Yesterday started with an hours yoga and core workout in the local park in the sunshine along with the dog walkers, dancers and other exercisers.
After some work back at the apartment we headed out to do the shopping for our snack packs with the amazing Anna from Svendsens Boat Yard. After experiencing the nightmare Friday afternoon traffic in San Fran we finally made it to the massive Costco and loaded up 3 large trolleys with dried fruit, nuts and chocolate. We made it to the checkout and were mortified when none of our UK cards were accepted by the Costco system (note to anyone shopping in the US!) To our embarrassment we had to accept Anna’s offer to use her card and then pay her back. Now we just have to pack them up into 220 individual day packs and then fit it all onto Doris.
We also heard from the customs brokers over here in San Francisco today and it seems like there’s going to be a little bit of a delay getting hold of Doris. Her container has been selected for inspection by customs but we hope to have her at Alameda Marina on Tuesday. We’ll keep you posted if this is likely to affect our departure day.
The last week has been full of training for our team. On Monday Izzy and I caught up with Alex Wolf, head strength and conditioning coach at the English Institute of Sport who has been writing our training program to get us big and strong. It was good to know that significant progress has been made in both the big and strong departments!
Tuesday was time for a trip down to Southampton for a day of medical training with Medical Support Offshore who will provide our medical cover whilst we are out on the Pacific. We spent a full day brushing up on our first aid skills with a focus on situations which are more likely to occur on the boat and how and when to use the different medications which we have in our med kits. It was amazing to have such a bespoke training course which has increased all of our confidence with medical situations and how to keep things simple and not allow minor issues to develop into bigger problems. It is also great to know that the MSOS team will be on the end of the phone or email whenever we need them for advice or a second opinion.
We stayed down South on Tuesday night and even managed to have a pub dinner with a well-deserved glass of wine with almost no row chat.
Wednesday was a different type of training as we headed over to Raymarine to do some training with Alan on our E7 chart plotter and Evo autopilot. Although we have used this equipment during our training rows it was really useful to get some in depth knowledge about how it all works and how to set it up personally for each of us. The Raymarine kit will play an important part in our everyday rowing and it is fabulous to have the confidence in how to use it. We also managed to catch up with the rest of the Raymarine team who are hugely supportive of our project and it was great to see them all before we leave.
All in all a great week and we are feeling more prepared every day for our imminent departure. Exciting times!
Doris is our boat and arguably the most important member of our team. She is a beautiful, pink 4-person rowing boat made especially for the Coxless Crew by Rossiters in Christchurch.
How is she made?
Doris is made from fibreglass, carbon fibre and other composite materials. Ocean rowing boats are designed to withstand the worst weather that the ocean can throw at them and to keep their crew safe. Doris is designed to self-right if she capsizes. She has a watertight cabin at each end with the rowing deck in the middle.
How big is she?
Doris is 29ft long (8.84m) and 7ft (2.13m) wide. That’s about the length of a medium sized caravan. She’s really not very big. In fact, the current men’s world long jump record is 29ft 4 inches (8.95m), so Mike Powell could jump over her! Doris weighs approximately 800kg and once fully packed with our supplies she will weigh in at around 1 ton.
The deck
On deck there are two rowing positions. The set up is similar to that in a sculling boat, with each rower having two oars and a sliding seat. Under the deck there is storage space which is accessed through hatches on deck. We will store our food, ropes, tools, spare parts and other equipment in these hatches, along with fresh water ballast to keep Doris stable in the water and as a back up should our desalinator break.
The cabins
Two of the crew will be rowing at any one time while the other two will be in the cabins eating, sleeping, relaxing or carrying out navigation, communications or maintenance tasks.
The aft cabin is where we will spend most of our time. It is the bigger of the two cabins and contains our desalinator, navigation systems and communication systems. It is approximately the size of a small-to-medium two-man tent. The forward cabin is smaller and will mainly be used for storage, unless bad weather conditions require that we cease rowing, in which case two members of the crew will need to be in each cabin.
Our cabin walls will be decorated with the names of all the people who have bought a mile of our row (https://coxlesscrew.com/buy-a-mile/). When we are having a difficult day it will be great to be able to look at our inspiration walls to remind us of all the people that are supporting us.
Why the name Doris?
Doris (/ˈdɔərɨs/; Δωρίς), is a Greek name meaning ‘gift’ and in Greek mythology was an Oceanid, or a sea nymph, whose name represented the bounty of the sea. She was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and the wife of Nereus. She was also aunt to Atlas, the titan who was made to carry the sky upon his shoulders. We also just really liked the name.
Thursday was a big day for the Coxless Crew. I went down to Southampton docks to oversee putting Doris into a container to be shipped to San Francisco. She will travel across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal and up the West Coast of America before we see her again!
The drive down from London was under blue skies and it looked like it would be a beautiful day to see Doris off on her journey. Sadly, by the time we arrived at Rossiters boat yard in Christchurch some good old English rain had set in and was to last for the rest of the day. I met with the Cris and the team at Rossiters to make a few last minute adjustments to Doris. Our final Solbian solar panel was installed and some adjustments made to our Lewmar hatches and to the area on deck where we will be stowing our Crewsaver life raft.
Tony Humphreys, who will be our on-shore support during our row, was on hand to oversea the final packing of the hatches and cabins and to tow Doris on the trailer through the New Forest across to Southampton docks.
On arrival in a very very wet Southampton we had a warm welcome from the team at J&A Marshall Ltd and from Brian from PSP Logistics. Then the real fun started. I must admit, I had no idea how to go about getting a 29ft ocean rowing boat weighing nearly a tonne off a trailer and into a 40ft container! But, as ever, Tony had all the answers.
Step no.1: lift Doris off trailer using huge yellow container handler and long slings
Step no.2: lower Doris down until she is resting at one end on a small set of wheels (a dolly trolly)
Step no.3: with the stern end supported on the dolly, support the bow end by suspending it from a forklift truck and then remove the support of the slings
Step no.4: keeping Doris level, drive the forklift forward to slide her on the dolly into the container
Step no. 5: lower Doris using the forklift until she is resting on a row of tyres along the bottom of the container and then and strap her in
And it was easy as that! Thank you to everyone who helped out yesterday and along the way to get Doris ready for her journey.
Saying goodbye to Doris has made our departure suddenly feel just around the corner. It is exciting, but also a reminder of how much there is still to do before we head off to San Francisco ourselves. The next few weeks will be filled with training, press events, sponsorship meetings, fundraising and much much more, so watch this space!
This weekend was a busy one for the team. It really all started on Friday when we had a super exciting meeting with a super exciting new supporter of the Coxless Crew. Stay posted to find out what that was all about!
Early doors on Saturday morning we arrived at Rossiters in Christchurch to face one of our fears for the row – the capsize! We got into the cabins, Nats and myself in the stern cabin and Laura in the bow cabin and strapped ourselves in. The Rossiters team used the crane to tip us over manually. Inside the cabin it felt like a slow tipping sideways and she sat for quite a while at 90 degrees before needing an extra tip to get her to go over. This was actually quite comforting as we now know that she can be thrown around in the waves a lot before capsizing. The roll from 90 degrees back up to upright was surprisingly quick and smooth and before we even had time to think about it we were back the right way up. The exercise was really useful as we can now have total faith that Doris definitely does self-right and we can also reflect on the experience to help us imagine how it will feel when it happens for real in the middle of the Pacific.
The rest of Saturday was spent in a team session with our performance psychologist Keith. We thought about how to recognise our warning signs that stress is getting to us before, during and after an event and shared this around the table to help us to recognise the signs in others in order to be able to support the other members of the team as much as possible. We also completed a separate questionnaire which highlighted to us the importance of keeping social and task related activities separate when we are on the boat as well as making sure that we make time to socialise with each other in a non-row related way before we leave (easier said than done).
Our day ended in what is now becoming a bit of a habit – food and wine in front of The Voice which has replaced the X Factor as the Coxless Crew Saturday night entertainment of choice.
Sunday started windy and cold and after a good breakfast we headed off to visit Doris again. Top of the list for the day was practising deployment of the para anchor. After carefully reviewing the instructions (men take note this actually works) and our notes and photos from a previous session with Tony we had a go ourselves. As it was so windy we just deployed it where we were moored up. Seemed easy enough but our opinions might change in 40ft waves and high winds!
The afternoon we spent running through our ‘what if’ scenarios. This is a really important part of preparation ensuring that we have thought through all the possible problems and situations and know what to do. As well as the obvious safety requirements of knowing what to do if one of us falls overboard or our water maker stops working it also brought home to us all how real this all is and got us thinking about what life will be like for us aboard the boat. A useful exercise and the start of some interesting psych homework!
Next weekend we start packing Doris ready for shipping! So exciting! Stay posted to see how you fit 6 months of kit into a 29ft boat!
On Saturday we brought Doris on a little road trip to Marlow to go for a row on the Thames and introduce her to the town. She arrived on Friday evening and with a little help from Ella and the Knill family we got her on the water and over the river to the Compleat Angler hotel who had kindly offered her a safe home for the night.
Sunday morning arrived with sunshine and blue skies. Our beautiful pink Breast Cancer Care gazebo and the rowing machine were installed in Higginson Park and Doris was rowed over to join in the fun. With the strong stream and Doris being so much heavier than my usual rowing boats it was the slowest I’ve ever rowed up this stretch of river but pretty special to be showing off Doris where I learnt to row.
First up was the chance to take some prize winners out for a paddle and the chance to experience life in the aft cabin. Martin was up first followed by Katie and Ewan and all three had a go at rowing the boat. It was great to be able to show some of our supporters what life will be like for us when we are out on the ocean.
For the rest of the day we were inundated with visitors including Suzanne Brown, Mayor of Marlow, the local press and lots of friends, family and supporters. We were also treated to a visit from Olympic and paralympic rowing stars Naomi Riches, Heather Stanning, Katherine Grainger, Beth Rodford and Sarah Winckless. Heather kindly christened Doris with some champagne in an official naming ceremony and then came for a row with us. It was so great to have so much support behind us and we had a really fantastic day talking to so many interested people.
The weekend finished off with a training session at Marlow Rowing Club on Sunday morning followed by the usual logistical fun involved in getting Doris back on the trailer and safely home to Christchurch. The next few weekends will be spent in final preparations and packing before we put her into a shipping container ready to start the journey to San Francisco. Stay posted for updates on next weekend’s capsize drills.
The next Coxless Crew event in Marlow will be a talk kindly sponsored by Court Gardens on Wednesday 11th February. Tickets are £12 and include a buffet provided by Court Gardens and a presentation about the row, the training and preparation so far and the reasons why we are doing it. To book a place contact Rotarian Sara Bowater on 07850 036236 or Sara@sbowater.co.uk.
There’s never a dull moment for us in the Coxless Crew and eventful weekends have become worryingly normal. Doris’ visit to London was no different…
It all started on Friday when we headed to Poplar to launch Doris from the public slipway next to Poplar Blackwall and District Rowing Club. This was challenge number one. The ups and downs of the slipway meant that no matter what we tried (and we tried everything from setting up pulleys to chocking up the wheels to taking a diagonal route down the slip) we couldn’t get Doris down to the water without grounding her on the concrete. We spent about an hour and a half trying this while Alan, the legend from Globe Rowing Club who had come out in his boat to be our support crew, bobbed around on the water waiting for us. Finally we had to hitch the trailer back up and head to a new slipway just down the road. Here we managed with a bit of manoeuvring and another pulley to get Doris down to the water and with a big shove from Laura we were out on the water. By this time it was pretty dark and we were running a little short on time to make it to St Katherine’s Docks so the pressure was on. Luckily we had Jacob on board. Jacob had never met us before but had kindly come along to take some photos of us rowing Doris through London from the support boat. He got a bit more than he bargained for, having to act as an extra pair of hands with the trailer and then having to travel with us on Doris since he couldn’t get to the support boat. He’s now a pro at using the VHF radio, AIS and chartplotter and is definitely a new member of the team. Plus his photos are beautiful so we hope we haven’t scared him off! After a truly beautiful row through a lit up London we arrived at St Katherine’s Docks, our home for the weekend. We settled Doris in, had a well-deserved dinner and headed home.
Photos below are by Jacob Perlmutter:
On Saturday we woke up to a cold but beautiful sunny day which was perfect for a day spent introducing Doris to the public. It was lovely to see all the interest in our project and to introduce some of our sponsors to the boat. She was particularly popular with the kids who got to come aboard and see where we would row and get inside our cabin. Along with our brilliant helpers for the day we spread the word about our row and added lots of names to our inspiration wall.
Sunday we left St Katherine’s bright and early and had a lovely row down to Greenwich Yacht Club where we planned to get the boat out of the water. We arrived and were met by the lovely Ian. We were quite worried by exactly how we were going to get Doris out of the water as the tide was going out quickly and the slipway was also on two levels but were comforted by Ian who assured us that there’s always a way. It turned out that the way was for him to get the slipmaster out to lift Doris out of the water on slings. This ended up being a bit of a mad dash in the 5 minutes before the water would have been too low and meant that Laura arrived with the trailer to see Doris hanging in the air on slings.
Another eventful weekend over, which couldn’t have happened without all of the support we had from friends, families and people we had never met. Recently we spoke at a Hero’s Night organised by Will aka Super Cycling Man. All of the other speakers had completed their own expeditions and their heroes were the people they met along the way. We won’t have that on our row as the only people we’ll see are each other on the boat. However this weekend has highlighted again that our heroes are the people we are meeting along our journey to the start line. So I wanted to give a special thank you to a few of Coxless Crew’s heroes from this weekend.
Jacob Perlmutter – came along to take some photos, ended up helping us get the boat on the water for 2 hours and then coming for an hours row down the river having to use the radio and help us navigate making him 2 hours late for his evening plans.
Alan from Globe Rowing Club who was our support boat on the row down to Tower Bridge and became our advisor on the ways of the Thames.
St Katherine’s Docks – not only gave Doris a berth for the weekend but also put us up in their beautiful floating marketing suite.
Sarah from Breast Cancer Care who spent the whole of Saturday with us helping to tell our story.
Claire and Harry from Raymarine who also came along to help us out.
Ian the legend from Greenwich Yacht Club who when we arrived to use their slipway on Sunday with not enough water to get Doris on the trailer winched us out using the slip master.
Everyone who brought a mile of our journey and who’s names on our inspiration wall will help us across the Pacific.
And last but not least my wonderful teammates who will be my heroes when we are out on the ocean with only each other to rely on.
Laura – who can drive a 29ft ocean rowing boat through central London and has got us all hooked on xfactor.
Izzy – rustled up a support boat last minute, who had written our weeks to do list before we even got home and is the only one of us who can sing in tune.
Nat – the only person I know who can accost a passing tour and get their guide to stop and translate our story into Dutch for his tour group
Last Thursday we headed off for our first 48 hour stint aboard Doris. The original plan had been to row out across the channel but the weather was against us and with 50mph winds predicted we took the advice of Tony who will be our land support when we are out on the Pacific, and changed the plan to stay in more sheltered waters. Although we will deal with tougher conditions out in the Pacific we wouldn’t be able to get far enough away from the coast to be safe out there this week.
We were up early and headed down to Falmouth Haven to pack up Doris with our supplies for the two days. After a final interview with BBC Spotlight we rowed away from the marina with the legendary Guy in a RIB acting as our support boat. We had decided to head out to Pendennis Point to get a taste of some rough water and it was my first experience of rowing Doris in some proper waves. It was great fun battling the elements although very tough to keep her facing into the waves. It was slightly less fun once we swapped over on the oars and Izzy and I ended up in the cabin experiencing some seasickness symptoms. Stay posted for the BBC footage of us out on the water. After a few hours we headed back to the shelter of Falmouth and bid goodbye to Guy ready to spend the following 42 hours bouncing up and down (and up and down) the River Fal. We now know every twist, turn, mudbank and boat on that stretch of water!
Laura and Nat happy on the oars
We rowed 2 hours on, 2 hours off for the full 48 hours meaning that each of us was on the oars for 24 hours, never getting more than about an hour’s sleep at a time. However, we all seemed to manage it pretty well and in the most part it was really enjoyable. A noticeable exception to this was the 3.30am to 5.30am shift which was definitely the toughest. Especially on the first night where Izzy and I ended up battling against the tide for 2 hours, managing to move nowhere and sitting next to a green buoy for the entire shift. Being the intelligent individuals that we are we decided to keep ourselves awake by playing ‘I spy’. In the dark. Whilst not moving!
During the 48 hours we experienced, rain, wind, sunshine, lightning and fog, all of which we dealt with in good spirits, staying dry and warm in our Crewsaver outerwear. We also experienced the challenges of changing in and out of many layers of clothes in a very small cabin, cooking in the footwell, sleep deprivation and use of the bucket! Insight was gained into how careful we are going to have to be when trying to fit all of our kit onto our small boat and how important it is for everything to have a place. However the most important thing that we learnt was how well we have bonded as a team. We looked after each other, entertained each other, sang to each other and laughed a lot. So excited for our next adventure!
Huge thanks need to go to Shaun Pascoe, Falmouth Haven, Guy and all of the other supporters who joined us in Falmouth or came over to say hello on the water. The Cornish welcome was a huge morale booster and I’m sure we’ll be back!
Some well earned pasties from Laura’s Aunt Marie to celebrate a successful 48hrs training
Rowing the solent, photo shoots, The Bornmourth Air Show, and the team reunites. We’ve just had a wonderfully productive weekend down in Christchurch.
After our night on Doris (slept like a baby) and expedition food breakfast, Saturday saw Laura, Izzy and I rowing in the most challenging conditions so far. During the 6 hours we were out, we got our first real feeling for how the boat handles, dealing with seasickness, blisters and using the bucket!
On Sunday morning, Emma returned from her expedition trip in Brazil and it was very exciting to have the team together. We took the opportunity to take some group shots and then had a team debrief and outlined further training weekends and plan of action for the next month.
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