we call it. It’s all about the chunking!

Stroke by stroke
Shift by shift
Day by day
Week by week
Leg by leg

We attempt to stay in the moment and not project too much into the future or worry about how long we’ve been out here already and how long we still have to go.
Instead we concentrate our energies on what food we will eat, what speed we have just reached, the story we are listening to, the way the sea moves, the sensations in our hands, bum, hips etc
As we have mentioned before, all we can do is control the controllable and make it through the journey stroke by stroke and day by day. Mentally, this is what will make it the easiest to deal with.

We can imagine that this chunking process is the best way to deal with the changes and challenges that present themselves when recovering from injury or illness. We have so much respect and admiration for the women who are supported by our charities and are reminded constantly of the daily battles that they have to face. This is a huge part of our journey. A journey of our own discovery into how the mind works and how to make positive change when faced with adversity. Ultimately we want to share the stories of all women fighting breast cancer and the women fighting to create a new life after being injured at war with Walking With The Wounded.

When we feel that things are getting a little monotonous, all we really need to do is remind ourselves that this journey is finite and then draw strength and inspiration from all the women that we are honoured to be supporting x

Day 29 – Highs and Lows

As we near a month of continuous travel on the Pacific, the moments of beauty and wonder are interspersed with moments of disappointment and reality.

Day 29 highlight
The night shifts were the most surreal and magical so far. The sky was a star studded galaxy. We saw a satellite gliding above us and astonishingly bright shooting stars.
There was no moon and no wind. The ocean was still and I never knew she could actually be so still.
When Ems and I stopped rowing to breathe in the beauty, it was the deepest and most peaceful silence I’ve ever heard.

Day 29 lowlight
During every daytime rowing shift that passed by today, the constant in my view as I stared at the expanse of the water stretching around me in all directions, was plastic. We have seen numerous pieces of varying sized plastic debris floating by on a daily basis but the frequency at which we have now started seeing this debris is quite alarming.
We are the furthest away from land we have been so far.
We have not seen any boats for over a week and the only wildlife we have spotted is the odd albatross, shearwater, 2 unidentifiable fish and a small crab hitching a ride on a piece of small white plastic.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest, the deepest and the oldest ocean in the world.
It covers nearly half of the Earth’s water surface and about 32% of its total surface area.
It is larger than all of the Earth’s land area combined and at its deepest point, it is more than the height of Mt Everest. The almighty Pacific is a very special place but the distressing realisation that is that it is becoming one of the world’s largest rubbish tips is a sad but very real fact.

They say between 8 and 9 million tons of plastic enters the ocean each year. There are some areas, known as gyres, where circular currents converge that are known to be specific spots where a lot of this plastic collects. Each of the major oceans have plastic-filled gyres. There are gyres in the Northern Pacific, as well as what is commonly known as the ‘Great Pacific garbage patch’ and at least 5 trillion pieces of plastic!

This plastic pollution affects the environment, the economy and also our health.

Seabirds, marine mammals and certain eco systems all are under great threat.
Huge amounts of money is spent every year in an attempt to clean up coastlines and within fishing, shipping and tourism.
There are chemicals contained within plastics, as well as various pollutants that plastic can attract once it is in the marine environment.

When I did a Pacific crossing on a sailing expedition boat in 2012, we were actually monitoring plastic pollution amongst other things. For this journey, I joined the lovely Emily Penn who is an expert in this area of pollution, and friend and fellow adventurer, Dave Cornthwaite.

From the small amount of trawling we did, we managed to catch and dissect small fish and found that all of them had ingested many tiny pieces of plastic (micro plastic).

Toxic chemicals are absorbed by the plastic and after entering the food chain, can be found inside these fish, including ones consumed by humans. Some of the health effects linked to these chemicals are cancer.

It was an eye-opening experience and equally, so has the row been so far.
When you travel at the slow speed that we are moving, you see everything that moves in and around you in the ocean. I’ve seen large pieces of plastic float by and when I look closely in the brilliantly blue waters, I see the very small pieces of plastic too.
Plastic is EVERYWHERE.

As a small token please all take personal responsibility for your plastic usage and disposal/recycle. As a great man once said…

‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ Ghandi

x

Day 21 – A day in the life…

Shift 1 (5.15-7.15) – sunrise/day break Nothing quite like watching the moon set and the sun rise. We were treated to a magical show this morning. So far this shift is my favourite. It’s a pretty special way to start the day.

Rest (7.15-9.15)
Straight into the aft cabin. A quick update of the log book and then into the seeping bag for some shut eye (aim for 1 hour 15 mins sleep)

Shift 2 (9.15-11.15) – Early morning This morning we decided to have Chicane playing. The wind had picked up and it was great rowing in some bigger swell again after the flat calm we have had. Personally I like and need variety in general, so it’s good when the sea state changes. The regular soakings are another story however…

Rest (11.15-13.15)
Food time! I had a mild curry beef (doesn’t really taste of curry at all but more of a savoury beef) and rice (LP had a Mediterranean pasta)
I then did a quick wash using the wash bucket (brief splash of water and soap over myself), checked the hatches in the aft cabin (we have daily checks that we run through) and lay down to have a little bit of chill time.

Shift 3 (13.15-15.15) – lunch shift LP and I had decided it was time to do a ‘row dance’.
We put my ‘row power songs’ playlist on and worked out what song we were going to choose and what the choreography was going to be. Had a great shift in the sun practicing moves and time passed quickly.

Rest (15.15-17.15)f
I decided to have another main expedition meal. I went for Spaghetti Bolognese. It’s good and filling so will hopefully help me steer clear of the habitual snacking on the oars!
LP had a wash and a nap and I did my weekly job of downloading all the footage we have taken on the GoPro and Sony, onto hard drives. I then made sure all memory cards were cleared, all batteries in cameras good to go and stored everything back in its appropriate place.
Before I knew it the 2 hours was drawing to an end. It’s crazy how quickly this rest time passes.

Shift 4 (17.15-19.15) – just before sunset shift We got Izz to film us on the Sony doing the ‘row dance’ and decided to go for matching purple tops and headbands!! It was hysterical.
I think we can safely say that we are probably the only ocean rowers to have choreographed and danced whilst rowing – but anyone out there who can disprove me – please let us know!
Video to follow as soon as we can coordinate to send video (probably in Hawaii).

Rest (19.15-21.15)
Straight into the aft cabin. A quick update of the log book and then into the seeping bag for some shut eye (aim for 1 hour 15 mins sleep)

Shift 5 (21.15-23.15) – night time shift 1
We did the shift with no navigation light on (we’d checked that there were no boats in the area) as the moon was nearly full and bright. The wind had eased slightly and the sea looked calm. It was quite magical with the moonlight glittering a pathway on the water and so light that we could see clearly unaided by head torches.
After hearing noises out in the starboard side of the boat, I spotted a couple of dolphins making their way wherever it is they were going by moonlight. Aaaahhhh…the sight of a dolphin will always excite me…

Rest (23.15-1.15) Straight into the aft cabin. A quick update of the log book and then into the seeping bag for some shut eye (aim for 1 hour 15 mins sleep)

Shift 6 (1.15-3.15) – night time shift 2
This shift can be a challenging one as we’re normally pretty tired.
The moon was still lighting our way on the Pacific.
I went for my salsa playlist to keep me alert and watched with interest when Laura began her night time randomness.
This time she started taking her oar out of its gate for no apparent reason (!!??) and then later on was about to go into the food hatch.
When I asked her what she was doing she said “I’m getting a meal for you”.
“Oh, that’s nice” I said with amusement, “did I ask you to do that?”
She realised I had not and we laughed at her random thoughts and actions that go on on a sleep deprived state.

Rest (3.15-5.15)
Straight into the aft cabin. A quick update of the log book and then into the seeping bag for some shut eye (aim for 1 hour 15 mins sleep)

…and then a new day begins… x

Day 17 – Music and Our Favourite Things

Yaaaay…we have now officially broken our record for continuous time out at sea! We’re making good westward progress… albeit slowly. The days have begun to blur and I add an animal sticker to our aft bulk head every day so that we don’t lose track of the number of days we’ve been out here.

Chatting, story telling and listening to the sounds of the wind and the waves keep us all entertained but music has begun to play a significant part for all of us out here on the ocean waves.
During some shifts we decide to chat and in others we agree that we will be doing some personal music listening. Different shifts need certain types of music and I am beginning to work out what types of music will work best for me in certain situations and when I’m in certain moods.
Music is also one of the coping strategies that we have taught to use if and when certain situations arise.

As a luxury item on board Doris, we each have a personal iPod, and music is a great way to pass some of the 12 hours of rowing on the oars.
We all have quite varied music tastes in general but there is a good number of songs that we all happily sing a long to and really love. We do like a good sing a long!

I’ve always had a love of music and it’s always been an important part of my life. I made a huge effort to travel the world and collect snippets of sound bites from all countries I’ve explored. The result is an amazingly varied collection and the memories that the songs bring flooding back always put a smile on my face.

So far, I’ve been slowly listening my way through the last 40 years of my life and re-living many of the eras, adventures and experiences with the girls by sharing the stories that they evoke.
It’s been amazing and humbling and I truly am blessed to have had such a full and colourful existence as well as a captive audience that have no choice but to sit there and listen!!

Sometimes the music just provides a subtle soundtrack for some reflective time staring out at the vast deep blue ocean and then other times that music serves purely as a distraction technique, or way to power up when your body or brain resists.

I’m partnered with Izz at the moment, who adores her music and is a wonderful singer…
Having re sung all the songs from the Sound of Music – we went on a mission to create a song of our own.
We leave you with this…

Our Favourite things

Oatcakes, dried mango and snack packs surprises
Warm sleeping bags and beautiful sunrises Dolphins and whales and easterly winds These are a few of our favourite things

When our bums hurt When the Velcro sticks When we’re feeling sad
We simply remember our favourite things And then we don’t feel so bad

Sunshine and starry nights and moonlight on the water
Laughter and story telling and 2 hour shifts that feel shorter
Albatrosses that soar by with long outstretched wings
These are a few of our favourite things

When the waves splash
When we’re cold and wet
When we’re feeling sad
We simply remember our favourite things And then we don’t feel so bad

Social time and passing ships and messages from home
Music and audiobooks and forecasts on the sat phone
Waiting to see what the next rowing shift brings
These are a few of our favourite things

When the muscles ache
When the hands claw
When we’re feeling sad
We simply remember our favourite things And then we don’t feel so bad

x

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