Frustration

This week’s blog theme is frustration. There was plenty of this on our journey, both on the way to the start line and on the water.

One particular example was our struggle to get off the Californian coast and on our way to Hawaii. We spent 10 days battling through strong winds and large swells pushing us South towards Mexico. Everything was new to us, and the sea sickness wasn’t helping! But then it happened, we finally started to make progress West. Unfortunately, just as we did, some water damage meant that we lost the ability to charge our Victron batteries using our Solbian solar panels and we had to make the difficult decision to row 6 days back into shore to Santa Barbara to repair the damage. To say it was frustrating was an understatement. We had started our journey after years of preparation and were finally feeling that we had started to get to grips with the challenging conditions, and then we had to turn around, row back in and do a re-start.

I am really proud of the way that we dealt with this situation as a team. We accepted the decision and decided to put the frustration behind us, re-focuss and make the most of the opportunity. We took advantage of the time on land to repair the damage to Doris and make other tweaks to her and our kit. By staying focussed on the bigger picture, we transformed the frustration into a positive and left Santa Barbara feeling prepared and re-energised, ready to make it to Hawaii.

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3 Comments

  1. Richard says:

    A courageous move faced with so much pressure on the team!

  2. JG says:

    Thank goodness the damage didn’t occur where a brief detour wasn’t possible. Unless people were following your progress day by day down the Californian coast they wouldn’t appreciate how hard you were all struggling against the elements to get across into the Pacific.

    The way you were all battling sea sickness and facing a steep learning curve was what made me check the blog daily and say a silent prayer for your safety.

    From Santa Barbara of course you didnt look back, There were tricky moments going backwards sometimes and in circles at others and time spent on the para anchor.

    But what an achievement. No capsizing and everyone in rude health at the end. No accidents (that we as bystanders know of anyway).

    A huge success and a triumph of preparation, training and immaculate logistics.

    You deserve all the approbation that comes your way and more.

    Regards JG

  3. Barney says:

    I must have started reading your blog around Day 9 because I remember thinking “10 days out and having to turn back because of water in the instruments! This is not looking good!”. Thereafter it was all downhill!! Your on-board mechanic and her on-shore advisors sorted everything else out!

    Yes, the decision to turn back was fully justified, but how unanimous was it? I guess Tony said “Turn Back” and there was no room for dissent. But how did you all take it? How is the book coming along? Any news on the documentary?

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