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

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!

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

Back on land!

What a strange sensation being back on solid ground.
I’ve spent blocks of time on boats before. My longest stint was similar in time to what we’ve just done on Doris – but the feeling I had stepping back on land this time was the strangest by far. Instead of the usual sea legs – when you walk in a zig zag, I actually felt like Mr Soft! Do you remember Mr Soft? I was bobbing up and down and almost strutting my way down the pontoon and felt blind drunk! It was bizarre.
This feeling has remained with us for the last couple of days…and is only now subsiding.
Slipping back into our monophasic sleeping pattern has actually taken a little adjustment for some but personally I’m enjoying a bed and the long period of continuous hours spent in it.

My first shower was a little disappointing as I had offered to go in the slightly dodgy looking bathroom with the large bath tub and hand held shower as I was not washing my hair. I had taken the decision to tackle the hair wash and comb first thing in the morning as my hair was almost beginning to dread and figured it would take a while to remedy. As it turned out the shower actually didn’t work and so I had to crouch near the taps in the bath tub and splash water over me fairly ineffectively to clean.
Far from ideal and if this had been Hawaii and my first shower in over 55 days – I would probably have cried. All good though…as it had only been 16 days as we are in Santa Barbara!! Something to bare in mind though. I may have to send Tony to do a shower recce in Honolulu.

We’ve spent the last couple of days getting things sorted with Doris. Although we obviously have the main job of fixing the electronics, this unscheduled stop has also given us an opportunity to make minor adjustments and improvements that we wouldn’t ordinarily have done. Every cloud has a silver lining.
We’ve all busied ourselves with different jobs on the boat and I’ve had the opportunity to use the drill again. I love drills!!
It’s also been great being in Santa Barbara as it’s a weird and wonderful place. Everyone seems to have got the work/lifestyle ratio spot on.
As they are laid back and clearly enjoy the mild climate and seaside location. Everyone, young or old, actually looks like a surfer!!

We had a little contamination in one of our snack pack hatches and lost 20 snack packs due to water damage, so we are also re-packing those as well as the 40 odd other snack packs that we went through during the 16 days at sea. Lots of dried mango going into these ones as this is everyone’s favourite treat.

One of the biggest positives about coming back to land on an unscheduled stop as been the fact that we have had an opportunity to see how much amazing support we have behind us. It’s humbling, motivating and uplifting and is only making us want to get back out there quicker. Thank you so much everyone.
Words fail to express how much you are all inspiring us. You are all incredible! x

We also want to give some extra thanks to Ella and Kirsten who make up our incredible support team and have been doing the wonderful job of keeping us informed out on the ocean and keeping the website and social media pages up to date with news, stories and insights. You’re superstars and we can’t thank you enough for helping us to share our journey. It wouldn’t be what it is without you guys.

We will keep you updated with our estimated departure date but we are hoping to be ready from Saturday.

Day 10 at sea

The sun set on another day where we had been rowing in huge swell with the wind and frequent soakings chilling our bones!

I called a group social as we have been out in the ocean for over a week and it was a good opportunity to have a check in with everyone and get cosy in the aft cabin! We all looked like ninjas in our all black thermals and manoeuvring around the tiny space was interesting. The unfortunate news is that we need to spend the next 48 hours holed up in cabins as the wind is about to increase and the waves will be pushing our little Doris around like a pink cork bobbing up and down. The swell has been HUGE since we awoke today, the waves smacking Doris from side to side and the cabins hot and sweaty. This is just a taste of things to come! Watching Ems and LP heading out of the fore cabin to attempt a wee over the side was great source of entertainment and both did extremely well narrowly missing a soaking. I don’t think they’ve ever moved so fast in their lives. Ninjas they are indeed!

I feel the need to inform you all about our footwell. It is truly special to see what happens in the small 60cm by 80cm space of the aft cabin (where we come in and out of the cabin).

This is the favourite spot for almost all proceedings. It’s where the bucket lives if weather conditions are too rough to go outside, where the getting in and out of wet weather gear happens, where you sit to monitor the jet boil and to fill the flask of hot water for the expedition foods, and where you can see out of the cabin or fleetingly open the hatch for a breath of fresh air. It’s where our switch overs happen after each 2 hour shift, where 4 of our water canisters live for when we use our water desalinator and where we sit to monitor our batteries, chart plotter and course. I’m not too sure what we would do without our footwell!!!

Alas Albert is no longer with us. However we now have Ernie and Bernie keeping us company x

Day 6 at sea

There will be many lessons we learn from the majestic Ocean and this is my first:

She is constantly changing

Ems and I had a beautiful first night time shift. There was a sliver of moon, a few stars, mild wind and manageable swell. The second shift was another story. We spent 2 hours fighting against the wind and trying to keep her on course and moving a depressing 0.3 kts.

Izz and LP were up next and before they had finished their shift we were woken up and the decision made to deploy the para anchor. More time stuck in the cabins at the mercy of the winds and being blown back East and undoing all our hard work from the day before. Very frustrating!

We had further strong NW wind to contend with this morning and have been doing our best with the rolling swell and making every effort to try get as far South West as the ocean will allow.

She is very much in control and her beauty and strength keeps us mesmerised and focused for now. My favourite shift was the one just before sunset. The sun shone through clouds and lit the water a mercury colour. It spread out before us as far as the eye could see and looked like a shimmering mountain range. I breathed in her power as another day ended on the Pacific.

Despite direction setbacks, spirits remain high on Doris.

Albert is still with us… x

Day 1 at Sea

The adventure begins. Izzy and Ems rowed us out and under the Golden Gate Bridge at 2.30am. The plan is to get as far west/south west as possible in the next 36 hours before the wind is due to pick up. What a long 24 hours Day 1 has been. Feeling seasick seems to be taking its toll on the girls and Laura particularly. It’s so frustrating as there is not much I can do to support except distract and try to ensure that all of us are drinking lots of water. The wind has been mild and the sea calm. At one point the water looked like black inky rolling hills and we spotted 3 dolphins, a sea-lion (who we named Bruce) and lots of birds that strangely look like penguins when in flight! We also had a little incident where Ems and Izz found themselves attached to a buoy. We had to go out the back port hole and managed to cut us free. I feel ok just really tired…

San Francisco Day 10

Woke up feeling quite overwhelmed. I knew it was going to be an emotional day.

Izzy and Ems went to the apartment where Sarah was going to be interviewing and Laura and I headed to Pier 39 to see Doris and do last minute jobs that needed doing.
Sarah Moshman is the amazing Emmy award winning documentary maker that is going to tell our story for us.

Doris ready to go!

I took the opportunity to Skype with my family (as all the other girls have their parents here in San Fran). It was a great 45 minutes and although incredibly emotional was amazing to be reminded of their constant support and encouragement. My mum, dad and brother are my anchors in my life and thoughts of them will keep me rowing stroke by stroke to Australia.

Andrew from our Best Year Yet program, who happens to be in San Francisco, came to say hello. Being a personal friend of mine, it was great to see him. Izz and Ems returned and we all had a tuna sandwich lunch (one of my favourite foods – who anyone who knows me will testify to!) and then LP (Laura) and I headed off for interviews with Sarah.

Interviews with Sarah

Not the best day to be doing this giving my vulnerable emotional state…but it had to be done never the less.

So many different emotions coming and going today that I couldn’t put my finger on any of them!

I fell asleep knowing that this will be my last night that I sleep in solid ground in a bed that is not moving and for more than 90 minutes!!

Let the journey begin… x

San Francisco Day 7

As we walked down to the park, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. The park was filled with varying groups of people fan dancing, doing marshall arts, stretching, walking their dogs and watching a group of women role playing mayday situations!! That’s what we were doing. Running through our flash cards of Man-Overboard, Capsize, Mayday and Evacuation drills.

We headed to Alameda Marina, as we were hoping that Doris would be delivered between 10 and 12pm. No such luck! We busied ourselves in the meantime distributing protein shake power into 220 bags, buying 150 litres of bottled water (that we will be using as ballast or weight for the boat) and ensuring we had everything we needed to be packed onto Doris once we were actually re-united with her.

After 7 hours of waiting, she finally arrived. The exact reason for her delay is still a mystery as she was only being held in her container at customs a mere 15 minutes away but we were all very excited to see her!!

We managed to successfully pack away all the food (main meals and snack packs) and they take up 6 of our 11 deck hatches. Everything else needs to be packed tomorrow!

San Francisco Day 3

The morning began with a group skype session with Keith (our sports psych) and then the four of us split up to do slightly different tasks that needed to be done.

I have now taken on the responsibility of mindfulness and fun monitor for the team

Laura went to collect Tony (our shore support) from the airport and after a group lunch, she headed off to drop him at the hostel where he was due to stay. This seemed to be one of the worst parts of San Fran, filled with many homeless people, drug users and basically was the type of place you would want to drive through and keep your doors locked!! Clearly we couldn’t put our Tony there. We brought him back to stay with us for the night and will find him somewhere more suitable tomorrow!
Early evening we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to Presidio Yacht Club where we will be launching from and where we had been asked to talk about our upcoming expedition to the club’s members. Their view out over the bay is priceless. Our warm welcome from Jason, Dutch, Rear Commodore Steve and his wife and Vice Commodore Jen was overwhelming! We gave our presentation, joined the 50 yacht club members for a gumbo dinner and then after hugs all round headed out for a drink in a recommended bar called the Tipsy Pig. This was obviously instigated by me, the fun monitor!! Vice Commodore Jen and couple of her friends James and Octavia offered to accompany us.
We headed back over the Golden Gate Bridge and into a new area of town we hadn’t been before. Everyone was in high spirits and we were looking forward to a couple of drinks (extra calories – so all good).

We were driving happily when blue lights flashed and we heard a loud speaker behind us saying ‘Pull over please’. Laura slowed and was about to do as instructed but then the loud speaker said, ‘No – not here. Head to the parking bay’. Ok….we did as instructed and were about to pull over when we were reprimanded again with a ‘Not to the left – over there on the right’.
Luckily after a light telling off for not coming to a complete standstill at a stop street, we were sent on our way.

We headed into the bar where everyone had to show ID (very American) and to my horror I realised that I didn’t have any!! I only had a copy of my passport (not accepted apparently) and so to the fun monitor’s dismay I stopped everyone entering. Luckily the security guy took pity on me and as well as offering to buy me a drink if I went home and got my ID (!?!), also very kindly directed us to a near by haunt that would allow me entry.
Fun resumed and we all had a drink, chatted to some random locals and then headed home just after midnight.

A great day for the team. A little bit of team psych, a little local PR for the expedition, being stopped by the Police and then a little social time… x